Saving new documents as .rtf by default

[contrazz]

I'd like to have an OOo icon on my desktop that will open a document that saves as .rtf by default. Likewise, one that saves as .txt by default. These would hopefully act like clones of Micro$oft WordPad and NotePad, but without the possibilty that M$ Word would open them and start to impose mindless formatting. It's for creating "READ ME" files, and the like.

I had thought that there might be a way to do this via Templates. But I'm not finding a way to make a template that saves in either of these file formats without manual intervention.

I know I can save a blank document in either of these formats ... But that leaves open the possibility that someone [possibly me] forgets to re-name the file ... and *pffft!* - original icon suddenly renamed. I'd like to lock it as a "stationery" document.

Thanks in advance for any ideas anyone has in accomplishing this - whether using templates, or some other way!

[RoryOF]

/ Tools / options / Load-Save / General allows the default save format to be set in the dropdowns. Be warned, RTF format is not one of Openoffice's strong points. Why not associate .rtf with Wordpad, and .txt with Notepad and use those instetad?

[TheGurkha]

Be warned, RTF format is not one of Openoffice's strong points.

+1. RTF support in OOo is best decribed as flaky. If you have access to any other RTF tool I'd use that instead.

[contrazz]

Thanks for the replies. Interesting to hear about Oo's woes with .rtf. Actually, plain .txt would work fine for most of what I do.

As for sticking with the Micro$oft versions ... WordPad is badly crippled in a number of ways. Search/replace, max file size ... all those sort of nuts-&-bolts things. Perhaps there are other more useful .txt editors by 3rd parties. Though it would be nice to get this to work in OOo, since I already have it, and since it appears to be otherwise adequate.

As far as WordPad goes ...
When a WordPad file is double-clicked, most Windoze machines seem to open it in Word by default. The files I'm creating will inevitably be opened and edited by others sometimes, and will quite likely be saved as Word documents. So, suddenly, a well-packed, minimally formatted, one-page document now suddenly has a header and footer, different margins, etc, and the document is spilling a widow onto page two. Etc. Virtually all the people who will ever use these documents are driven crazy by all of Word's bloated, automagic formatting world.

So, there are some of my motives for finding alternatives.