[Solved] Unformatted notepad text

Help with installation and general system troubleshooting questions concerning the office suite LibreOffice.
markhowe
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Joined: Mon Sep 22, 2008 8:51 pm

Re: Unformatted notepad text

Post by markhowe »

Villeroy wrote:If you always see .txt etc everything is fine with that. By default Windows hides away extensions confusingly. In order to open all .txt files with Notepad or some better text editor, right-click any such file, choose "Open With...", select the preferred program and check "always use this program" (or similar). Writer should not be the preferred application for plain text files unless you want to add some juice to the text and save it as a full featured office document.
OK! This definitely is better than copying and pasting each time. Unfortunately I have not yet had the pleasure of finding an "always use this to open this type of file" instruction, and not sure it would work even if I did.
Danke Villeroy! I consider this part of my issue solved.

Now I just have to remember to 'open with...' each time rather than simply double clicking.
OOo 2.4.X on MS Windows Vista
markhowe
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Re: Unformatted notepad text

Post by markhowe »

RusselB wrote:Opening Fred.txt using Notepad on my Windows 10 system showed exactly what I expected.
A couple of long strings of characters that wrapped at the edge of the screen due to the Word Wrapping option in Notepad, which made it look like more lines.
Disabling the Word Wrapping showed the actual text to be two lines.

Notepad has been part of the Windows OS since version 2.0 (yes, I remember using that version.)

If you feel/think that you have a file that is saved using File -> Save As with the Text (*.txt) option and it contains formatting, then please upload that file so that we can examine it.
Thank you Russell!
Sorry it took so long to get back to you. I have just attempted to do as you asked, uploading a .txt file with formatting. Interesting experiment. Also, I have noted that if I want to PRINT a notepad file I must disable Wrapping or it will make a mess of the print.
Over the years I have realized there is a difference between the 'enter' to indicate paragraph and the 'shift enter' to indicate a new line. I guess wrapping inserts a bunch of the latter. Details.
OOo 2.4.X on MS Windows Vista
markhowe
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Joined: Mon Sep 22, 2008 8:51 pm

Re: Unformatted notepad text

Post by markhowe »

RoryOF wrote:Attached are two files. Fred.odt contains formatting; I then used /File Save as fred.txt, selecting text (.txt) from the dropdown. The file Fred.txt contains no, repeat _NO_, formatting. Try these yourself
I couldn't resist uploading this to see what happens. I formatted the hell out of it. :knock:

[a few minutes later]
And sure enough, it all disappeared while traveling thru' the ether.
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Last edited by markhowe on Sun Mar 22, 2020 7:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
OOo 2.4.X on MS Windows Vista
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RoryOF
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Re: Unformatted notepad text

Post by RoryOF »

There is no formatting in it whether opened with mousepad or OpenOffice - I have checked, although I know I am wasting my time. How many times must we tell you "A plain text file can hold no formatting information"?
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15 on Xubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
markhowe
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Joined: Mon Sep 22, 2008 8:51 pm

Re: Unformatted notepad text

Post by markhowe »

RoryOF wrote:There is no formatting in it whether opened with mousepad or OpenOffice - I have checked, although I know I am wasting my time. How many times must we tell you "A plain text file can hold no formatting information"?
Actually, that was an experiment. I saw the same thing with Fred. But now I know I am able to format a .txt file and use it but the formatting won't save or mail. Which is what you all have been trying to tell me all along. Sorry.
OOo 2.4.X on MS Windows Vista
John_Ha
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Re: Unformatted notepad text

Post by John_Ha »

markhowe wrote:But now I know I am able to format a .txt file
Please STOP telling us what "you know" because it seems that "what you know" is wrong.

It is not possible to format the text in a .txt file. You can format it on screen but when you save it as a .txt file only the characters are saved.

IF YOU SAVE SOMETHING AS A .TXT FILE the TXT FILE WILL ONLY HAVE CHARACTERS IN IT. IT WILL NOT HAVE ANY FORMATTING.

See [Tutorial] Differences between Writer and MS Word files for a picture showing the limits of .txt files.
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
Bill
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Re: Unformatted notepad text

Post by Bill »

markhowe wrote:
Villeroy wrote:What makes you believe that a file saved with notepad contains any kind of "formatting"? Which formatting attributes do you see in LibreOffice? Post a screenshot of the whole LibreOffice window.
A file saved with notepad contains NO formatting, but is accessible only thru' notepad.
A file saved with Notepad is not accessible only through Notepad. Any popular text editor program (Notepad++, RJTextEd, etc) or word processor program (AOO Writer, LO Writer, MS Word, etc) can open files saved by Notepad.
markhowe wrote:A notepad file saved using LO .txt shouldn't have formatting but does.
No, it doesn't. The formatting is seen on the screen while the file is open in Writer, but the formatting is removed when the file is saved in a plain text file format.
markhowe wrote:A notepad screen is like a blank sheet of paper; nothing on it. An LO screen has margins and formatting tools.
You will see formatting on the screen when the file is open in Writer because Writer is a word processor and word processors are designed to format documents. On the other hand, text editors are not designed to format documents. They are designed to display text without formatting.
If you don't want to see any formatting when you open a .txt file, you should change the file association for .txt files back to a text editor so double-clicing .txt files doesn't open them with Writer. When I was using Windows, I usually had Notepad++ as the default program for opening .txt files. I never used Writer as the default program.

Text editor

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AOO 4.1.14 on Ubuntu MATE 22.04
Bill
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Re: Unformatted notepad text

Post by Bill »

markhowe wrote:At first it may leave it in notepad unformatted, but eventually it irreversibly converts it to a formatted form.
Perhaps you switched from "Web View" to "Normal View". Normal View displays document pages and wraps text at the page margin. Web View displays no page and text is wrapped at the window edge.
AOO 4.1.14 on Ubuntu MATE 22.04
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