When you want to type a quick document, take personal notes on a meeting, or even test your printer, what application do you open? What about collaborating on a document or designing a publication? Many of my clients would choose Microsoft Word. I would recommend anything but. How come, you ask?

Why Not Word?

I rarely open Microsoft Word. What do you use it for? Is it your default application for taking notes for yourself? Do you collaborate on documents with others? Do you write books or design publications with it?

I do all of these activities using other applications that I find less bloated, more efficient, and easier on the eyes, enabling me to focus on my content.

  • For publications, I use Pages because it puts the best tools at my fingertips and has a simple interface.
  • For collaboration, I use Google Drive because real-time multi-person editing is dead simple.
  • For personal notes and simple reference documents on my computer, TextEdit is my preference.

Sure, Word has Track Changes and layout tools, can style and manipulate text fancifully, and then some. But its interface is really complex with lots of tiny buttons, many of them poorly or inconsistently labeled and difficult to find.

I don’t think I would be wrong to claim that most of this cruft is rarely used by most users who mostly just want to type simple documents!

What is TextEdit?

TextEdit is a basic text editor application on the Mac. It’s been around since Mac OS X was first released in 2001 and was the successor to SimpleText.

You can find TextEdit in your Applications and use it to type plain text or rich (styled) text, set tab stops, and create lists and tables. The document window has a very simple toolbar and ruler. Saved files are very small, the app is quick to open, and it’s is my primary choice for most simple writing activities.

TextEdit is also useful for opening really old Word Documents that even Microsoft Word will no longer open. You can right-click such a file and choose Open With > TextEdit. Then you can resave the document in a current version of Word, as Rich Text Format (a simpler file type also invented by Microsoft), or a variety of other formats.

TextEdit cannot change page margins and for most simple documents, I don’t even care to see them. There’s a secret way to charge the default margins for new documents and this may only be worthwhile if you plan to print these files.

Word is Not Ideal for Document Sharing

Are you in the habit of sending Word documents to others when you want to share content for their review? This is only acceptable if you know they have a way to open these files. Plus, you really should only do so if you also need them to edit the files, too.

This 2002 article on the topic is a tad dated yet still feels relevant today. Sure, TextEdit or Pages on a Mac can open Word documents but what if your recipient uses a PC? If they haven’t paid the pretty penny Microsoft charges for the app and they aren’t familiar with Google Docs, they may out of luck to easily access your file.

If you just need someone to consume the content of your document, share it as a PDF. If the layout is very simple but editing is important, try Rich Text Format (RTF). Either way, it will probably be easier to email, too!

Don’t me wrong; most of us have high speed Internet connections that can handle the larger size of attached Word documents. Yet, I don’t want my email overloaded with these when there’s a more efficient alternative.

Have you given TextEdit a shot? What do you think? Can you imagine a use for it in your computing experience?