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TextEdit, a Hidden Powerhouse That Comes Free with OS X Low End Mac Reader Specials TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com OWC: Mercury On-The-Go FW800+USB2 up to 1.0TB. Bus Powered, no external power supply needed. Macworld ‘Editor’s Choice’, CNET ‘Very Good’ Starting from $99.97, 500GB $159.99. Click here Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac. Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs. Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you. Eric Schwarz - 2003.03.26 From day one, the Mac has come with a word processor. Except for MacWrite, which shipped with the earliest Mac, they were usually pretty useless, except maybe HTML editing, viewing ReadMe files, and creating universal .txt files. They've improved over the years, from TeachText, to SimpleText, to TextEdit in OS X. Due to the reputation of its older relatives, TextEdit is usually overlooked. Abilities TextEdit is surprisingly powerful, although few activate its hidden features. It uses the somewhat standard RTF format for formatted documents and .txt for plain text. Besides it being a really Cocoa application - allowing the full compliment of OS X goodies (Text Palette, Color Picker, Services, Quartz, etc.) - it boasts (or merely whispers) some features that AppleWorks doesn't have, such as spell-check-as-you-type and multiple-level undoes. Granted, it is missing some features that are found in Word and AppleWorks, but for most things it's rather useful. I've switched from the aging AppleWorks 6 to TextEdit, not only because it's more stable, but it "matches" OS X better. Hopefully the word processing module of the rumored "iWorks" suite will be a more powerful version of this. TextEdit as a Real Word Processor TextEdit is pretty bland to begin with - there are a few things you'll need to do to make it comparable to anything (this assumes you're using Jaguar - if you have 10.1, the instructions are a little different). First, open the preferences, and choose Rich Text and Wrap to Page under New Document Attributes. Next, set your default fonts, and pick Check spelling as you type and Show ruler under Editing. By pressing command-R, you will see a ruler, not unlike that in most word processors, complete with alignment, line spacing, and tabs. It's a bit plain, but it works. By pressing command-T, you will get the standard OS X font window. Again, not fancy, but also not much of a drain on resources. Hidden Features TextEdit can open and edit HTML files as either the source or WYSIWYG. [Editor's note: That's either/or. You can't toggle between the two modes.] Besides that, TextEdit features find and replace (not so hidden) and some high-end font tools. You can place pictures and other documents in TextEdit documents and export documents for Word and AppleWorks. Although you must convert Word and AppleWorks files to RTF before they can be opened in TextEdit, it's not that much of a hassle. TextEdit Might Just Be What You Need If you only use the word processing module from AppleWorks or think Word is just too darned expensive, you might want to try TextEdit as your main word processor. Judging from improvements since the version that came with OS X 10.1, it's bound to get even better. Eric Schwarz has been using Macs and other computers for a few years. His personal website - dealing with Macs (of course) - is at <http://schwarztech.macweekly.com/>. You can learn more about his current computer setup in Eric Schwarz's iBook. Recent Power of Mac TextEdit, a hidden powerhouse that comes free with OS X, 03.26. Although easily overlooked, TextEdit could be all the word processing software a lot of Mac users ever need. Whether you call it AirPort, WiFi, or 802.11 wireless networking, your portable should have it, 03.19. With more wireless hot spots popping up, there are more