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TICKET ARCHIVE -> TextEdit can't open its own file.

nuubie - Aug 25, 2008 - 3:20 am

Surely I must be doing something wrong. I create a new document in TextEdit, copy some text in it and save it. I have 4 options in saving.
Rich Text Format (RTF)
HTML
Word Format
Word XML Format.
Obviously I don't want to use HTML. NONE of the other 3 open in TextEdit with a whole bunch of extra characters appearing.
-------------------------------
From this:
Absolute Bosendorfer Piano
Absolute Steinway Piano
Garritan
Motu
Native Instruments
Steinberg
Synthogy
VSTi
--------------------------------
I get this:
{\rtf1\mac\ansicpg10000\cocoartf824\cocoasubrtf480
{\fonttbl\f0\fswiss\fcharset77 Helvetica;}
{\colortbl;\red255\green255\blue255;}
{\info
{\title }
{\subject }
{\doccomm }
{\author }
{\*\company }
{\*\copyright }
{\keywords alternateColors=1}}\margl1440\margr1440\vieww37920\viewh23560\viewkind 0\viewscale100
\pard\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx 7200\tx7920\tx8640\q l\qnatural\pardirnatural

\f0\fs48 \cf0 Absolute Bosendorfer Piano\
Absolute Steinway Piano\
Garritan\
Motu\
Native Instruments\
Steinberg\
Synthogy\
VSTi\
\
\
--------------------------------
How in the world can a program create a document, then fail to be able to open the very same document it just created? Am I in a bad dream or has Apple's illogic attained new heights? Hopefully I've overlooked something. Please tell me I've overlooked something!

DeltaMac - Aug 25, 2008 - 8:41 pm

Hi Robin!

From what you show - you didn't create a document completely in TextEdit, but you copied text that was created somewhere else. What app did you use to originally format the sample list?

It seems that the formatting codes for the simple list that you created somewhere else, traveled to TextEdit when you didn't need them? Or, formatting from another app (maybe not a cocoa app??) is not always acceptable if not standard formatting codes. If you saved as simple text, then you should be OK. Make the text Plain text (under the Format menu), and then save. Of course, you then have unformatted text.

I have been using a free word processor called 'Bean' recently. If you want to try something with more capabilities than TextEdit, then test Bean... http://www.bean-osx.com/Bean.html

- Dale

nuubie - Aug 25, 2008 - 11:31 pm

That made sense so I created a new document in TextEdit, typing in my own characters. It saved it (default) as an RTF file. When I clicked to open it, MS Word opens it. So I used TextEdit to open the file and this is what happened. First the original of 5 lines.
1, 2, 3, 4 ,5
1, 2, 3, 4 ,5
1, 2, 3, 4 ,5
1, 2, 3, 4 ,5
1, 2, 3, 4 ,5

When TextEdit opens it this is what is displayed.
{\rtf1\mac\ansicpg10000\cocoartf824\cocoasubrtf480
{\fonttbl\f0\fswiss\fcharset77 Helvetica;}
{\colortbl;\red255\green255\blue255;}
\margl1440\margr1440\vieww37920\viewh23120\viewkind0
\pard\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx 7200\tx7920\tx8640\q l\qnatural\pardirnatural

\f0\fs48 \cf0 1, 2, 3, 4 ,5\
\pard\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx 7200\tx7920\tx8640\q l\qnatural\pardirnatural
\cf0 1, 2, 3, 4 ,5\
1, 2, 3, 4 ,5\
1, 2, 3, 4 ,5\
1, 2, 3, 4 ,5\
}
---------------------------
Any idea what's going on?

nuubie - Aug 25, 2008 - 11:44 pm

Another question: I'm creating notes for myself. Should I use Plain Text? Why do people use Plain Text over Rich Text? I need Italics, Bold and Underline, which it seems to provide, as well as a copious amount of fonts. One of the reasons I've gone to TextEdit from MS Word 2008 was the lightening fast speed of TextEdit. And the fact that MS Word puts those stupid page breaks in their without giving any options for removing them. But maybe life would be better with Plain Text being that I'm not using any advanced features? When I copy and paste a Rich Text document to a Plain Text document, the pages are wider. Huh? Don't you just love Apple consistency? I don't.....lol.

DeltaMac - Aug 26, 2008 - 7:55 am

I suppose you have the result of some third-party software that you may have installed. I don't have a clue why you can't open a document properly in TextEdit, when you just created and saved it there. You have changed some setting in some other software that is causing text to be displayed with formatting codes, which are normally invisible.
If you print that document, do the formatting codes also appear in the printed page? Or, just your text?
However, the double-click which opens the document in Word might be a clue. A double-click chooses the default app that you may have selected at some point. You can easily change that for any document type.
Select that .rtf file, then Get Info on the file. Choose TextEdit from the Open With drop-down menu on that Info window. Then, click the Change All... button.
Open preferences for software that you might be using to manipulate files. Something is over-riding the normal system text settings.

BTW, you will find that Bean is also quite fast, especially when compared to Word 2008....

