Erik,
I am lost on what you experience with playing a folder of files with
a media player, being still stuck on OS 10.4.11, but I still sense or
suspect a bit of misunderstanding on my part or yours (or both?
<gasp> :-)
If any of these programs are truly saving bold, italic, or font
formating information in their .txt files, then they are no longer
plain text. There must be some sort of formating information
somewhere. If the media programs are then able to read that data
when named .txt, but not if it is designated as .rtf then perhaps
they can be tricked? Can/do they read and interpret .rtf coding if
the file name is .txt?
I don't understand about "real ASCII fonts". Are you confusing the
lower ascii and upper ascii? In other words, the 128 basic
characters vs the 256 characters which opened up on the Mac more
diacritic characters etc before UTF? Or perhaps my ignorance of
details of UTF etc. prevents me from understanding precisely what you
mean.
> but then I don't quite understand how and why both Bean and NWP ...
> can make new .txt files including bold, italics, bold-italics and
> normal text and then save with these std. formattings...
But, I get a different result than you describe. I create a new
file, save as "plain Text" and paste in or type large, bold, colored
text etc. I can then save with no warning (which others acknowledge
and lament) but when I close the file, and open it back up, it has
lost every bit of formatting. So, it is never saving the formatting,
and indeed impossible without violating the definition of the plain
text format. Of course such data can be there, but shows up in the
text you view, just as in html files.
So, if you have allegedly plain text files from any other program
which the media programs can get formatting, then the task would be
to discover where and how they are concealing that information. If
you have not been able to achieve that outcome, I don't see how you
ever could.
But off to a different possible solution-- do the media programs
understand html codes? But then you'd be stuck looking at that
encoding in your text, which may defeat your purpose. I can't imagine
why the media programs would not recognize and utilize .rtf? Is that
mostly a Mac thing? But Microsoft started it. :-)
all the Best,
Ben Andrus
__________________________________________________
On 2010 Nov 24, Wed, at 5:52 pm, Erik Richard Sørensen wrote:
> Hei Andrus
>
> Andrus wrote:
>> What I notice is that you say the .txt format, but in my world,
>> that means absolutely no format-- just ascii characters. But,
>> there may be mismatch between the file name (i.e. .txt extension)
>> and whether it was truly saved as plain text by Nisus. Merely
>> changing the name doesn't change the contents, though it may
>> determine how the contents are treated. Typically by choosing the
>> file type to save as auto adjusts the file name extension.
>> TextEdit can change type face and size, and even bold etc., but it
>> applies to the whole document, and is NOT saved, though you can
>> changed user settings defaults for viewing plain text files.
>
> Hm, you may have a point there, but then I don't quite understand
> how and why both Bean and NWP - and not to speak of the real
> texteditors like BBEdit and TexEdit Plus - can make new .txt files
> including bold, italics, bold-italics and normal text and then save
> with these std. formattings... - And then also why can't I/we use
> any other font than the Times/Times New Roman? - both Arial,
> Helvetica and Monaco also contain the full ASCII tables as well.
>
> And if I understand the 'ASCII problem' right fonts should be
> changed to a real ASCII fonts like Monaco, Andale or similar - not
> to Times/TNR, since they are built over the original ASCII fonts
> with same names...
>
>> Do you perchance have the file name extensions turned off from
>> showing all the time? If so, you could quickly become hopelessly
>> confused. I have just resorted to having them show all the time,
>> ugly as they may seem to a Mac user, but I don't have to deal with
>> this sort of confusion...
>
> No, I have file extensons enabled as default in all applications.
>
>> Does this help any?
>
> A bit - though I'd prefer to keep the .txt format because I use
> these files as 'intro files' in some of my media players in both OS
> X and WinXP Pro - such as MPlayer Extended (OS X) and WinAmp/VLC
> (Win), so that these files will open when dragging a folder with
> all content onto these apps. No media applications are able to read
> and/or translate .rtf - only .txt, so I'll guess that I have to
> keep the .txt files intact and then just add a .rtf file with same
> content for 'off-line' reading - i.e. for normal opening with a
> double-click...
>
> Cheers, Erik Richard
>
>> ____________________________________________________
>> On 2010 Nov 24, Wed, at 3:36 pm, Erik Richard Sørensen wrote:
>>> Sometimes I receive some documents in the .txt format.
>>>
>>> Normally I open these files in NWP (latest), and nearly everytime
>>> these are containg plain text in Times 12p - a very few times
>>> also Times New Roman 12p...
>>>
>>> Documents are not 'Read Only' or in any other way locked.
>>>
>>> Sometimes I need to edit these files, but keep the .txt format.
>>> This I do in NWP such as changing font to Arial 13p instead which
>>> is quite a lot more readable for me than the Times fonts. - Also
>>> I change some of the text content such as adding or removing
>>> partial text, paragraphs, sedctions etc.etc..
>>>
>>> Hitting the COM+S of course saves the changes - at least so I
>>> thought... But sure it doesn't.:-(! The only things that is
>>> changed is if I remove part of the text - such as a paragraph.
>>> Added or changed paragraphs aren't savbed, font changes aren't
>>> saved, margin changes aren't saved, header/footer changes aren't
>>> saved.
>>>
>>> I also have tried to use the 'Save As' and created a new .txt
>>> file... Result is the same as above - only deleted text parts are
>>> 'saved' - i.e. the removed text is no more in the file.
>>>
>>> Creating a new blank document and then copy+paste the text from
>>> the original .txt document, use save as... Exactly same result...
>>> - Only deleted/removed text are gone. Fonts, sizes, styles,
>>> formatting are exactly as the original document.
>>>
>>> Opening these .txt docs in BBEdit 8.5.x tells that all files are
>>> created with MSO Word2003 or Word2007 using Times 11p or Times
>>> New Roman 11p.
>>>
>>> Saving docs in either .doc, docx or .rtf save and keep any of my
>>> changes exactly as I've set them.
>>>
>>> OK, now it's beginning to be 'funny'... Opening these .txt files
>>> in Word2008 for Mac, making the changes and then just hit COM+S
>>> saves _any_ changes!
>>>
>>> OK, over again... Opening the files in TextEdit, making the
>>> changes, hitting COM+S _doesnot_ keep changes except deleted text.
>>>
>>> OK, once more... Opening the files in Bean 2.4.x, making the
>>> changes, hitting COM+S _doesnot_ keep any changes except deleted
>>> text.
>>>
>>> OK, twice more - opening in BBEdit 8.5 as well as TextEdit Plus,
>>> making the changes, hitting COM+S in BBE and COM+SHIFT+S in TEP,
>>> - no changes are kept except deleted text...
>>>
>>> OK, last try... Opening and editing the files in OpenOffice
>>> 3.2.1, hitting the COM+S _doesnot_ save any changes either -
>>> except deleted text...
>>>
>>> ...Then I gave up.:-( - And began to save the files into .rtf....
>>>
>>> ...What the neat nice Nisus is wrong with these .txt files...???
>>>
>>> PS. Creating new documents in NWP and then copy and paste any
>>> text from any documents except those received via the internet,
>>> editing and then saving in .txt format using 'Save AS' works just
>>> normal in NWP.
>
> --
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Erik Richard Sørensen, Member of ADC, <[log in to unmask]>
> NisusWriter - The Future In Multilingual Text Processing -
> www.nisus.com
> Openoffice.org - The Modern Productivity Solution - www.openoffice.org
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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