reasons to have an AirPort card in your 'Book every day. Are older Macs lower than low end?, 03.14. Are low-end Mac users finding happiness with newer low-end Mac? Back to school software, 2002 edition, 08.01. Practical software for students (and others) using Mac OS X. More in the Power of Mac index. Links for the Day Mac of the Day: 17" iMac G4/800 MHz, July 2002 - The iMac 'grows up' with a 17" 1440 x 900 display. Group of the Day: LisaList supports Lisa users. November 8 in LEM history: 99: OS 9: I think I like it - 01: The simplified Mac life - Soured on Windows - Flea market Mac - 02: Little room for improvement in new 'Books - Combo drive upgrade for iceBooks - 04: Re-Porter - 05: Fix the old iMac or buy a Mac mini? - Apple's Copland project - 06: MacBook Core 2 - MacBook value equation - Cheap is as cheap does - 07: Problems with Classic mode in Tiger - The G4 Power Mac that won't run Leopard Recent Content on Low End Mac Quad-Core CPU Makes Sense in MacBook Pro, OS X 10.6 Causing Overheating, Overseas Power, and More, The 'Book Review, 11.06. Also Late 2009 MacBook reviewed, how to add RAM to new MacBook, 18.4in Acer notebook used Intel i7, and SanDisk SSD chosen for Sony VAIO X. Dumping Macs for Google Apps, SSD in iMac, Late 2009 iMac Performance Problems, and More, Mac News Review, 11.06. /newsrev/09mnr/1106.html WiFi Paranoia, iMac-O-Lantern, Magic Mouse Does Click, Free Clipboard Managers, and More, Charles W. Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 11.05. Also strange time stamps, problem with ColorIt on Intel Mac, and the story behind OS X 10.5.4 install discs. IDE Is Dead; Long Live SATA!, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 11.04. SATA has displaced parallel ATA. While IDE hard drives haven't disappeared, the best deals are in SATA hard drives. QuickTime X in Snow Leopard Imports, Trims, and Publishes Video Quickly and Easily, Alan Zisman, Zis Mac, 11.04. The long, slow process of importing video into iMovie to edit it, then render it to another format, is history as QuickTime X does that much more quickly. More links in our archive. Recent Deals Best Mac Pro Deals, 11.03. Used 2.66 GHz 4-core, $1,300; 3.0 8-core. $2,299; refurb 2.66 4-core Nehalem, $2,149; 2.93, $2,549; 2.26 8-core, $2,799; 2.93, $4,999. Best iPhone Deals, 11.03. New 8 GB iPhone 3G, $$99; refurb 16 GB 3GS, $149; new, $199; 32 GB, $299. Best 12" PowerBook G4 Deals, 11.03. Used 867 MHz SperDrive, $348; 1 GHz, $499; 1.33 Combo, $298; SD, $559; 1.5 Combo, $448; SuperDrive, $589. Best Power Mac G3 and PCI Video Card Deals, 11.02. Used beige 300 MHz, $25; G4/366, $49; blue & white 350, $80; 400, $90; 450, $105; PCI video cards from $15; shipping additional. Best Power Mac G4 and AGP Video Card Deals, 11.02. Used 400 MHz, $50; 733 MHz, $69; 933 MHz, $209; 1.25 GHz dual, $299. Best 15" MacBook Pro Deals, 11.02. Used 2.0 GHz, $800; 2.2, $900; 2.4, $1,000; refurb 2.53, $1,449; 2.66, $1,699; 2.8, $1,949; 3.06, $2,169; new 2.53, $1,579; 2.66, $1,799; more. Best Mac mini Deals, 10.30. Used 1.33 GHz G4 mini, $379; 1.42, $389; 1.5, $419; 1.83 GHz Core Duo, $350; Core 2, $439; new 2.26 GHz nVidia, $580; 2.53 GHz, $770; Server, $990. Best G4 iBook Deals, 10.30. Used 12" 1.07 GHz Combo, $225; 1.33 GHz, $298; 14" 1 GHz, $349; 1.33 GHz, $398; 1.42 GHz SuperDrive, $498. Best Classic Mac OS Deals, 10.30. System 6.0.8 floppies, $10; 7.1, $12; 7.5, $20; 7.5 CD, $4; 7.6 $13; 8.1, $11; 8.5, $20; 8.6, $90; 9.0, $20; 9.2.2, $30. More deals in our archive. Power of Mac articles copyright ©2001-2003 by Eric Schwarz. Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2009 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .   LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.   Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.   Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." 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