TextEdit doesn't flatten rich text

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Level 4

3,293 points

TextEdit doesn't flatten rich text

One of the disappointing changes in this ARM OS from the Intel OS is that TextEdit does no longer strip styles from dropped or pasted text into a plain text document. I had always used a *.txt scratch sheet all the time to drop text into to strip styles but that doesn't work now. Of course, if I close the document and reopen it suddenly it is now plain text, but that is too much trouble. Does anyone know if this is inadvertent or permanent? Is there a TextEdit setting to force unstyled text?

MacBook Pro 14″

Posted on Dec 6, 2022 10:12 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

leroydouglas

Community+ 2024

Level 10

189,078 points

Dec 6, 2022 10:28 AM in response to Gnarlodious

Gnarlodious wrote:

One of the disappointing changes in this ARM OS from the Intel OS is that TextEdit does no longer strip styles from dropped or pasted text. I used to use a scratch sheet all the time to drop text onto to strip styles but that doesn't work now. Of course, if I close the document and reopen it suddenly it is now plain text. Does anyone know if this is inadvertent or permanent? Is there a TextEdit setting to force unstyled text?

Sounds more like a bug...

you can file a bug report /submit your Apple Feedback here: Product Feedback - Apple

In TextEdit>Settings I leave plain.txt as the default and use the keyboard short cuts if I need to convert a document

Shift Command T to rich text.

.txt plain text

.rtf rich text

.rtfd rich text when you include an image

TextEdit User Guide for Mac - Apple Support

The current stable release of Ventura including bug fixes, security updates is macOS Ventura 13.0.1

Keep your Mac up to date - Apple Support

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Answer 2

ghr165

Level 4

1,324 points

Dec 6, 2022 7:21 PM in response to Gnarlodious

After pasting styled text into a new, blank document (assuming it is default rtf) and finding styles are not stripped, highlight all the text and press command-shift-T.

Thereafter, I'm seeing all subsequent text pasted into this same unsaved document has the styling removed.

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Answer 3

Dec 6, 2022 10:50 AM in response to Gnarlodious

Apple has a utility that one can run from the Terminal command line that converts rich text RTF documents to their text counterparts:

textutil -convert txt fog.rtf

and it deposits a plain text fog.txt in the same location.

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Answer 4

Gnarlodious Author

Level 4

3,293 points

Dec 6, 2022 6:48 PM in response to VikingOSX

That's not what I'm talking about. Try it now on your M1 Mac. Make a plain text document with a .txt extension. Select and drag some text from this page onto the document, including some links. Observe that all the links are still styled and clickable, and text is styled like the original.

If that's not what happens for you, let me know.

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Answer 5

Gnarlodious Author

Level 4

3,293 points

Dec 6, 2022 7:33 PM in response to VikingOSX

Okay, as an act of desperation I tried this and it fixed the document file. It worked even though it was already a plain text file. Weird! Something also changed in Finder's "File Type" column although I don't know what.

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Answer 6

Dec 10, 2022 8:09 AM in response to Gnarlodious

The source RTF file that you provide textutil remains unchanged while the result of that conversion is the original filename with a .txt extension. The latter does not revert to a rich text document format — ever.

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Answer 7

Gnarlodious Author

Level 4

3,293 points

Dec 10, 2022 10:06 PM in response to VikingOSX

There isn't and has never been a RTF file associated with this TXT file. It is and has always been a plain text file. I suspect it is a bug as another user suggested. I suppose I should make a new plain text file and delete this old one.

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Answer 8

Gnarlodious Author

Level 4

3,293 points

Dec 11, 2022 6:12 AM in response to ghr165

I am using MacOS 13.0.1. Desperation? On a project I do, I drag and drop text from a browser into a text document, where I expect it to be stripped of styles. When that doesn't happen it messes up my workflow.

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