Once your file is converted to Plain Text, you can save it in the new format by either pressing Command + S (⌘S) or selecting File from the top navigation bar, and hitting Save. This should convert your file to Plain Text (TXT). To change this to Plain Text (TXT), select Format on the top navigation menu, and select the Make Plain Text option.Īlternatively, you can press Shift+Command+T (⇧⌘T). Default TextEdit documents open in the Rich Text Format ( RTF).

Once you've opened a new document, you will want to change it to Plain Text. Here, click on New Document at the bottom of the dialog box. The easiest way to do this is to open Spotlight search by pressing Command+Space: (⌘ + Spacebar) on your MacBook and searching for TextEdit. The first thing you need to do is open the TextEdit application. Related: What Is The Meaning Of 'Your Screen Is Being Observed' Message On a Mac You won't be able to play the MP3 this way, but you will be able to view what it's comprised of in text form because the text editor can only render data as text.Īnother example is the PDF file format, which when opened as a TXT file, will begin with the text '%PDF' on the first line, although the remainder of the document will be illegible. Plugging an MP3 audio file into a text editor like Notepad++, for example, allows you to open it as a text file. When you're not sure what file format a file is in, such as when it's missing a file extension or you suspect it's been recognized with the wrong file extension, you can use this method. All Files Can Be TXTsĪn interesting fact about TXT files is that any file, even if it doesn't contain readable text, can be opened as a text document.

These files are universal platform files, which means they may be accessed on nearly any operating system, including mobile devices. Text files saved in the TXT file type are organized into a sequence of text lines. TXT documents, also known as plain text documents, may be written, opened, and modified with a broad range of text editing and word processing tools for Linux, Microsoft Windows, and Mac platforms.

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