txt files created on Mac are messed up on PC

Question

Level 1

9 points

txt files created on Mac are messed up on PC

Hi,

I created a txt file (Using TextEdit) on my Mac

When I opended that same file on a PC using Notepad, it was all messed up. The line returns were replaced with black boxes, rendering the file one large string of dense text.

Is there anything I can do on the Mac side to make .txt files show up properly on a PC?

Thx
Steve

iMac (Intel CPU), Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Posted on Jan 4, 2008 10:27 AM

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Answer 1

iBod

Level 7

29,351 points

Jan 4, 2008 10:33 AM in response to YogurtBoy

Hi,

It sounds like the file you saved on the Mac was really a rich text file. Can you open it in WordPad on Windows instead? If you can then that should be the reason.

In TextEdit you can change the format of the file under Format menu -> Make Plain/Rich Text.

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Answer 2

Courcoul

Level 6

18,684 points

Jan 4, 2008 10:50 AM in response to iBod

The textfile is getting saved with the wrong encoding. By default, when doing the first Save or a Save As..., TextEdit offers as default *Plain Text Encoding* +Western (Mac OS Roman)+. Try using the +Windows (Latin 1)+ option on the drop menu and see if that solves the problem.

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Answer 3

YogurtBoy Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 4, 2008 10:51 AM in response to YogurtBoy

thanks iBod

Yes, the .txt displays nicely with WordPad, so I checked the "make rich/plain text" option in TextEdit, and it's already set to "make rich text" [meaning it's already in plain text]

To further test things, i created a new, simple 2 line .txt file in TextEdit in "plain text", and opened it in Notepad.

Same thing.

Oh well

Thanks again.

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Answer 4

iBod

Level 7

29,351 points

Jan 4, 2008 10:55 AM in response to YogurtBoy

I think Courcoul is on the right path. See above 🙂

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Answer 5

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,182 points

Jan 4, 2008 12:55 PM in response to YogurtBoy

I think the problem is the line endings. Mac and Windows use different conventions. Wordpad can handle the difference, Notepad cannot.

You can use another text editor on the Mac, like TextWrangler, which offers a choice of line endings.

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Answer 6

YogurtBoy Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 4, 2008 2:01 PM in response to YogurtBoy

Thanks Courcoul, but alas no 😟

Saving as "windows (latin 1)" still shows line returns as black blocks.

I'm off to try the other text editor mentioned after Courcoul's post

FWIW, I use a text editor on windows called "UltraEdit", and it displays these Mac .txt files just fine, but it has an option called "Auto Convert Unix Files", so it might be doing the encoding switch in the Windows side

I'll go see if that other text editor does it on the Mac side now...

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Answer 7

YogurtBoy Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 4, 2008 2:12 PM in response to YogurtBoy

A-HA!

Tom Gewecke was on the right track!

I didn't try TextWrangler because I already had another "power" text editor installed - Smultron. On its Preferences panel, the "save" tab had options for "Line endings". Options include:

UNIX - Mac OS (LF)
Mac (CR)
Dark Side (CRLF)
Unicode (Line)
Unicode (Paragraph)
Leave unchanged

I guessed that "Dark Side" must resolve on Windows properly 😉 and it did!

Thanks Tom, and everybody else for your help

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Answer 8

Kurt Lang

Level 9

68,596 points

Jan 4, 2008 3:18 PM in response to YogurtBoy

Yup, it's been like that...well, forever. I can't remember which is which, but one system uses line break markers when a return is entered and the other uses line feed marks on plain text files. I think it's the Mac that uses line feed, which is technically a printer command to go to the next line. So Windows doesn't see it as a command to display what's after each of those markers on the next line. Instead displaying the text as a run on sentence.

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