Saving & Opening Files
When you're finished working with a TextEdit document, you may want to save it. You can then open it another time to review, edit, or print it.
To save a document for the first time
1. | Choose File > Save (Figure 55 ), or press ![]() Figure 55. The File menu includes commands for working with files.![]() ![]() Figure 56. Use the Save As dialog to enter a name and select a location for saving a file.![]() |
2. | Enter a name and select a location for the file. |
3. | Choose an option from the File Format pop-up menu (Figure 57 ):
Figure 57. The Format pop-up menu enables you to save documents in four different formats.![]() |
4. | Click Save, or press ![]() ![]() Figure 58. The name of a saved document appears in its title bar.![]() |
- I explain how to use the Save As dialog in Chapter 7 .There's only one difference between the File menu's Save and Save As commands (Chapter 6 .To save a TextEdit document as a plain text document (with a .txt extension), choose Format > Make Plain Text (Figure 59 ) and click OK in the confirmation dialog that may appear. Then follow the steps on the previous page to save the document. As shown in Figure 60 , the pop-up menu in the Save As dialog offers a variety of Plain Text Encoding options rather than Rich Text Format and Word Format. Keep in mind that if you save a document as a plain text document, any formatting applied to document text will be lost.
Figure 59. To save a document as a plain text document, begin by choosing Make Plain Text from the Format menu.

Figure 60. When you save a Plain Text document, TextEdit offers other formatting options. If you're not sure what to pick here, leave it set to the default setting.

To save changes to an existing document
Choose File > Save (Figure 55 ), or press

- TextEdit identifies a document with changes that have not been saved by displaying a bullet in the document window's close button (Figure 61 ) and to the left of the document's name in the Window menu (Figure 62 ).
Figure 61. A bullet in the document window's close button,

Figure 62. or beside its name in the Window menu indicates that the document has unsaved changes.

To save an existing document with a new name or in a new location
1. | Choose File > Save As (Figure 55 ). |
2. | Use the Save As dialog that appears (Figure 56 ) to enter a different name or select a different location (or both) for the file. |
3. | Click Save, or press ![]() ![]() |
- You can use the Save As command to create a new document based on an existing documentwithout overwriting the original document with your changes.
To open a document
1. | Choose File > Open (Figure 55 ), or press ![]() |
2. | Use the Open dialog that appears (Figure 63 ) to locate and select the document that you want to open.Figure 63. Use the Open dialog to locate and open a file.![]() |
3. | Click Open, or press ![]() ![]() |
Chapter 7 .
To close a document
1. | Choose File > Close (Figure 6 appears.
![]() ![]() ![]() The document closes. |