A basic text editor with formatting features for taking notes or writing short documents on Mac computers.
TextEdit is a basic text editing application developed by Apple Inc. and included for free with every Mac computer. As it comes pre-installed, TextEdit is one of the most widely used text editors on the macOS operating system.
Despite being simple and lightweight, TextEdit provides users with a surprising amount of formatting capabilities for a default text editor. It allows users to customize text appearance with options for fonts, sizes, colors, paragraph alignment, bulleted lists, page margins, line spacing, and more. Images and basic tables can also be inserted into TextEdit documents.
The app supports rich text documents (RTF format) as well as plain text files. TextEdit files can be exported to common formats like Microsoft Word, Web pages, and PDF. It also enables advanced typography features like ligatures and Apple Advanced Typography (AAT).
As it is integrated into macOS, TextEdit works seamlessly with other Apple apps via system services. For example, users can easily share content between TextEdit and Messages, Mail, AirDrop and more. The simple user interface is approachable for beginners while still offering useful capabilities for more advanced users.
In summary, TextEdit is a versatile, easy-to-use word processor suitable for basic documents like letters, notes, memos, posters, fliers and more. It is free and convenient for quickly viewing and making light edits to text files on a Mac.
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