Saving TextEdit text files for display on Windows Notepad

pestobreathpestobreath
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Anyone know an easy way to save a text file from TextEdit so it will display properly (line breaks, no garbage characters, etc.) in Notepad on Windows?



I'm editing an HTML file that I need to send to a colleague, but whenever she opens it in Notepad it's a mess visually. So far the only solution I've found is to open the file in Word v.X and save as an MS-DOS text file.



I've tried different Preferences settings, to no avail. I've also tried SubEthaEdit, but can't seem to get the settings right there either (tried a variety of encodings with CRLF line endings).



More philosophically, isn't ASCII supposed to be a standard? It seems odd that plain text is handled so differently across platforms.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    dobbydobby Posts: 797member
    ASCII is a standard and always works for ASCII character which have nothing to do with formatting.

    UTF-8, ISO8859-1 are what you need to use if you want to share text with non english speaking people such as Aussies.



    Don't use notepad! Use Write/Wordpad (under Start-Programs-Accessories and at the bottom of the list). Save as .rtf .txt or word and write will read it correctly. Its free as well.

    Notepad cannot interpret the returns. Mac/Unix uses ctrl-m and windows ctrl-l or something. You can do a unix2dos (on solaris) on the text file to convert it to dos native but its a hassle.



    Dobby.
  • Reply 2 of 4
    pestobreathpestobreath Posts: 69member
    Well, I can't really control what my colleague chooses to use on the Windows end (Notepad v. Wordpad). And the last time I opened an HTML doc in Wordpad it attempted to render the page, rather than just displaying the source. But I'll share your advice with her.



    Seems like it would be a no-brainer for Apple to add a "save as Windows text" option to TextEdit. Would be very useful for HTML, readme docs, mailmerge files, or any other flat files that migrate across platforms. But, hey, it's a free program, right?
  • Reply 3 of 4
    karl kuehnkarl kuehn Posts: 756member
    Try using SubEthaEdit or HyperEdit, both of them will handle the Mac/Unix/Windows line ending encoding better (this is probably what you are running into.



    The other issue you could be running into is character encoding (the two tools i listed will handle this as well). I generally like to work in UTF-8, as then I can use any character I want, but NotePad does not properly handle UTF-8.
  • Reply 4 of 4
    dobbydobby Posts: 797member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by PestoBreath



    Seems like it would be a no-brainer for Apple to add a "save as Windows text" option to TextEdit. Would be very useful for HTML, readme docs, mailmerge files, or any other flat files that migrate across platforms. But, hey, it's a free program, right?



    They don't need to have a save as windows text as windows has no problem with the mac/unix text files.

    ONLY notepad has this problem.

    If you edit the text file using a dos window and edit then it also reads it fine.

    Notepad is the problem.



    Dobby.
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