Apple TextEdit

Software Overview

Apple TextEdit is a text editor developed by Apple and bundled with macOS. It is a simple word processor you can use to view and edit text documents.

TextEdit can read and write both plain text and rich text documents. The Rich Text Format (.RTF) allows you to format your document's text, adjusting its alignment, font, style, color, highlighting, and size. The text editor supports many different character encodings, including Unicode (UTF-8 and UTF-16), Western (Mac OS Roman), and Traditional Chinese (Mac OS). You can also add graphics, pictures, and videos to your document, converting its format to .RTFD (Rich Text Format with graphics).

While the program can open documents saved using most popular text file formats, such as Microsoft Office Open XML (.DOCX) and OpenDocument Text (.ODT), you'll likely lose some of your document's formatting and media when opening non-RTF or Plain Text Format files. For example, when opening a DOCX file, TextEdit will remove any pictures included in the document.

If necessary, you can save TextEdit documents using the Plain Text Format (by selecting Format → Make Plain Text from the TextEdit menu bar). Keep in mind, however, that doing so will remove any formatting and media you've added to your document.

Summary

All in all, Apple TextEdit is a handy, basic text editor for any Mac user. It is a useful tool for viewing and editing multiple types of text files. Just keep in mind that if you use TextEdit to open a DOCX or ODT file, the program will likely alter your document's formatting.

Primary File Type

.RTFRich Text Format File

Supported File Types

Additional Related File Types