TextEdit is really an under appreciated an unloved app in OS X, and it can serve many more functions than people give it credit for, able to function as a basic word processor, quick outliner, even working as a decent HTML source viewer that’s light weight. That also means anything pasted into a new empty TextEdit file will have formatting pulled out automatically, without having to use any of the tricks to strip the styling from pasted text, and without having to convert an existing RTF to a plain old TeXT from the menu options.

It also simplifies the TextEdit appearance a bit by removing the formatting option buttons across the top of an open file window. That’s it, now anytime you hit Command+N or launch a new TextEdit file, it will default to be a plain text file.

Check the box next to “Plain text” to set all new documents to automatically default to be plain txt files.

Go to the “New Document” tab and look under ‘Format’.

Open TextEdit and pull down the “TextEdit” menu and head to “Preferences”.

How to Set TextEdit to Default to Create Plain Text Documents

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