Plain text has no document formatting. That's why it's called 'plain text' There's no margins, so any text in the window assumes the width of the window as the 'margins'. Rich Text provides for most types of formatting, so maintains the margins regardless of the window width.

So have you tried 'Bean'? It's a cocoa app (MS Word is not cocoa yet), so all OS X text features are available. And, it's very small and fast. More 'real' word processing features gives you more flexibility in creating documents.

- Dale

nuubie - Aug 26, 2008 - 9:18 am

>If you print that document, do the formatting codes also appear in the printed page? Or, just your text?

Don't know. My printer is never used because it doens't really work.

>However, the double-click which opens the document in Word might be a clue.

That's just the default app for opening, right? Its not going to change how TextEdit displays a page, right? (Yes I know about how to change file's default opening apps.)

I tried Bean but there were some problems. Can't remember what. So for now I'm using both TextEdit and Word.

Regarding Plain/Rich text. I never want margins because I never print anything. All I need are fonts, font sizes, bold, underline and italics. Do you see any advantages of me using Plain Text since my needs are so limited at the moment? And why would the display size change when the font and font size remain identical when comparing Rich Text and Plain Text? Plain Text seems to display a line that is about 20% wider.

nuubie - Aug 27, 2008 - 2:01 pm

This is just a bad dream. I don't know how Apple software designers even feed themselves or tie their shoes. Check this out:
Today all my TextEdit documents I created before in Rich Text are now opening far wider so it doesn't wrap to the window. I have hundreds of documents that are now displaying incorrectly and completely unusable without me re-editing them. And in Apple typical biazzaro logic I can't fix it by changing them to Plain Text. And no, I didn't change any resolution settings of my monitor or Sys Prefs, Display properties.

DeltaMac - Aug 27, 2008 - 5:47 pm

Still - likely the result of some third-party app that you have used, or are still using. Which probably changed some pref file in TextEdit. Your documents didn't actually change, but the view, or format preferences changed in TextEdit. You can revert to default prefs in TextEdit by removing the com.Apple textedit.plist file from your user/Library/Preferences folder. Then relaunch TextEdit. You can also just try toggling between 'Wrap to page', and 'wrap to window' to see which suits you better.
What was that reason you would not use Bean, again? I think you would appreciate the speed, and actual word processor features, compared to TextEdit's more text-reader/simple doc style setup

You can continue to bash Apple if you like - but, I will continue to offer you other directions. If you don't feel comfortable with some of Apple's software, there's other (often free) options, if you simply look for them.
Thanks for giving me something to lighten my day!
- Dale

nuubie - Aug 28, 2008 - 2:09 am

>You can revert to default prefs in TextEdit by removing the com.Apple textedit.plist file from your user/Library/Preferences folder.

Why do I always forget to trash the plist and restart the app?
Well before I changed the window size to 94 x 40 instead of a much larger size. And now it fits. Whatever....I'm too tired to try and figure out OS X antics. Thanks for that very basic reminder though. Wrap to window works for me perfectly. TextEdit has really been good overall before this weird behavior. Lightning fast compared to MS Word 2008 - I didin't realize how bloated Word was til I tried this some more. And Word is always there when I occasionally need it.

As for Bean I can't remember what went wrong with it. But on your recommendation I'll try it again. Word processors are so personal - much more than most types of software. It either rubs you the wrong way or right way so often. But you must persevere otherwise we'll make those "first impression" errors. Which is exactly what I did when first trying TextEdit.

nuubie - Aug 29, 2008 - 12:35 pm

I think the reason why the window size changed was that I changed the default font size. And as the window size is determined by the number of characters on a line, obviously larger characters are going to make the line wider. Oh for OS X to just have a setting that says "Fit to window size - forever - the end". Guess that's reserved for the fortunate few of us going to Heaven. There Steve Jobs will be busy working on keyboard shortcuts and shoeing that mouse away.

Hey, Bloomberg already has his obituary all lined up...... Imagine an obituary as a form article. What a calous society we live in....LOL!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/0..._n_122044.html

nuubie - Aug 29, 2008 - 2:27 pm

Another TextEdit query please:
I've set the width so its displaying perfectly with the appropriate font. Now I wonder what the height is for once its the minimum length to fill the height of the window? Does it matter or influence anything? I'm at a resolution of 1920 x 1200 (24" monitor), plain text, font of 24, width of 141 and as long as the height is at least 40, its looking all the same. I tried a height of 200 and it looks the same as 40. So I'm wondering if there are other parameters I'm not realizing? Remember I'm not printing. But if I was, I wonder if it would mess that up if the document only had, say, 40 lines of text?

TechSupport - Sep 1, 2008 - 2:30 pm

We apologize for not being able to resolve the issue you asked of us. It is the absolute worst case scenario for us to do this. In our review of why this happens, it generally is related to either the particular issue being addressed or frequently, incomplete or incorrect information provided. We hope by moving your request to the public forums that you will be able to get a solution without leaving you empty handed.

Your ticket has been closed with our support team. Your request has just been posted to Mac OS X System & Mac Software and is available for your viewing at:

http://macosx.com/forums/showthread.php?t=302840

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