TextEdit - Save .TXT With ANSI Encoding?

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Level 2

289 points

TextEdit - Save .TXT With ANSI Encoding?

Hi,

In Windows XP Notepad, the default type of Encoding for .txt files is ANSI. Can this be done in TextEdit, so that simple text files (not Rich Text) saved in either app are fully compatible with the other?

 iMac 17" 2GHz, 2GB RAM, 250GB Hard Drive, Mac OS X (10.5.5),  16GB iPhone 3G  40GB Apple TV

Posted on Dec 16, 2008 2:12 AM

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Answer 1

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,740 points

Dec 16, 2008 6:06 AM in response to Reuben Feffer

Have you tried setting the Open/Save encoding preferences to ANSI? You can expand the list by going to the Customize item at the bottom. The ANSI equivalent on the list might be Western (Windows Latin 1) or Western (DOS Latin 1).

In any case, both apps will presumably used another encoding will be used if any characters contained in the text require that.

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Answer 2

Reuben Feffer Author

Level 2

289 points

Dec 18, 2008 8:02 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

I've done some tests. The main problem is, whenever you push the Return key to insert a new paragraph (when you're working on a .txt file in TextEdit in Mac OS X) that paragraph just shows up as a black block in Notepad in Windows XP.

If you edit the same file in XP, and remove those black blocks and replace them with paragraph returns, the file looks perfect when you open it back in Mac OS X.

So which OS is to blame? The Mac seems to be inserting weird paragraph returns that Windows doesn't understand, no matter what type of file encoding you use (UTF-8, Western Windows Latin 1, Western DOS Latin 1).

Is there a solution to this probem?

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Answer 3

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,740 points

Dec 18, 2008 8:43 AM in response to Reuben Feffer

So which OS is to blame? The Mac seems to be inserting weird paragraph returns that Windows doesn't understand, no matter what type of file encoding you use (UTF-8, Western Windows Latin 1, Western DOS Latin 1).

My understanding is that TextEdit uses standard Unix type line endings, called LF (line feed, hex 0A). Windows stuff uses a different convention, CR + LF (0D 0A). If a Windows app will not display text just because it encounters something other than CR + LF, I'd say it probably has a bug of some sort.

Is there a solution to this probem?

I don't think the line endings of TextEdit can be changed. Some other apps like Text Wrangler offer you a choice in their preferences.

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