Text Editing and Word Processing

From Mac vs. Windows

Overview

Both Mac OS X and Windows Vista include basic text editing programs. In Mac OS X, users can use TextEdit to edit both plain text and rich text. OS X also includes a simple note taking program called Stickies. In Windows Vista, you can use Notepad if you only wish to edit plain text, or use WordPad to edit both rich text and plain text. However, the included text editors are limited on both fronts. For more advanced plain text editing, third-party programs such as Notepad++ on Windows and Apple Xcode on Mac OS X, not to mention a myriad of other tools are available. For more serious word processing needs, most users opt for dedicated programs such as Microsoft Word or the free OpenOffice.org Writer[1] on both platforms. Apple Pages is also available for Mac OS X.

Mac OS X

TextEdit
Mac OS X's main text editing program is TextEdit. TextEdit can open and save documents in plain text, Rich Text Format (RTF), Microsoft Word .doc and .xml formats, HTML, and OpenDocument format. It also includes read-only Simpletext format support. TextEdit provides basic formating features (boldface, underline, italics, etc.) as well as support for creating bulleted or auto-numbered/lettered list and tables.

TextEdit is capable of utilizing the system-wide spelling and grammar checker built into OS X.

TextEdit also includes an auto-save feature, which saves a backup of a user's work at intervals they can specify (30 seconds by default).

Images, photos, and movies can be added to documents in TextEdit as long as the document is in not plain text format.

Stickies
Another text editing program included with OS X is Stickies. Stickies allows one to create sticky-like notes in various colors that always appear on top of other applications and the Finder, much like putting sticky notes on your computer screen. Text in stickies can be formated with basic formatting options, including boldface, italics, and underline.

Multiple stickies can be placed around the screen at one time. When a stickie's top border is double- clicked, the whole stickie collapses into a thin strip showing just the first line of text in the stickie. Double clicking on the strip re-expands the stickie, revealing its entire contents.

Stickies can be arranged by date, color, content, or location on screen. When auto-arranging them, all stickies collapse and attached themselves to each other in the order chosen.

Text can be imported from any text file TextEdit is capable of opening. Images can be also dragged onto stickie notes. Any open stickie note are automatically preserved when quiting Stickies so that they automatically reopen the next time Stickies is launched. Notes can also be saved to separate file in either plain text or rich text format.

Windows Vista

Windows Vista's primary text editor is Notepad, a bread-and-butter text application that is used to edit any file that contains nothing but plain text. Due to its simplicity, Notepad can also edit any files that contain pure text data, including HTML, XML, SVG, CSV, and other files. Notepad is generally insufficient for any tasks that require more than editing plain text.

For more involved document editing and word processing tasks, Windows Vista also contains WordPad. WordPad supports the editing of not only plain text but also of RTF (Rich Text Format) text, Unicode text, Microsoft Word (.DOC) files, and all other files supported by Notepad that contain plain text. However, WordPad cannot properly read .DOC (the proprietary binary format used by Microsoft Word up through version 2003) or .DOCX (Word 2007/2008) files, although the text from these files can generally be recovered. It also cannot save to the .DOC or .DOCX format; the file must be resaved in plain text, Unicode text or RTF format. For users who do not own Microsoft Office and need to view .DOC or .DOCX files, Microsoft recommends the freely-downloadble Word Viewer from their website.

WordPad allows editing of font type, size and color, and allows bullet points and numbering of basic lists. It also supports moveable tab stops, text indentation and alignment, date/time insertion, and inline images. Print preview and page setting options are also available.

Both Notepad and WordPad are available from the Start > All Programs > Accessories menu. Any file can also be launched in either of these applications by right-clicking on the file icon, selecting "Open With", and selecting either Notepad or WordPad. Both programs can also be launched from the run command.

Windows Vista also offers the Sticky Notes application, which is a digital ink-based application used to take handwritten memos and voice recordings. It does not support text data, and as such is not comparable to Mac OS X's Stickies. Unfortunately, Windows Vista offers no built-in functionality along the lines of Stickies for taking notes and leaving them on the desktop, aside from the applications mentioned above.

Finally, none of Windows Vista's native text editing programs support output to PDF, without installing a third-party printer driver. Output to Windows Vista's native XPS (XML Paper Specification[2][3]) format is supported through the Print dialog and selecting the "Microsoft XPS Document Writer".

Discuss | Show All Comparisons | Download PDF