Windows 8 Restriction of text files

StefanStojkovski

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Jan 25, 2014
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I mean, i understand that text files are meant to be simple, but why isn't there a format that allows using colors in your text file, and possibly bold, italic and underline. I mean it would be very useful, since windows doc files are too slow to open and to complicated to edit. Also .java, .html and all of those file extensions represent nothing more then colored text files. An extension .ctxt could stand for colored text file.
Is there an explanation someone can offer?
 
Solution
Hi

Windows .txt files go back to .dos, before people even had color monitors.

They don't have the capability to contain the kind of formatting that modern document files use.
That's why Word always warns you when you are going to save something as a .txt file, if it is in another format before you do it.

If you changed them to allow colored text and all of that sort of things they wouldn't be text files anymore, they would be .doc files.

Even .doc is giving way to other formats now.

Formats like .pdf can contain pretty much anything you want to put in them including images and still retain a fairly small size.

I haven't really noticed that .doc files are hard to edit or slow to open, but I suppose the fact that they allow for the...
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Hi

Windows .txt files go back to .dos, before people even had color monitors.

They don't have the capability to contain the kind of formatting that modern document files use.
That's why Word always warns you when you are going to save something as a .txt file, if it is in another format before you do it.

If you changed them to allow colored text and all of that sort of things they wouldn't be text files anymore, they would be .doc files.

Even .doc is giving way to other formats now.

Formats like .pdf can contain pretty much anything you want to put in them including images and still retain a fairly small size.

I haven't really noticed that .doc files are hard to edit or slow to open, but I suppose the fact that they allow for the additional options in formatting is what would make then that way.

Mike
 
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Solution
You could use the built in Wordpad. I have this as my default, rather than notepad, as my quick edit program. It saves as an "rtf", which is the next best, or quickest, for notes.


 
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Hi again.

How does that happen, I typed the message below and then re-saved it as a text file and got the results that I always have.

I typed this message and saved it as a doc file and a text file.

Link Removed
This is what I got when I opened the text file?
Link Removed
Mike

Ps. Sorry I missed the part about saving in Rich Text Format, I thought you were really doing that as a text file. LOL
 
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If you save as a .txt file, normally a message pops up and warns you that all format and personalisation will be lost. In fact, that is what does happen.
LOl. My turn to apologise, Mike. I didn't scroll down and see your last sentence!
 
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Thanks so much, i totally forgot about WordPad and .rtf! That is just the thing i'm looking for. It opens fast and is not restricted by the width of a page format like in word. I can comfortably write code in it. Thanks!
 
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Other great applications that doesn't modify the text formatting at all and allows you to use syntax highlighting instead are notepad++(cross platform) and VIM(cross platform).

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
 
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If you want a text editor for writing code I'd check out edit plus. I've used it for many years and find it perfect for general text editing as well as a for a host of languages for which it has excellent color coding features:

http://www.editplus.com/
 
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