OS X Mountain Lion For Dummies

Processing Words with TextEdit

TextEdit is a word processor/text editor that you can use to write letters, scribble notes, or open Read Me files. It’s not as sophisticated as Microsoft Word (or Apple’s Pages, Quark Xpress, or Adobe InDesign, for that matter), but you can definitely use it for light word processing and text editing. TextEdit is capable of performing a respectable amount of text formatting, and it can even check your spelling and read text to you in a natural-sounding (if somewhat creepy) voice.

TextEdit supports images, too. Just copy an image from another program and paste it into a TextEdit document. Or you can drag-and-drop an image into a TextEdit document from many applications.

TextEdit can even open Microsoft Word documents (.doc and .docx files). This is fabulous if you don’t happen to have a copy of Microsoft Word on your hard drive.

If you like Microsoft Word, you may enjoy my Office 2011 For Mac For Dummies, also from Wiley.

Like all apps included with Mountain Lion, you find TextEdit in the Applications folder at root level on your hard disk.

The Dock doesn’t have a TextEdit icon but if you like it, use it regularly, or would just like to have it in your Dock, either drag its icon from the Applications folder to the left side of the Dock or launch it, ...