How To Create A Text (TXT) File On A Mac

A text (TXT) file contains unformatted text with the file extension .txt (e.g., geekschalk.txt). By unformatted, it is meant that these type of text files are plain text files without any styling and formatting, for instance, these documents do not have bold texts, italic texts, images, colors, different font types, hyperlinks, tables, bulleted lists etc. These documents just have plain texts. TXT files are best suited for writing HTML and CSS or writing that doesn’t require formatting. A TXT file can be created, opened and edited on a Mac with a text editor. An example of a text editor is TextEdit, which is included with the macOS software. This guide will show you how to create a plain text file (.txt) file on your Mac using TextEdit.

Open and use TextEdit and create a text file

Open the TextEdit app on your Mac (Applications > TextEdit, or use Spotlight, press Command-Space bar, to search, find and open TextEdit). TextEdit is a text editing and word processing tool that comes with your Mac.
In the TextEdit app, choose File > New to create a new document. TextEdit has two format modes: (a) plain text (.txt file) and (b) rich text (.rtf file). The difference is that .txt mode will not allow formatting, while .rtf mode will let you format like adding images, colors, tables etc.
Default format is rich text format. You can change this by going to TextEdit > Settings, clicking the New Document tab, and selecting Plain Text under the Format section.
You can also change the mode while you are editing your text by going to Format > Make Plain Text or Format > Make Rich Text. If you change a .rtf file (rich text) to .txt file (plain text), your document will lose all formatting options.
Create and edit your text file.
And then go to File > Save to save your text file.
Name your file and save it. Ensure the file name ends with .txt extension. If you are in plain text mode, TextEdit will automatically add the .txt extension.