Re: Mac OS X 10.1 File Name Extension Guidelines (John Geleynse)
Re: Mac OS X 10.1 File Name Extension Guidelines (John Geleynse)
- Subject: Re: Mac OS X 10.1 File Name Extension Guidelines (John Geleynse)
- From: Douglas Davidson <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 09:35:18 -0700
On Saturday, September 8, 2001, at 11:16 PM, Neal A. Crocker wrote:
For example, if a user tries to save a TextEdit document as
"MyFile.jpg",
the alert reads, "You cannot save this document with the extension
'.jpg' at
the end of the name. The required extension is '.rtf'. You can choose
to use
both, so that your file name ends in '.jpg.rtf'." The buttons are Use
.rtf,
Cancel, and Use both. ".rtf" is the correct extension for this
document as
set by TextEdit, and Use .rtf is the default button. In no case will
the
system hide an extension if doing so would make the file appear to
have a
different, valid extension. Therefore, if the user choosed "Use both",
the
Finder will display the full saved filename, "MyFile.jpg.rtf".
Suppose files of a certain type encode information in printable
characters but are not normally treated as text files. If some savvy
individual knows how the info is encoded in this type of file and wants
to use a text editor (not "word processor") such as BBEdit to alter the
contents of the file, they may find themselves forbidden to save the
file using its original extension (which, as far as they are concerned,
is still appropriate). If I read correctly, they can set the desired
file extension manually in Finder, although they may have to deal with
warnings about changing the extension inappropriately. However, this
would probably not be sufficient to salve their frustration at not
being able to save the text they just edited with a file extension the
they KNOW is appropriate.
The discussion of TextEdit quoted above refers to saving rich-text
documents, which is why the .rtf extension is required.
When TextEdit is saving plain-text documents, it allows you to use any
extension you wish. This would be an appropriate behavior for any text
editor (admittedly a rather special case). TextEdit also has a
preference which, when set, will suggest (but not require) a .txt
extension for plain-text files.
TextEdit is frequently used for editing files that are not purely plain
text--for example, XML files--as plain text. Even in the case of
formats that TextEdit understands, such as html and rtf, there is a
checkbox on the open panel that allows you to open and edit the raw
source version of these files as plain text.
Douglas Davidson