Groups > comp.sys.mac.apps > #28976 > unrolled thread

How do mac users create a blank text file where you want it?

Started by	"Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com>
First post	2015-04-20 00:40 +0000
Last post	2015-04-22 09:45 -0400
Articles	20 on this page of 393 — 26 participants

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#28976 — How do mac users create a blank text file where you want it?

From	"Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com>
Date	2015-04-20 00:40 +0000
Subject	How do mac users create a blank text file where you want it?
Message-ID	<mh1htc$3dm$2@news.albasani.net>

I tried to help a friend create a simple text file on
Macintosh OSX 10.9.5 and it was very difficult.

Right clicking didn't have any option to create a text file.
http://i.imgur.com/RkrcG3M.png

So I had to find an existing text file because I couldn't
just create an empty text file.

Once I dug around and found a text file, I then found the 
"duplicate" menu, and I duplicated it to "filename copy", 
but was unable to just cut and paste it without duplicating
it first.

After duplicating it, I was able to cut and paste it so 
that I could put it in the folder where I wanted it to be.

But when I changed the name to a reasonable name to indicate
it was a text file, the file simply disappeared! (I had named
it something like filename.txt).
 
Having no idea what happened to the file I had just named
filename.txt, I tried again by duplicating and then cutting
and pasting without a filename extension, to just a file name 
of "save_text".
http://i.imgur.com/Vp0LkB4.png

Only then (after far too many steps), was I able to have a 
text file in the location I wanted it.

Since the Mac is different from what I am used to, I am sure
I am doing something very wrong since it can't be this complex
to do something as simple as create an empty text file where
you want it to exist with a file name that indicates it's
a text file.

Given the simple goal of 
a) Creating a blank text file
b) In a desired location
c) With some indication that it's a text file
How would a Mac user have done this task?

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#28977

From	Michelle Steiner <michelle@michelle.org>
Date	2015-04-19 18:02 -0700
Message-ID	<190420151802520653%michelle@michelle.org>
In reply to	#28976

In article <mh1htc$3dm$2@news.albasani.net>, Adam H. Kerman
<ahk@chinet.com> wrote:

> I tried to help a friend create a simple text file on
> Macintosh OSX 10.9.5 and it was very difficult.
> 
> Right clicking didn't have any option to create a text file.
> http://i.imgur.com/RkrcG3M.png
> 
> So I had to find an existing text file because I couldn't
> just create an empty text file.

Open TextEdit.  Save.

(If you have TextEdit's preferences set to Rich Text Format, change the
document's format to Text before saving.)

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#28989

From	"Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com>
Date	2015-04-20 02:20 +0000
Message-ID	<mh1npo$3dm$5@news.albasani.net>
In reply to	#28977

Michelle Steiner <michelle@michelle.org> wrote in message
190420151802520653%michelle@michelle.org

> Open TextEdit.  Save.
> 
> (If you have TextEdit's preferences set to Rich Text Format, change the
> document's format to Text before saving.)

I wrote up the dozen steps it took to get to this point, but
ASCII text isn't one of the options, and, you can't even save
the file to a name that ends with the ".txt" filename extension
for portability with other platforms.
http://i.imgur.com/GifasHd.png

I must be missing something very obvious to everyone else.

Which of these TextEdit "Save As" options is the ASCII text option?
http://i.imgur.com/FDYa45h.png

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#28994

From	nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid>
Date	2015-04-19 22:22 -0400
Message-ID	<190420152222201924%nospam@nospam.invalid>
In reply to	#28989

In article <mh1npo$3dm$5@news.albasani.net>, Adam H. Kerman
<ahk@chinet.com> wrote:

> I must be missing something very obvious to everyone else.

yep.

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#29009

From	nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid>
Date	2015-04-19 22:35 -0400
Message-ID	<190420152235269100%nospam@nospam.invalid>
In reply to	#28994

In article <mh1ohr$3dm$10@news.albasani.net>, Adam H. Kerman
<ahk@chinet.com> wrote:

> What's your secret to simply saving a portable ASCII text 
> file, named filename.txt, using TextEdit?

are you even reading these posts??????

it sure as fuck doesn't look like it

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#29028

From	"Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com>
Date	2015-04-20 03:02 +0000
Message-ID	<mh1q8g$3dm$20@news.albasani.net>
In reply to	#29009

nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid> wrote in message
190420152235269100nospamospam@nospam.invalid

> are you even reading these posts??????
> 
> it sure as fuck doesn't look like it

I just got to your post (we're crossing posts).

