Learn How To Use TextEdit In 5 Minutes

Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let me show you the basics of using TextEdit on your Mac. 

TextEdit is an app built into macOS. TextEdit can work with two different kinds of files, Plain Text Files, also known as Text or TXT files, and Rich Text formatted files, also know as RTF files. You can launch it like any other app. I'm going to use Launchpad here but you can use Spotlight if you prefer. 

When you create a new document in TextEdit you can check to see which kind of file you have by simply looking at the top. If you see nothing up here it is a Plain Text file. However, if you see a bar up here with all sorts of text styling and formatting buttons it is a Rich Text file. As you see you can change which kind of file you're working with by going to Format and then either Make Plain Text, to switch to plain text, or Make Rich Text, to go the other way. Also, in TextEdit Settings, under New Document, you can change which kind of document you want created when you start a new one. 

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In Plain Text mode all you can do is type characters, like this. It is just plain text. As a result you get very tiny files. If I examine it here in the Finder and get info you can see it's 44 bytes long. The text I typed is exactly 44 characters. There is no overhead. This makes a great for things like having tiny little bits of text inside of folders to explain what's in the folder. For instance here in this folder I've got one with the same name or you may want to call it something like Read Me and it just has information about this project in there. You can also use it for writing when you just want to focus on the text and not be distracted by formatting and styling. 

Now if you switch to Rich Text mode then you do have all these style and formatting controls up here and it looks pretty much like word processors from the 80's or 90's. You've got all the basics. You can select text, and bold it, or use these buttons up here to italicize or underline. You can center text. You can change the font of the text that is selected and the size as well. You can change the line spacing. You even have got options for bullet lists and things like that. When you save this, instead of dot txt it has the dot rtf extension. If you look at this file it still is pretty small. This is only 536 bytes, which certainly is more than the characters here because it contains the styling information but still a lot smaller than a Microsoft Word or an Apple Pages document. 

Working with Rich Text documents in TextEdit is still a great way to write especially if you need to do a few bits of styling like bolding some words and such. But working in TextEdit you can use all the basic text tools. You can, of course, type and use the arrow keys to move back and forth. You can use your pointing device and select text. You can look under Edit and you'll see Spelling & Grammar. Under Find here you can find and search for text but you could also check Replace here and do Find & Replace throughout the document. 

If you're in Rich Text mode, not only can you style text but you can also add a Link here and if your Mac is compatible with Apple Intelligence if you have turned on you can also use the Writing Tools here to proofread or rewrite your text. 

Now one of the best things about TextEdit is both the TXT format and the RTF format are universal open formats. You can be sure that when you send somebody a TXT file or RTF file that they can view it. But you can also export as a PDF document from TextEdit. You can also export from Microsoft Word and a few other formats. Go to File and then hold the Option Key down, Duplicate changes to Save As. Select that and under File Format you can select various different formats including Microsoft Word. 

Now there is also a third kind of file that TextEdit can handle. Notice I never mentioned inserting images or graphics. You can do that if you're in Rich Text mode. Once you do it is going to ask to convert to RTFD. This is a special format that is really only handled by Apple devices. 

Let's finish with a few quick settings that are useful. You go to Format you'll find Wrap to Page. Turn that On and you can see it displays everything inside of a page. You can set the page margins in Page Setup here. This also is true for Rich Text documents as well. Also, of course Plain Text has no styling or format information but you can change how it looks as you're working on it. You can go to TextEdit, Settings here, and under New Document you can set the Plain Text font. This is only for you when viewing text files in TextEdit. You send this to somebody else they would view them at whatever they have set as their plain text font. 

So there's a quick overview of TextEdit. Hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching.