Thank you Gary for another well executed tutorial. I use Text Edit all the time. I agree there should be an IOS equivalent (I generally default to Notes.) The one simple, yet powerful thing I do a LOT is to copy text (which I’ve written or grabbed) and drop it into TextEdit to listen to the computer read it back to me. The other day a high school English teacher went through all the logistics of explaining to her students about watching for “grammar and spelling” mistakes on their ChromeBooks. Later I asked why she didn’t have the students let the computer read the text back to them. Seems like that’s a job the computer should be doing. Her rationale was she didn’t like the voice that the computer used. Go figure? If I wasn’t heading to another classroom I would have explained to her that(at least on Apple) you can tweak the voices, the speed and the tone quality of the speaker. Wouldn’t have mattered, you can only help those who want to be helped and she felt she was helping her students, yet didn’t need her herself. Guess that’s one of the reasons I like your videos so much; you give it your all and help me tweak my processes. Keep up the great work!
Never thought of using text edit for short notes and email text (always just open a word doc). Will give it a go. I do use it for stripping out formatting in a doc when I want to create text for a website.
This was so helpful for me to create key word searches for my Etsy Store products; I just type them in the Text Edit separated by commas, and copy and paste into the box below my product that I then upload! Thank you. This saved me a TON of time!
The Underline button in the toolbar, Format > Font > Underline or Command+U. Of course you need to be working on a Rich Text document, not a Plain Text one.
@@macmost Just eccentricity. I though I might use as my name on Facebook to amuse my family. As a child I was renowned for reading things upside down and also in mirrors.
@@jeremytravis360 Most image editing apps allow you to flip the image horizontally or vertically. Even the free Seashore app (Mac App Store) will do it if you don't want to spend any $. Then create a blank image, add some text, flip, export and then use that image where you want.
Hi Gary This is a question about a past video. What was the video that you talked obout taking your pictures off your Mac and storing them on your back up hard drive. Thanks
Hi, great video. Is there anyway, while in rtf format, to evenly space the tabs along the ruler? My default is tabs up to "12" on the ruler. Is there anyplace to set this to be more useful instead of manually dragging each arrow, in every document I open, so the tabs are evenly across the width of the ruler?
Very helpful indeed thank you! Would you please make a video about how I can use the screen and keyboard of my MacBook to access my mini Mac files? Thanks!
Thanks to this video I'll be using the Plain Text version by default from now on since I'm only using Text Edit for simple stuff, don't need the formatting, etc. Didn't know about the Plain Text version! If I need more options I can always use Pages but 90% of the time I'm only doing very simple things.
Is there a way to Merge lines? I usually copy captions and and paste them into textedit but the lines break. MS WORD has this option in the find and replace with ^p in order to merge lines. Thank you in advance!
Thanks! I have been using text/edit and it is great. Sometimes things that will not copy and paste into Pages will have no trouble copying and pasting into text/edit and then from there I can copy them into Pages if I need to. But how do I make a folder in text/edit? I have a bunch of single docs but I can't see how to group them in folders because I can't see how to create a folder.
@@macmost oh, thanks for the answer. Sorry for being unclear. I just mean that I have about 200 text/edit docs and they are all just in a long list in the app. I would like to make a few folders in the text/edit app so that I have a shorter list with related docs together in the folder. But I can't see how to. Is it possible?
@@kieranoleary496 You would create those folders in the Finder. That is where you organize your files. So create as many folders and subfolders as you need there.
Hello Gary. I know very, very little about computers and have access to a MacBook Pro. I want to write a book. Do you think it's possible (and/or a good idea) to attempt this using TextEdit? If not, what would you recommend? Any input would be very much appreciated. Thank you.
@@bluegarren9361 Maybe the source you are copying from has a small text size? Copy and paste will retain the characteristics of the text you copied. Try Edit, Paste and Match Style instead.
The right side and bottom scrolling bar are always there when I open TextEdit. Previously they showed only when a mouse was connected. Do you know how I can remove them, to go for a more minimal, all-white look as you showed?
Hey Gary, How do you make 2 columns on a page? Let's say I have 20 song lyrics and instead of printing 20 pages I want to make 2 columns and print only 10 pages. Thanks!
Perhaps you are using the app window in Full Screen mode? Use in regular window mode or change your System Settings so that the Menu Bar is always visible.
Can you explain more? Is this spellcheck underlining, or the style "underline." Which app are you using to write? Maybe show me a screenshot so I can see (use Imgur.com or similar).
BBEdit is way more advanced (and expensive). It is a pro-level text tool meant for coders like me. Check out the list of features on the site if you want details.
Google Docs is a web-based app. You can't directly open a local file with a web-based app. If you want to work on documents only in Google Docs, then you need to store them online IN Google Docs instead.
when i open Textedit, the position is always in the middle of my screen. i have to drag it to the side everytime. is there a way for it to remember it’s previous position in the screen?
I did not know it supported rtf files. Excellent! In regards to grammar checking inside of TextEdit; it doesn't seem to work (that well). Create a short on how to use the TextEdit grammar features please?
TextEdit doesn't have any grammar checking itself, it is just using the system. This is a low-level grammar check, not like some of the advanced tools you can purchase that will try to suggest real changes to your writing.
I use Windows at work but prefer MacOS. One option that i find in Windows I cannot find in MOS. I’ve got a folder full of files. I right click the folder and select New. From the drop down I select Text File. A new .txt file is created in that folder with the cursor ready to rename. This is how I create ReadMe files in Windows. Best I’ve come up with on Mac is to have a second finder window open to the applications folder, and I drag a copy of text edit from Applications to the desired folder. Any way to do this without opening a second window and without having to browse the save dialogue?
Very informative! When you have time, could you do a tutorial on how to organize an iTunes library on an iMac, managing and organizing playlists, adding lyrics, adding album artwork, editing the song metadata, getting rid of duplicates, etc...the whole nine yards. Thanks!!!
For most people the best way is to do nothing. Leave the metadata as it is and then find what you want by artist, album or song. Create playlists when you need to (workout, bedtime, party, etc). Is there a reason why you need to go further than that?
@@macmost yes sir, rich text, I work with inspection, so I need something that can work with text and images, I drag and drop 10 images and textedit understands it and organizes it correctly, pages doesn't understand when I do this, I used to work on word, I'm a new Mac user, (air m1 2020) so I've kinda been testing for a couple of days now, I've tried word for Mac, and it's terrible, doesn't load, doesn't save correctly, google docs is nice but it depends on wifi, FreeOffice has the same problem that pages has, but with textedit surprisingly no bugs, its very limited but better then nothing... but now I need it to save in word and it only shows me the option to export in pdf
@@Pedro-jj2ih That's odd. I'm not sure why it won't allow you to save as Word. But it sounds from your description that you should be looking at Pages, not TextEdit, for your needs. Have you tried that?
@@macmost first of all, thank you for your attention, i live in brazil, and no one really knows much about mac here, at least the region i live in, so you're help is basically God sent, and yes, pages is very nice, but for exemple, i inspect a living room, i have the text part of the inspection, and under the next, i need to put images, sometimes it can be up to 50+ images, so i'm using the previewer built in mac, "adjust size" so now i have made 50+ images in a smaller configuration 150pixels for exemple, because the inspection document is an a4 page, that needs to be printed so the client can sign it etc, so now i have the 50+ images, i select them all and drag them under the text "living room" to pages, pages doesn't organize them correctly, the photos stay on top of each other, and i need it to understand that i want the photos to organize automatically picture 1 next to picture 2 picture 3 next 4, in order, nice and neat, and i don't know if i'm not configuring it correctly, but when i do this in textedit, it understands it, i drag and drop and it understands the order
@@Pedro-jj2ih In Pages, drag and drop your images in. They should all be there, selected. Before you do anything else, so they are all still selected, go to the Format sidebar, switch to the Arrange tools at the top, and set Object Placement to Move With Text and Text Wrap to Inline With Text. Now all of the images should be inline and in order. With them still selected, you can go down to the size section and resize them. You shouldn't need to resize them before you import them into Pages. You can resize them right there, inside Pages, all at the same time. That way you have nice high-resolution images that will look good when printed. If you want spacing between them, go to the Style tools and change the border. Put a white (or transparent) border around them the size you want.
Why does mac go out of there way to make life so hard. I need to have a whole list of notes in different textpads. But I want them in the same window on differemt tabs. Its slows everything down, where I have to keep going to recently open to compare notes.. Windows allows you to open new window or tab. Text Edit is new window only. So damn annoying,
Thank you Gary for another well executed tutorial. I use Text Edit all the time. I agree there should be an IOS equivalent (I generally default to Notes.) The one simple, yet powerful thing I do a LOT is to copy text (which I’ve written or grabbed) and drop it into TextEdit to listen to the computer read it back to me.
The other day a high school English teacher went through all the logistics of explaining to her students about watching for “grammar and spelling” mistakes on their ChromeBooks. Later I asked why she didn’t have the students let the computer read the text back to them. Seems like that’s a job the computer should be doing. Her rationale was she didn’t like the voice that the computer used. Go figure? If I wasn’t heading to another classroom I would have explained to her that(at least on Apple) you can tweak the voices, the speed and the tone quality of the speaker. Wouldn’t have mattered, you can only help those who want to be helped and she felt she was helping her students, yet didn’t need her herself. Guess that’s one of the reasons I like your videos so much; you give it your all and help me tweak my processes. Keep up the great work!
Never thought of using text edit for short notes and email text (always just open a word doc). Will give it a go. I do use it for stripping out formatting in a doc when I want to create text for a website.
This was so helpful for me to create key word searches for my Etsy Store products; I just type them in the Text Edit separated by commas, and copy and paste into the box below my product that I then upload! Thank you. This saved me a TON of time!
Bro the creator liked everyone's comment exept yours
Programs like this one , really sold me on Mac computers way back when.
Your a good teacher! Thanks for this video, super helpful!
A very useful video tutorial today. Thanks as always for the visuals! Thank you, Gary! 👍👏🏻❤️
how do you underline words on text edit?
The Underline button in the toolbar, Format > Font > Underline or Command+U. Of course you need to be working on a Rich Text document, not a Plain Text one.
@@macmost sweet thank you very much sir
Do you have a video about how to make text in a mirror image ?
Interesting idea. What's your use case for that?
@@macmost Just eccentricity. I though I might use as my name on Facebook to amuse my family. As a child I was renowned for reading things upside down and also in mirrors.
@@jeremytravis360 Most image editing apps allow you to flip the image horizontally or vertically. Even the free Seashore app (Mac App Store) will do it if you don't want to spend any $. Then create a blank image, add some text, flip, export and then use that image where you want.
@@macmost Sorry have MS so a bit to complicated for me to understand. Thank you anyway.
I always had a windows computers and laptop, I'm new with Mac, thanks
Thanks for the video, I'm starting a web design class in college and this helped.
Hi Gary This is a question about a past video. What was the video that you talked obout taking your pictures off your Mac and storing them on your back up hard drive. Thanks
Do you mean archiving? This? ua-cam.com/video/ZsWWQAsSU2w/v-deo.html
Hello Gary! Thank you for you useful tutorial, but how can I return the deleted sentence or paragraph i.e. take a step back, thank you
Do you mean Undo? Edit, Undo or Command+z.
Hi, great video. Is there anyway, while in rtf format, to evenly space the tabs along the ruler? My default is tabs up to "12" on the ruler. Is there anyplace to set this to be more useful instead of manually dragging each arrow, in every document I open, so the tabs are evenly across the width of the ruler?
No, you'd have to drag each one.
Do you have a recommended third party app for iPad, for editing Plain Text documents?
I don't really use one, no. Just look through the App Store and try some.
Very helpful indeed thank you! Would you please make a video about how I can use the screen and keyboard of my MacBook to access my mini Mac files? Thanks!
Thanks Gary, yet another really helpful video.
Hi, can you tell me how to change the default font face, size, and colour in TextEdit instead of changing them each time I open a new document?
TextEdit, Settings, New Document, Rich Text Font.
thank you for the reply it works except for one thing -- the font colour keeps going backto black. any help to make it stick?@@macmost
@@VV-rm4nu Not sure why it would. Perhaps instead try starting with a template document? ua-cam.com/video/E6o5oojGHRg/v-deo.html
very helpful video. Thank you. I needed this video!
Thanks to this video I'll be using the Plain Text version by default from now on since I'm only using Text Edit for simple stuff, don't need the formatting, etc. Didn't know about the Plain Text version! If I need more options I can always use Pages but 90% of the time I'm only doing very simple things.
Is this alternative of notepad on mac?
I don't really remember what NotePad did, but TextEdit does plain text and rich text. Watch the video and see.
What is the best size to edit the pictures in Preview before bringing into RTFD?
Depends on what you are going for. Experiment and try different sizes to see what fits your needs.
what is the best way to get rid of multiple consecutive spaces and gaps in a long document? thanks.
Search and replace. Search for two spaces and replace with one. Repeat the same until it reports nothing is found.
@@macmost thanks.
how do you number the pages?????
Is there a way to Merge lines? I usually copy captions and and paste them into textedit but the lines break. MS WORD has this option in the find and replace with ^p in order to merge lines. Thank you in advance!
Yes you do the same using Find and Replace, yes.
Thanks! I have been using text/edit and it is great. Sometimes things that will not copy and paste into Pages will have no trouble copying and pasting into text/edit and then from there I can copy them into Pages if I need to. But how do I make a folder in text/edit? I have a bunch of single docs but I can't see how to group them in folders because I can't see how to create a folder.
Not sure what you mean by a folder IN TextEdit. TextEdit is a text editor. There is nothing in a text document called "a folder."
@@macmost oh, thanks for the answer. Sorry for being unclear. I just mean that I have about 200 text/edit docs and they are all just in a long list in the app. I would like to make a few folders in the text/edit app so that I have a shorter list with related docs together in the folder. But I can't see how to. Is it possible?
@@kieranoleary496 You would create those folders in the Finder. That is where you organize your files. So create as many folders and subfolders as you need there.
@@macmost ok thanks very much for the reply
Hi Gary, can we use Text Edit as a web page document. And when typing HTML tags do we use the rich text or plain text?
Use plain text for HTML. See ua-cam.com/video/M_-u-qY9k1A/v-deo.html where I mention some other things that could come in handy for HTML.
@@macmostyea I figured that thanks
Hi, Thanks for the video. i saw SF PRO font in your video. can you show how to use sf pro font for textedit ?
Did you install that font? Of so, you should be able to use it in TextEdit like any other.
Thanks dude another helpful video!
Hello Gary. I know very, very little about computers and have access to a MacBook Pro. I want to write a book. Do you think it's possible (and/or a good idea) to attempt this using TextEdit? If not, what would you recommend? Any input would be very much appreciated. Thank you.
No. I would use Pages.
Thanks for the quick response!@@macmost
How do you save a font size so that it's size is automatically done when you open new?
Do you mean have a default text size in TextEdit? That's In TextEdit, Settings, New Document.
@@macmost yes. I make the changes but every time I open a new page copy and paste something to it, it goes back to the tiny text size.
@@bluegarren9361 Maybe the source you are copying from has a small text size? Copy and paste will retain the characteristics of the text you copied. Try Edit, Paste and Match Style instead.
@@macmost YES! That worked. God bless!!!
is there a keyboard shortcut to start a bullet list?
The menu item is Format, List... So just create one in System Preferences for that menu item. See ua-cam.com/video/_47kJvS8nhk/v-deo.html
The right side and bottom scrolling bar are always there when I open TextEdit. Previously they showed only when a mouse was connected. Do you know how I can remove them, to go for a more minimal, all-white look as you showed?
System Settings, Appearance, Scroll bars.
@@macmost Awesome, ty!
Hey Gary, How do you make 2 columns on a page? Let's say I have 20 song lyrics and instead of printing 20 pages I want to make 2 columns and print only 10 pages.
Thanks!
I can make 2 columns but when I copy and paste, it will only go to the first column.
Use Pages for that instead of TextEdit.
Excellant ! Gonna take some time to figure it out, but I think it's going to work. Thank You!!@@macmost
How do I keep the tools visible to use as I write? It keeps disappearing unless I click at top. (My first time using).
Perhaps you are using the app window in Full Screen mode? Use in regular window mode or change your System Settings so that the Menu Bar is always visible.
I’m trying to find out how to set double spacing.
Between lines? Format, Text, Spacing...
What do you do when you open documents in text edit and they come up in code?
What sort of documents? Which app was used to create the documents?
Always great! Thank you!
Hi, can I ask you a question? My macbook is always underlined when writing, it makes me very uncomfortable. Do you know how to fix this?
Can you explain more? Is this spellcheck underlining, or the style "underline." Which app are you using to write? Maybe show me a screenshot so I can see (use Imgur.com or similar).
Thank you for the tutorial
Is there any way to add LaTex math formulas? Probably not since rich text may not allow it.
In Pages you can.
I need help to work this text edit I called mac and the operator knew nothing how to do this??
Is TextEdit free to use
Or do I have to pay a subscription for it ??
It is part of macOS. You already have it.
Great tips. How does Text Edit compare to BBEdit?
BBEdit is way more advanced (and expensive). It is a pro-level text tool meant for coders like me. Check out the list of features on the site if you want details.
How can I stop Text Edit on my Macbook
From opening up documents.
I want them to open up in Google docs no Text Edit.
Google Docs is a web-based app. You can't directly open a local file with a web-based app. If you want to work on documents only in Google Docs, then you need to store them online IN Google Docs instead.
when i open Textedit, the position is always in the middle of my screen. i have to drag it to the side everytime. is there a way for it to remember it’s previous position in the screen?
New documents don't have any default locations or anything like that.
I did not know it supported rtf files. Excellent!
In regards to grammar checking inside of TextEdit; it doesn't seem to work (that well). Create a short on how to use the TextEdit grammar features please?
Answer: ua-cam.com/video/SjlRud18RCQ/v-deo.html
TextEdit doesn't have any grammar checking itself, it is just using the system. This is a low-level grammar check, not like some of the advanced tools you can purchase that will try to suggest real changes to your writing.
Thanks for the reply, Gary! Yes, using it yesterday it failed to spot a grammar/spelling issue. Sigh... :)
Thank for to this to follow, informative video. Really great info! Very helpful 💫🙏🏾🔥
I use Windows at work but prefer MacOS. One option that i find in Windows I cannot find in MOS. I’ve got a folder full of files. I right click the folder and select New. From the drop down I select Text File. A new .txt file is created in that folder with the cursor ready to rename. This is how I create ReadMe files in Windows. Best I’ve come up with on Mac is to have a second finder window open to the applications folder, and I drag a copy of text edit from Applications to the desired folder. Any way to do this without opening a second window and without having to browse the save dialogue?
Maybe this? ua-cam.com/video/vAxfNDRz2IY/v-deo.html
@@macmost why, yes. Yes that is exactly the answer I was looking for. Sweet!
