What is a Text File ?

This article is exactly what a text file is and how to open it or convert it to another format.

What is a Text File?

A text file is a file that contains text, but there are several ways to think about it. Therefore, it is important to understand the nature of the text document before delving into a program that can open or convert it.

Note: Some text files use the .TXT file extension and do not contain images. Others may contain both images and text, but are still called text files or even abbreviated as "txt file", which can be confusing.

Text File Types

In general, a text file refers to any file that contains only text and does not contain images or other non-text characters. These sometimes use the .txt file extension, but they don't necessarily have to. For example, a Word document that is an essay containing only text may be in a DOCX file format, but it will still be called a text file.

Another type of text file is the "plain text" file. This is a non-formatting file (unlike RTF files), which means nothing is bolded, italicized, underlined, colored, uses a special font, etc. Some examples of plain text file formats include those that end with these file extensions: XML, REG, BAT, PLS, M3U, M3U8, SRT, IES, AIR, STP, XSPF, DIZ, SFM, THEMA, and TORRENT.

Of course, files with the .TXT extension are also text files, and are often used to store things that can be easily opened with any text editor or described with a simple script. Examples include storing step-by-step instructions on how to use something, a place to store temporary information, or logs generated by a program (although these are usually stored in a .log file).

"Plain text" or plain text files are different from "plain text" files (with a space). When file storage encryption or file transfer encryption is not used, the data can be said to be in plaintext or transmitted via plaintext. This can be applied to anything that should be protected but isn't, be it emails, messages, plain text files, passwords, etc., but it's usually used in reference to cryptography.

How to Open a Text File

All text editors should be able to open any text file, especially if no special formatting is used. For example, TXT files can be opened with Windows' built-in Notepad program by right-clicking the file and selecting Edit. Similarly for TextEdit on a Mac.

Another free program that can open any text file is Notepad++. Once installed, you can right click on the file and select Edit with Notepad++.

Most web browsers and mobile devices can also open text files. However, since most of them are not designed to load text files with the various extensions they use, you may need to rename the file extension to .TXT first if you want to use these applications to read the file.

Some other text editors and viewers are Microsoft Word, TextPad, Notepad2, Geany and Microsoft WordPad.

Other text editors for macOS are BBEdit and TextMate. Linux users can also try Leafpad, gedit, and KWrite.

Open Any File as a Text Document

Another thing to understand here is that any file can be opened as a text document, even if it doesn't contain any readable text. This is useful if you're not sure what file format it's actually in, e.g. B. if a file extension is missing or you think you have been identified with the wrong file extension.

For example, you can open an MP3 audio file as a text file by pasting it into a text editor like Notepad++. You can't play the MP3 this way, but you can see what it's made of as text because the text editor can only play the data as text.

For MP3 in particular, the first line must contain ID3 to indicate that it is a metadata container that can store information such as artist, album, track number, etc.

Another example is the PDF file format; Each file starts with the text %PDF on the first line, although the rest of the document is completely unreadable.

How to Convert Text Files

The only real purpose of converting text files is to save them in another text-based format like CSV, PDF, XML, HTML, XLSX, etc. You can do this with the more advanced text editors, but not the simpler ones, as they usually only support basic export formats like TXT, CSV, and RTF.

For example, the Notepad++ program mentioned above can save to a variety of file formats such as HTML, TXT, NFO, PHP, PS, ASM, AU3, SH, BAT, SQL, TEX, VGS, CSS, CMD, REG, URL, HEX, VHD, PLIST, JAVA, XML and KML.

Other programs that export to text format are likely to be able to save in different ways, typically TXT, RTF, CSV, and XML. So if you need a file from a specific program in a new text format, consider going back to the application that created the original text file and exporting it to something else.

In general, text is text as long as it is plain text. So you may only need to rename the file and change one extension to another to "convert" the file.

Still Can't Open Your File?

Do you see jumbled text when you open your file? Perhaps most or all of it is completely illegible. The most likely reason for this is that the file is not plain text.

As mentioned above, you can open any file with Notepad++, but just like the MP3 example, that doesn't mean you can actually use the file there. If you try your file in a text editor and it doesn't appear as expected, reconsider how you want to open it. it's probably not in a file format that can be explained in human-readable text.

If you don't know how to open your file, you should try some popular programs that work with a variety of formats. While Notepad++ is great for viewing the text version of a file, try dragging your file into VLC media player to check if it's a media file that contains video or audio data.