It certainly wasn't intuitive that the 'Save As' dialog for the 
default text editor had no option for saving ASCII text 
(especially considering that's what a text editor does).

However, as you noted, there was a preference setting, which
enabled that hidden option, so now the default text editor
can actually save ASCII text.

Thanks for the insight into how Apple users think.

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#29379

From	Alan Baker <email@domain.com>
Date	2015-04-22 12:10 -0700
Message-ID	<mh8rn9$4l4$1@news.datemas.de>
In reply to	#29028

On 2015-04-20 03:02:40 +0000, Adam H. Kerman said:

> nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid> wrote in message
> 190420152235269100nospamospam@nospam.invalid
> 
>> are you even reading these posts??????
>> 
>> it sure as fuck doesn't look like it
> 
> I just got to your post (we're crossing posts).
> 
> It certainly wasn't intuitive that the 'Save As' dialog for the
> default text editor had no option for saving ASCII text
> (especially considering that's what a text editor does).
> 
> However, as you noted, there was a preference setting, which
> enabled that hidden option, so now the default text editor
> can actually save ASCII text.
> 
> Thanks for the insight into how Apple users think.

You mean that insight into the fact THAT Apple users think, don't you?

Default Apple text files ARE ASCII for almost all intents and purposes.

I just created and saved a file in TextEdit. I choose "Western (Mac OS 
Roman)" as the encoding, then I used the "file" command in a Terminal 
window to see what it thought my "Test.txt" file was:

"Alans-MacBook-Pro:~ agbaker$ file Desktop/Test.txt
Desktop/Test.txt: ASCII text, with no line terminators"

Then I did the same thing with the default encoding ("Unicode (UTF-8)") 
and do you know what I got:

"Alans-MacBook-Pro:~ agbaker$ file Desktop/Test2.txt
Desktop/Test2.txt: ASCII text, with no line terminators"

Done.

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#29011

From	"Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com>
Date	2015-04-20 02:33 +0000
Message-ID	<mh1ohr$3dm$10@news.albasani.net>
In reply to	#28994

nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid> wrote in message
190420152222201924nospamospam@nospam.invalid

> yep.

What's your secret to simply saving a portable ASCII text 
file, named filename.txt, using TextEdit?

http://i.imgur.com/GifasHd.png

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#29012

From	Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com>
Date	2015-04-20 02:37 +0000
Message-ID	<cpj72jF5p92U10@mid.individual.net>
In reply to	#29011

On 2015-04-20, Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
> nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid> wrote in message
> 190420152222201924nospamospam@nospam.invalid
>
>> yep.
>
> What's your secret to simply saving a portable ASCII text 
> file, named filename.txt, using TextEdit?
>
> http://i.imgur.com/GifasHd.png

You've already been told, but are refusing to acknowledge it because it
doesn't support your silly "OS X is hard to use" troll.

-- 
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

JR

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#29038

From	"Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com>
Date	2015-04-20 03:13 +0000
Message-ID	<mh1qtm$i5o$1@news.albasani.net>
In reply to	#29012

Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> wrote in message
cpj72jF5p92U10@mid.individual.net

> You've already been told, but are refusing to acknowledge it

I'd have to go back to all the posts to be sure, but I think, to date, 
only nospam mentioned *how* to unhide the hidden entry to get the 
default text editor to save as an ASCII text file with a portable
default filename extension of *.txt.

It was so unintuitive, that I had to actually try it as soon as I 
understood what nospam was saying, and now everything is fine.

The answer to the question is simple once you already know the 
answer, which is that you have to unhide the hidden option to save
as ASCII text, and then the default text editor saves ASCII text
files.

Thanks!

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#29116

From	Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com>
Date	2015-04-20 04:08 +0000
Message-ID	<cpjcd4F7dq8U1@mid.individual.net>
In reply to	#29038

On 2015-04-20, Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
> Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> wrote in message
> cpj72jF5p92U10@mid.individual.net
>
>> You've already been told, but are refusing to acknowledge it
>
> I'd have to go back to all the posts to be sure, but I think, to date, 
> only nospam mentioned *how* to unhide the hidden entry to get the 
> default text editor to save as an ASCII text file with a portable
> default filename extension of *.txt.