Very informative! When you have time, could you do a tutorial on how to organize an iTunes library on an iMac, managing and organizing playlists, adding lyrics, adding album artwork, editing the song metadata, getting rid of duplicates, etc...the whole nine yards. Thanks!!!
For most people the best way is to do nothing. Leave the metadata as it is and then find what you want by artist, album or song. Create playlists when you need to (workout, bedtime, party, etc). Is there a reason why you need to go further than that?
im trying to save as word doc and its not showing this option, is this a new update?
Are you working in a Rich Text document? It won't do it for plain text, so switch to Rich Text.
@@macmost yes sir, rich text, I work with inspection, so I need something that can work with text and images, I drag and drop 10 images and textedit understands it and organizes it correctly, pages doesn't understand when I do this, I used to work on word, I'm a new Mac user, (air m1 2020) so I've kinda been testing for a couple of days now, I've tried word for Mac, and it's terrible, doesn't load, doesn't save correctly, google docs is nice but it depends on wifi, FreeOffice has the same problem that pages has, but with textedit surprisingly no bugs, its very limited but better then nothing... but now I need it to save in word and it only shows me the option to export in pdf
@@Pedro-jj2ih That's odd. I'm not sure why it won't allow you to save as Word. But it sounds from your description that you should be looking at Pages, not TextEdit, for your needs. Have you tried that?
@@macmost first of all, thank you for your attention, i live in brazil, and no one really knows much about mac here, at least the region i live in, so you're help is basically God sent, and yes, pages is very nice, but for exemple, i inspect a living room, i have the text part of the inspection, and under the next, i need to put images, sometimes it can be up to 50+ images, so i'm using the previewer built in mac, "adjust size"
so now i have made 50+ images in a smaller configuration 150pixels for exemple, because the inspection document is an a4 page, that needs to be printed so the client can sign it etc,
so now i have the 50+ images, i select them all and drag them under the text "living room" to pages, pages doesn't organize them correctly, the photos stay on top of each other, and i need it to understand that i want the photos to organize automatically picture 1 next to picture 2 picture 3 next 4, in order, nice and neat, and i don't know if i'm not configuring it correctly, but when i do this in textedit, it understands it, i drag and drop and it understands the order
@@Pedro-jj2ih In Pages, drag and drop your images in. They should all be there, selected. Before you do anything else, so they are all still selected, go to the Format sidebar, switch to the Arrange tools at the top, and set Object Placement to Move With Text and Text Wrap to Inline With Text. Now all of the images should be inline and in order.
With them still selected, you can go down to the size section and resize them. You shouldn't need to resize them before you import them into Pages. You can resize them right there, inside Pages, all at the same time. That way you have nice high-resolution images that will look good when printed.
If you want spacing between them, go to the Style tools and change the border. Put a white (or transparent) border around them the size you want.
I don't have the option to save it as a web page, does anyone know why?
Are you sure you are editing a Rich Text document, not a Plain Text one?
Thanks for a very informative video(as always). It would also be very interesting to see a video on an xml editing tool that you could recommend.
For what purpose? What do you need to do with XML files?
how to delete a document?
Do you mean how to delete a TextEdit file? It is just like any other file. Move it to the Trash and empty the Trash.
@@macmost but i cant open it and when i right click to see it wont mov i either
title : Simple Documents With TextEdit
me : using Microsoft Word at MacBook Pro
Thanks bunches
Thanks a lot
Thank you sir
Why does mac go out of there way to make life so hard. I need to have a whole list of notes in different textpads. But I want them in the same window on differemt tabs. Its slows everything down, where I have to keep going to recently open to compare notes.. Windows allows you to open new window or tab. Text Edit is new window only. So damn annoying,
Why was my comment deleted?
Probably a false-positive on UA-cam's spam filter. Try commenting/asking again.
Too fast for beginnets