In the macOS TextEdit app, whenever I open a text file, the cursor always appears at the beginning of the first line instead of at the end of the last line. Because of this, if I start typing right away, it modifies the top of the document and creates a mess.
Is there any setting or way to make TextEdit place the cursor at the end of the document when a file is opened?
MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 26.2
Document-based applications, and TextEdit is no exception, cannot know beforehand where you want the cursor positioned on opening a document. Thus, TextEdit is designed to place that cursor before the first word of the document. It is your responsibility to re-position that cursor where you want to insert content.
Other applications that behave in this manner are MS Word, LibreOffice, and BBEdit.
raysalmarure208 wrote:
In the macOS TextEdit app, whenever I open a text file, the cursor always appears at the beginning of the first line instead of at the end of the last line. Because of this, if I start typing right away, it modifies the top of the document and creates a mess.
Is there any setting or way to make TextEdit place the cursor at the end of the document when a file is opened?
TextEdit is a really basic text editor. It's right there in the name.
If you want something more powerful, consider a word processing tool like Pages. The cursor in Pages behaves the way you expect.
Thanks. When editing text in Windows applications like Notepad, the cursor always starts at the end of the last line or below it. I know comparing Windows and Mac isn’t fair but the cursor position in macOS TextEdit is quite inconvenient.
Cursor appears at the beginning of the document instead of the end in TextEdit app