Bullshit. I told you another simpler way and you ignored it. I repeat:

1. Open TextEdit.
2. Choose Format > Make Plain Text.
3. Save the file.

Done deal. You chose instead to change the preferences on someone else's
machine, which is more complicated, and is not optimal. Again, it's no
surprise to me that you would choose the worst of solutions.

> The answer to the question is simple once you already know the 
> answer, which is that you have to unhide the hidden option to save
> as ASCII text, and then the default text editor saves ASCII text
> files.

Wrong. You don't have to change any preferences. All you have to do is
choose Format > Make Plain Text before saving.

-- 
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

JR

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#28978

From	Michelle Steiner <michelle@michelle.org>
Date	2015-04-19 18:04 -0700
Message-ID	<190420151804205941%michelle@michelle.org>
In reply to	#28976

In article <190420152050160494%nospam@nospam.invalid>, nospam
<nospam@nospam.invalid> wrote:

> as above, launch text edit or similar, type some text and then save it
> to wherever you want.

You don't even have to type some text.

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#28981

From	nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid>
Date	2015-04-19 21:35 -0400
Message-ID	<190420152135434139%nospam@nospam.invalid>
In reply to	#28978

In article <190420151804205941%michelle@michelle.org>, Michelle Steiner
<michelle@michelle.org> wrote:

> > as above, launch text edit or similar, type some text and then save it
> > to wherever you want.
> 
> You don't even have to type some text.

sure, but an empty file is pointless.

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#28983

From	Michelle Steiner <michelle@michelle.org>
Date	2015-04-19 18:42 -0700
Message-ID	<190420151842061874%michelle@michelle.org>
In reply to	#28981

In article <190420152135434139%nospam@nospam.invalid>, nospam
<nospam@nospam.invalid> wrote:

> In article <190420151804205941%michelle@michelle.org>, Michelle Steiner
> <michelle@michelle.org> wrote:
> 
> > > as above, launch text edit or similar, type some text and then save it
> > > to wherever you want.
> > 
> > You don't even have to type some text.
> 
> sure, but an empty file is pointless.

But that is what the OP wanted to create.

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#28986

From	Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com>
Date	2015-04-20 02:15 +0000
Message-ID	<cpj5qcF5p92U3@mid.individual.net>
In reply to	#28983

On 2015-04-20, Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
> Michelle Steiner <michelle@michelle.org> wrote in message
> 190420151842061874%michelle@michelle.org
>
>> But that is what the OP wanted to create.
>
> I simply want to paste some ASCII text into a text document.
>
> I don't care HOW the text file is created as long as the 
> ASCII text document has a name and location that I choose 
> and it contains just the text I want to be in it.
>
> It should be a couple of steps, tops, to do something 
> as simple and mundane as this.

And it is. Three steps, in fact, with a rich text editor like TextEdit.
With a plain text editor such as TextWrangler and so on, it's just two
steps.

> It shouldn't take more than a dozen steps (see the detailed
> post), which, in the end, still don't result in an ASCII
> text document.

The reason it takes *you* that many steps (and you still fail) is
because you insist on doing things like you would do them on Linux or
Windows. As you have been told umpteen times, OS X ain't your
grandfather's operating system. The day you embrace it rather than
rejecting it will be the day you become productive on OS X.

> I must be doing something wrong (i.e., not the Macintosh way, 
> because the Mac just can't be this hard to use and inefficient).

Yep, it's all you.

-- 
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

JR

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#29003

From	Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com>
Date	2015-04-20 02:32 +0000
Message-ID	<cpj6plF5p92U7@mid.individual.net>
In reply to	#28986

On 2015-04-20, Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
> Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> wrote in message
> cpj5qcF5p92U3@mid.individual.net
>
>> And it is. Three steps, in fact, with a rich text editor like TextEdit.
>> With a plain text editor such as TextWrangler and so on, it's just two
>> steps.
>
> I don't care what default program I use to create the ASCII text file.
> This isn't my Macintosh, so I'll use the default ASCII text editor that
> comes with the operating system.
>
> If TextEdit creates ASCII text, you'll have to let me know which of 
> these options is for ASCII text, because I don't see such an option.

