Help:Plain text editors

Plain text editors are software programs that save text as a plain (ASCII) text data file. Plain text editors may be contrasted with word processing programs that insert markup codes to indicate special features such as font style, font size, boldface, italics, etc.

Some of the files that you may need to work with in connection with Proteopedia are required to be plain text. Examples include PDB files and Jmol script files. After editing their contents, they will not work unless they are saved as plain text.

Plain Text EditorsPlain Text Editors

The following programs always save text as plain text. Therefore, it is impossible to change font size, use boldface, etc. in these programs. These are the safest programs to use because you need not remember to specify that your file be saved as plain text.

Microsoft® WindowsMicrosoft® Windows

• Notepad: included with all Windows systems, but can't always handle very large files. Windows XP: Start, (All) Programs, Accessories, Notepad.

Mac OS XMac OS X

• TextWrangler is a excellent, free, plain text editor.

Saving Plain Text From Word ProcessorsSaving Plain Text From Word Processors

Microsoft® WindowsMicrosoft® Windows

• WordPad is included in all Windows systems.
  • Windows XP: Start, (All) Programs, Accessories, Wordpad.
  • File, Save As, change Save as type to text document. To prevent automatic addition of ".txt" to the end of the filename, enclose the file name in double quotes before clicking the Save button.
  • To see the real, full name of the file you saved:
    • Windows XP: Start, (All) Programs, Accessories, Windows Explorer. There: Tools, Folder Options, View tab, Advanced Settings uncheck Hide extensions for known file types, OK.
    • Windows Vista: Start, (All) Programs, Accessories, Windows Explorer. There: Organize, Folder and search options, View tab, Advanced Settings uncheck Hide extensions for known file types, OK.

• Word:
  • File, Save As, change Save as type to Plain Text (*.txt). To prevent automatic addition of ".txt" to the end of the filename, enclose the file name in double quotes before clicking the Save button.
  • To see the real, full name of the file you saved:
    • Windows XP: Start, (All) Programs, Accessories, Windows Explorer. There: Tools, Folder Options, View tab, Advanced Settings uncheck Hide extensions for known file types, OK.
    • Windows Vista: Start, (All) Programs, Accessories, Windows Explorer. There: Organize, Folder and search options, View tab, Advanced Settings uncheck Hide extensions for known file types, OK.

Mac OS XMac OS X

• Word:mac (2008): File, Save As, then change Format to Plain Text (.txt). At the Warning/Conversion dialog, check "Insert line breaks".
• Pages: File, Export, click Plain Text, and proceed. Pages forces you to name the file something.pdb.txt (or something.spt.txt), so after you save the file, you can rename it. The file type (end of filename ".pdb", ".spt", etc.) is important on servers, so it is best to use the appropriate file type.