RealText

RealText - a plain-text, Markdown, CSV and TSV editor for the Mac.

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RealText Support


Email

moose3d@proton.me

Questions, problem reports and suggestions about RealText are all welcome.


What to put in your message

Your macOS version (Apple menu > About This Mac).
Your RealText version (RealText > About RealText).
The kind of file (.txt, .md, .csv or .tsv), and what the status line
at the bottom of the window says about it (format, line ending, encoding).
The steps that lead to the problem, and what you expected instead.
For Bash Mode: whether you were in Terminal or in macOS Recovery.

A small sample file can help, but send one only if it holds nothing private.


Questions and answers

Why did my file open as plain text, without the grid?
RealText goes by the file's extension only; it never guesses from the content.
.csv and .tsv (or .tab) files open in Spreadsheet Mode.
.md and .markdown files are Markdown, edited as plain text.
Everything else, .txt included, is plain text.
Spreadsheet Mode (View > Spreadsheet Mode, Command-2)
is for CSV and TSV files only.

Why won't RealText open a file?
It refuses files it can't keep exactly: UTF-16 text,
and files containing NUL bytes (binary data). The alert says which.
Any other text opens: UTF-8 (with or without BOM) as UTF-8,
and everything else as Mac OS Roman,
so its bytes are kept even if some characters look wrong.

A file "can't be saved where it is". What are my choices?
The alert gives the reason: the file is locked, the drive is read-only,
you don't have permission to write the file, or the folder takes no new files.
Save As... saves it somewhere else. Overwrite appears only for your own
locked or write-protected file: RealText saves it, then puts the lock
or protection back. On a read-only drive, only Save As... and Cancel are offered.
A read-only file shows "(read-only)" in its title, and you can still edit it.

Why did my line endings change?
Only a file with mixed line endings, marked "(mixed)" on the status line,
changes: saving writes one line ending throughout, the most common one
or the one you choose in Format > Line Endings.
All other files keep their line endings and encoding
unless you change them in the Format menu.
If a character can't be written in Mac OS Roman, the save is refused
instead of replacing the character; choose UTF-8 in Format > Text Encoding.

Where is Bash Mode?
Inside RealText. Choose Help > RealText in Terminal and Recovery (Experimental):
the window shows the exact command for your Mac, including what to type
in macOS Recovery, with Copy Command and Print buttons.
RealText never runs it; you start it by typing the command in Terminal.
Bash Mode is experimental in this version
and is meant for small and medium files.
If it won't start, type --check after the command instead of a file name:
it says what is missing.

Which keys does Bash Mode use?
Terminals don't pass the Command key on, so Control stands in for it:
Ctrl-S save, Ctrl-Q quit
Ctrl-C, Ctrl-X, Ctrl-V copy, cut, paste
Ctrl-Z undo, Ctrl-Y redo
Ctrl-F find, Ctrl-L go to a line or cell
Ctrl-P (or Esc) Preferences, whose Help row lists every key
Shift with the arrow keys selects text


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RealText is made by moose3d.