I already told you, and so have others - and your apparent refusal to
acknowledge what you have been told doesn't mean it didn't happen. 

-- 
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

JR

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#29004

From	nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid>
Date	2015-04-19 22:32 -0400
Message-ID	<190420152232348759%nospam@nospam.invalid>
In reply to	#28986

In article <mh1obs$3dm$7@news.albasani.net>, Adam H. Kerman
<ahk@chinet.com> wrote:

> If TextEdit creates ASCII text, you'll have to let me know which of 
> these options is for ASCII text, because I don't see such an option.

pay attention.

> If there is some other default ASCII text editor on the Macintosh, then
> I don't know what it is. I searched for "TextWrangler" using the "Spotlight"
> magnifying glass, but TextWrangler does not seem to be installed.

you can't be that stupid.

i gave you the link. click it, download, install and it will blow you
away. it's that good.

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#29018

From	"Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com>
Date	2015-04-20 02:43 +0000
Message-ID	<mh1p4o$3dm$13@news.albasani.net>
In reply to	#29004

nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid> wrote in message
190420152232348759nospamospam@nospam.invalid

> you can't be that stupid.
> 
> i gave you the link. click it, download, install and it will blow you
> away. it's that good.

This is not my Macintosh. It's not even the Macintosh of the person I am 
helping. It's a corporate Macintosh. 

Given that, the default ASCII text editor that came with the Macintosh
is what I wish to use.

Everyone said that is TextEdit, and I'm perfectly fine with that if
I could just get it to save a filename.txt in ASCII format.

Which of these options is the ASCII text format?
http://i.imgur.com/FDYa45h.png

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#29039

From	"Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com>
Date	2015-04-20 03:28 +0000
Message-ID	<mh1rou$i5o$4@news.albasani.net>
In reply to	#29018

"Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com> wrote in message
mh1p4o$3dm$13@news.albasani.net

> Which of these options is the ASCII text format?
> http://i.imgur.com/FDYa45h.png

Thanks to nospam, who had initially explained how to unhide
the hidden option for the default text editor to save as portable
ASCII text files. (And to Jolly Roger for confirming the steps, 
where he explained it in more detail, with a screenshot.)

Now everything is fine.

I learned important things about Macintosh protocols.

1. In most operating system, you have a variety of options of how you 
   want to create your ASCII text files but on the Macintosh, one of
   those options doesn't exist. This is fine, as long as you're aware 
   that this option doesn't exist, as the other options work almost
   as well (depending on the need).

2. In most default text editors (on other operating systems), you can
   immediately save the file as ASCII text but on the Macintosh, you
   have to know to first unhide the hidden option to save ASCII text
   as ASCII text (because the default text editor defaults to RTL).

3. I can't check now, as the Macintosh went to its home, but, I think, 
   from what nospam said, that we lost the option to have the "Save As"
   dialog box come up when we selected to unhide the hidden option for
   the default text editor to save ASCII text. I'll have to check that
   tomorrow when I have access to the Macintosh again.

Thanks for helping me understand how mac users create text files.

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#29171

From	Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid>
Date	2015-04-20 08:12 +0000
Message-ID	<cpjqmqFaopaU1@mid.individual.net>
In reply to	#29039

On 2015-04-20, Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
> "Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com> wrote in message
> mh1p4o$3dm$13@news.albasani.net
>
>> Which of these options is the ASCII text format?
>> http://i.imgur.com/FDYa45h.png
>
> Thanks to nospam, who had initially explained how to unhide
> the hidden option for the default text editor to save as portable
> ASCII text files. (And to Jolly Roger for confirming the steps, 
> where he explained it in more detail, with a screenshot.)
>
> Now everything is fine.
>
> I learned important things about Macintosh protocols.
>
> 1. 

>
> 2. 

>
> 3. 

4. Mac users are massively intolerant of anyone criticising their
precious system.

-- 
Today is Setting Orange, the 37th day of Discord in the YOLD 3181
                  I don't have an attitude problem.
    If you have a problem with my attitude, that's your problem.

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csiph-web

How do mac users create a blank text file where you want it?

Contents

#28976 — How do mac users create a blank text file where you want it?

#28977

#28989

#28994

#29009

#29028

#29379

#29011

#29012

#29038

#29116

#28978

#28981

#28983

#28986

#29003

#29004

#29018

#29039

#29171