Wanted: Ascii Text application

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Level 1

21 points

Wanted: Ascii Text application

I wasn't sure where to place this post.

I am looking for an application similar to Windows' Notepad.

What I want to do is to be able to copy a sentence or paragraph which contains an embedded link, paste it into a Notepad like app and then copy the words from the Notepad like app and paste it either back where I originally got it from or somewhere else, so that the words will still be the same, but the embedded link (e-mail address or website address) will no longer be embedded.

I hope I explained myself well.

FreddieVee

Mac Mini - 2.26ghz - 4GB RAM - 320GB HD, Mac OS X (10.5.6), PC Man trying to maintain wife's Mac

Posted on Sep 2, 2009 10:51 AM

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Answer 1

FreddieVee Author

Level 1

21 points

Sep 2, 2009 1:46 PM in response to a brody

I guess I didn't make myself clear.

Recently while my wife was writing in Open Office Writer, she wrote a paragraph ending with, "Mary's address is maryxyz@acb.net" (not real name nor address) and then hit enter twice to skip 2 lines and continued writing a few more paragraphs.

She then highlighted all the text and pasted it into an e-mail. She noticed that all the text from the beginning of the e-mail address (maryxyz@acb.net) to the end of the document was underlined, so I had her send the e-mail to me instead of the intended recipient. Sure enough, when I received the e-mail on my WinXP PC, all the text from the beginning of the e-mail address to the end on the document was a hyperlink to the e-mail address.

I copied and pasted the text into Notepad on my XP PC, then highlighted the text in Notepad, copied it and pasted it into a new e-mail and sent it to myself and my wife. My copy had only the e-mail address as a link, but all the text from the beginning of the e-mail address to the end on the document was a hyperlink to the e-mail address on my wife's copy on her Mac.

I went to her e-mail provider's website on my XP PC and sent the e-mail from there by copying the text in Notepad and pasted it into a new e-mail which I sent to the intended recipient and I BCCed my wife's address and my address. When my wife opened her BCCed copy of the e-mail, only the address was a link, but when she copied it to a new e-mail, the problem came back. My copy was normal and acted normal after I copied and pasted it.

So my question is: Does anyone know of a small app for a Mac that will work like Windows' Notepad which will not carry the link over (as I detailed above on my XP PX)?

Thanks
FreddieVee

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Answer 2

FreddieVee Author

Level 1

21 points

Sep 3, 2009 7:47 AM in response to Daniel Ebeck

I am embarrassed that the answer was right there in TextEdit, an app that came with the Mac. For future reference, I will have to remember that Mac apps can be tailored with the "Preferences" feature.

Thank You Daniel,

FreddieVee

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Answer 3

Sep 3, 2009 5:17 AM in response to FreddieVee

In any event, TextEdit will do this perfectly well. All you need to do is change it from Rich Text into Plain Text. Do this in the Format menu.

You also have access to any number of unix editors like vi, by using the Terminal.

Message was edited by: Daniel Ebeck

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Answer 4

a brody

Level 10

85,314 points

Sep 2, 2009 11:29 AM in response to FreddieVee

That is not an ASCII application. Embedded links do not transplant as anything else but true HTML in true ASCII applications.

When I copy/paste from Notepad in Windows, it does not change the content of the HTML.

Thus to

paste it either back where I originally got it from or somewhere else, so that the words will still be the same, but the embedded link (e-mail address or website address) will no longer be embedded.

You'd not be using a feature of Notepad.
Wordpad doesn't do this either. If you want the embedded link to translate from:

http://www.apple.com/ http://www.apple.com/

to Apple

when copy/pasting, you need a webpage editor such as Dreamweaver, and to paste the content into view as HTML mode, and switch back to the webpage rendering mode.

Your alternative, is to use a true HTML editor, which has a preview mechanism for launching your webpage in any web browser on your computer, such as http://www.barebones.com/ BBEdit.

TextEdit is a functional text editor built-in to Apple's operating system that supports ASCII, and a free alternative is http://www.barebones.com/ TextWrangler. But those don't do your required "embedding."

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Answer 5

BobHarris

Level 9

56,933 points

Sep 2, 2009 1:34 PM in response to FreddieVee

You could try Applications -> TextEdit (part of Mac OS X).

TextWrangler(free download)
<http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/18529>

Maybe Smultron (free download)
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/24012

Not sure if they will do what you want, but they are freely available GUI based text editors.

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Answer 6

a brody

Level 10

85,314 points

Sep 2, 2009 2:43 PM in response to FreddieVee

Neither text editor, BBEdit, nor Textwrangler hotlinks any text. That means you can click on the e-mail addresses and real links to your heart's content, and nothing will happen. It may highlight it, but it will not go to URL automatically. The e-mail program has the hotlinking feature built-in. That is something you may be able to disable depending on the e-mail program you use. When something is "hotlinked" it will automatically treat clicking text as going to a URL.

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Answer 7

BobHarris

Level 9

56,933 points

Sep 3, 2009 3:53 AM in response to FreddieVee

This sounds like OpenOffice messed up.

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