Can OS X read .txt files ?

[Ziggy]

I would have Googled it, but (skip if you want):

Simple question, should have been a simple Google, but no. I love when I Google something and the top hits are Forums with thread titles the same as my question but all the replies are idiots with contradicting answers (on purpose - to fuck with the person who asked - how dare you ask a question!) and others saying "Google it you fucking retard!" It's very frustrating when you can't Google something because all the hits are forums with people telling some one that asked to Google it.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2146609

Changing my search criteria didn't help, it gave me all "CONVERT TXT TO PDF ON MAC!!!!1!!" and all that jazz.

So, simple question: Can OS X read a .txt file. More specifically, if I create a .txt in notepad on my Windows 7 PC will some one on a Mac be able to open it and read it?

[pierrot]

I'm pretty sure Text Edit (OS X version of notepad) saves files in .txt anyway. I don't think there's any issues with .txt in mac.

EDIT: Nevermind, it default saves to .rtf, but I still don't think there's any issues opening .txt files in Text Edit.

[CRTGAMER]

OSX does read txt files with its own version of Text Edit. I have found when I save a txt in OSX and then read it in Windows Note Pad the line breaks are messed up. Instead of proper Return there are square blocks - □, with the text scolling all the way to the right. Weird that OSX will read the Windows based txt files just fine with proper line breaks.

From Windows Note Pad to OSX Text Edit no issues.

From OSX Text Edit to Windows Note Pad - Readable but scrolls to right.

If going from OSX to Windows, I use MS Word to get around this and save as a text file.

[o.pwuaioc]

.txt files are nigh universal, and should be able to be read by most modern OSs (and many retro ones), including Windows, Mac, and Linux.

[Hobie-wan]

OSX does read txt files with its own version of Text Edit. I have found when I save a txt in OSX and then read it in Windows Note Pad the line breaks are messed up. Instead of proper Return there are square blocks - □, with the text scolling all the way to the right. Weird that OSX will read the Windows based txt files just fine with proper line breaks.

Could be a difference between using a Line Feed/Enter versus Carriage Return/Return. Some old DOS created text files do the same thing in Windows. If you open them in Notepad they'll just trail off to the right, or if you have word wrap turned on they'll just fit the width of the window. But if you open those files in Wordpad or a bigger word processing program, they'll have line breaks as expected. I've seen it happen a lot with old text README files and such.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

All OSes can read .txt files but there might be issues with character encoding, which would explain your carriage exchange problem. If you use Unicode all the time you should never have any problems.

[Duke.Togo]

Just get the free app Text Wrangler, it has support for different types of text files and is an excellent editor.

[Ziggy]

So looks like the answer is a yes, like I thought.

I'm pretty sure Text Edit (OS X version of notepad) saves files in .txt anyway. I don't think there's any issues with .txt in mac.

EDIT: Nevermind, it default saves to .rtf, but I still don't think there's any issues opening .txt files in Text Edit.

Well Window's Word Pad saves to a .rtf file... so can OS X read this as well?

[Michi]

So looks like the answer is a yes, like I thought.

I'm pretty sure Text Edit (OS X version of notepad) saves files in .txt anyway. I don't think there's any issues with .txt in mac.

EDIT: Nevermind, it default saves to .rtf, but I still don't think there's any issues opening .txt files in Text Edit.

Well Window's Word Pad saves to a .rtf file... so can OS X read this as well?

I just opened a .txt and a .rtf file on my Mac and they both opened with no problem. So as long as they have TextEdit installed, I don't see why they wouldn't be able to open it.

[Duane Dibbley]

Well Window's Word Pad saves to a .rtf file... so can OS X read this as well?

Yes. Rich text is pretty much universal as well.