Change preferences in TextEdit on Mac

Format

• Rich text: Set the default format to rich text. Rich text allows formatting, such as bulleted lists, that plain text doesn’t.

• Plain text: Set the default format to plain text. Plain text doesn’t allow text formatting.

• Wrap to page: Wrap text within the document’s page margins. Otherwise, text wraps to the document’s window size.

Window Size

Set a default window size.

Font

Choose a default font style and size for plain and rich text documents.

Properties

For rich text documents, you can set the document properties by adding the author’s name, the organization name, and the copyright information.

Options

• Set default options to check or autocorrect spelling and grammar as you type. See Check spelling and grammar.

• Show ruler: Select to view the ruler in rich text documents. See Adjust margins and paragraphs.

• Data detectors: Automatically detect dates, times, and contact information in your documents. See Turn on data detectors.

• Smart quotes and dashes in rich text documents only: When you don’t want smart quotes and dashes to automatically substitute your straight quotes and double hyphens in plain text or HTML documents.

• Smart copy/paste: Automatically keep the correct spacing when you copy and paste text in your documents. See Keep the correct spacing when you paste text.

• Smart quotes: Automatically substitute curly quotation marks for straight quotation marks. To change the smart quote style in a document, choose Edit > Substitutions > Show Substitutions. See Change Keyboard Text preferences.

• Smart dashes: Automatically substitute an em dash (—) for double hyphens (--) in new documents.

• Smart links: Select to always convert web addresses to clickable links. See Add clickable links automatically to documents.

• Text replacement: Automatically replace text in new documents. For example, if you type “teh,” it’s converted to “the”. See Replace text and punctuation in documents.

Restore All Defaults

Click to revert all preferences in both “New Document” and “Open and Save” panes to their initial settings.

When Opening a File

• Display HTML files as HTML code instead of formatted text: Always view the HTML code when opening an HTML file. See Work with HTML documents.

• Display RTF files as RTF code instead of formatted text: Always view RTF directives when opening an RTF file. See View the RTF directives in RTF files.

When Saving a File

Add “.txt” extension to plain text files: Select to always use the .txt extension when saving a plain text file.

Plain Text File Encoding

When opening or saving plain text files, choose the default text encoding options from the Plain Text File Encoding pop-up menus. See If characters aren’t displayed correctly.

HTML Saving Options

• Document type: Set the default document type when saving HTML files.

• Styling: Set the default type of cascading style sheets (CSS) when saving HTML files.

• Encoding: Set the default text encoding for saving HTML files.

• Preserve white space: Select to include code that preserves the white space in your document’s formatted text.

Restore All Defaults

Click to revert all preferences in both “New Document” and “Open and Save” panes to their initial settings.