Text Edit - Carriage Return Compatibility

Question

Level 1

9 points

Text Edit - Carriage Return Compatibility

When a plain text file created in Text Edit is saved in Tiger and later accessed in Windows Notepad, the carriage returns will not be read correctly. Interestingly, WordPad will read the file correctly.

Is there a way to save a plain text TextEdit file to be compatible with Notepad? Saving with Western (Windows) encoding does not seem to work.

Assuming compatibility will not exist, is a RTF or Word file the same between Tiger and Windows? I have not really tried to compare these types.

Thanks

Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Powerbook G4, Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Posted on Dec 26, 2005 3:01 PM

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Answer 1

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,022 points

Dec 26, 2005 3:54 PM in response to Jack Hopkins

The difference is probably that NotePad requires the LF character as well as the CR at the ends of lines, while Mac's normally only use CR. The encoding does not affect formatting elements like this. You might try downloading the free TextWrangler, which may let you choose line end conventions:

http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/index.shtml

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Answer 2

bdmarsha

Level 4

2,580 points

Dec 26, 2005 4:04 PM in response to Jack Hopkins

Jack,

Tom has a good suggestion in TextWrangler. However, the situation with line endings is more complex than his post indicates. Windows and DOS use CR and LF to indicate new lines, MacOS (9 and earlier) uses CR only, and OS X and Unix use LF only. TextWrangler and BBEdit both allow you to save files with your choice of line endings. TextEdit allows only LF endings.

However, the rtf and Word file formats are cross-platform; TextEdit will allow you to use rtf files and they should go back and forth between Windows and OS X OK. However, for plain text, TextWrangler is a freeware gem.

bd

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Answer 3

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,022 points

Dec 26, 2005 4:23 PM in response to bdmarsha

Thanks for the clarification, bdmarsha. Another program that can convert one kind of line ending to another is Clean Text:

http://www.apimac.com/clean_text/index.php

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Answer 4

Jack Hopkins Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 26, 2005 6:21 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

Thanks Tom. I am aware of Text Wrangler. Just want to get to the least common denominator...

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Answer 5

Jack Hopkins Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 26, 2005 6:24 PM in response to bdmarsha

Thanks,

The info is quite helpful. I think I'll stick to rtf format - I'm creating standard material for Windows users to place in CAD drawings. RTF is fine for CAD files anyway.

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