The format of a plain text file looks the same on any system. You can spend hours formatting a document in a word processor, only for someone else to open it and find it looks slightly different on their machine. If it’s in a complex application to begin with, it’s a lot more time-consuming to go back to plain text. In other words, if it’s in plain text to begin with, it’s easy to migrate to a more complex application. I sometimes write up articles in plain text and copy and paste the results into Grammarly (read our Grammarly review). It’s not possible to say the same about specialist applications that use proprietary databases or formats. You can easily copy and paste the contents of a plain text file into any document or application. TextEdit, Notepad and Vim deserve some love.Īnd there are plenty of other plain text editors that are just as good looking as their proprietary big brothers. Sometimes all a writer needs is somewhere to type, a spell checker and some basic formatting options.Īll of those menus, ribbons and inspectors can be distracting. Word, Pages and the various other word processors feature a wealth of templates, options, tools and menus designed for complex jobs.

It’s Quicker to Write Something Short in a Plain Text Editor Plain text can be a quick way to write And it’s easier for operating systems to index plain text files, which means they appear quicker in system-wide searches. They’re also smaller in size than proprietary word processing files, making them easier to email and share with others. On the other hand, text files lack all these kind of fancy features and, for this reason, they open quickly and easily. Tables, pictures and macros can bog down large documents, as can pages of text. Older computers can struggle with the latest word processors. Plain text files have been around longer than many operating systems, and they’re not going anywhere. If the file format is plain text, you’re guaranteed that anyone can open them on any system. It’s not always possible for various word processing applications to open certain file types. docx file on older versions of Word understand. This is a real problem for certain formats, as those who have tried to open a. You don’t need special software or tools to open a plain text file. You Don’t Have to Worry if People Can Open Them The Final Word: Plain Text Vs Rich Text:ġ.Tip: Use Markdown While Writing Plain Text.It’s Quicker to Write Something Short in a Plain Text Editor

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