Text and Image Editing in Mac OS 12 Monterey

Name: Text and Image Editing in Mac OS 12 Monterey
Author: Nizar Dajani

Learn how to use the most common built-in apps in macOS

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Course: On-Demand

In this lesson we will learn about TextEdit. This is a simple word processor that comes built in on macOS. To open it, we can click on its icon from the dock. If you already have it there as I do. Or you can go to Finder, then Applications, then double-click on it. Or you can also open Launchpad, then go to TextEdit. Or you can open Spotlight and just type TextEdit. When it's opened we see this window, to either open an existing document or create a new one. So I'll click on New Document. Now there are two modes in TextEdit. One is the Rich Text Format, or RTF for short. Then there's the Plain Text mode. This window in front of us here is the RTF mode because it allows us to format the text, using all these features in the toolbar. For example, let me copy and paste some random text here, and I can use all these features in the toolbar to format the text accordingly. Like change the font, make it bold. Change the size, color orientation, and line spacing. So TextEdit contains many of the basic features of big word processors like Microsoft Word. I can also add an image by dragging and dropping it inside the document, or I can also add a table by going to the Format menu, then choosing Table. This will create a 2x2 table and you have this window to further control the format of your table. So that was the Rich Text Format, but you can also use TextEdit to create Plain Text documents. To do that, I go to the Format menu, and choose Make Plain Text. A warning appears that we will lose any formatting features because switching to plain text is just that, it's plain text. So I click on okay, and now all the formatting options we had before are now all gone. Also, notice that the toolbar now does not have any of the formatting features that were here a moment ago when I was working in the Rich Text mode. But we can toggle between these two modes as we wish. Then when you are ready to save the document, we go to default menu, then choose Save. From this window, I can choose where to save this file, as well as choose what file type to save it as. The default is the RTF format, but I can save it in another file format as well. Another feature about TextEdit is that you can open these documents in other word processors, like Pages or Microsoft Word, and it also works the other way around as well. For example, if someone sends you a Microsoft Word document and you don't have it installed on your computer, you can still open the actual Microsoft Word document in TextEdit, but it will be in plain text. So while you will be able to read the text the document will not contain any of the original features and formatting. And like any other app in macOS, we have some settings we can control by going to the File menu, and then Preferences. Here we can see settings like in what mode to open text editing, as well as many other settings we can control here. Please explore these options, and customize the app as you see fit. So in this lesson, we learned about the basics of using the TextEdit app. Thanks for watching.

Beginner Provider : Nizar Dajani 4 Lessons · 17m in Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese

Course Description

Word processing and photo editing are very common tasks in macOS, and it includes built-in apps to handle such tasks. The simple word processing app is TextEdit, and the photo viewing and editing app is Preview. It also has the Notes app which is mainly used for notetaking.

In this course, you will learn about some of the common and widely used built-in apps in macOS. We will learn about TextEdit, Notes, and the Preview app when using images and PDF documents. They might seem like simple apps, but they come filled with features that make them an excellent alternative to their more complex counterparts.

What You'll Learn

Describe the TextEdit, Notes, and Preview built-in apps in macOS Monterey
Recognize the different features of TextEdit, Notes, and Preview
Explain how to customize TextEdit, Notes, and Preview
Identify how to use Preview for images and PDF files
Use Notes and Quick Notes for notetaking tasks

Key Takeaways

macOS includes built-in apps for common word processing and photo editing tasks: TextEdit for word processing and Preview for viewing and editing photos.
The Notes app is mainly used for notetaking and also offers Quick Notes.
Preview can be used to work with both images and PDF documents.
Although these built-in apps may seem simple, they include features that make them an excellent alternative to more complex counterparts.
The course covers TextEdit, Notes, and Preview, including customizing each app.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does this course cover?

It covers the common, widely used built-in macOS apps for text and image editing: TextEdit, Notes (and Quick Notes), and Preview, including using Preview for images and PDF documents.

Which macOS apps will I learn about?

You will learn about TextEdit for word processing, Notes for notetaking, and Preview for viewing and editing images and PDF files.

Can I use Preview for PDF documents?

Yes. The course includes a lesson on using Preview for PDF files, in addition to using it for images.

What skills are associated with this course?

The listed skills include Mac OS, Text Editor, PDF Editors, Applesoft BASIC, and MacWrite.

What lessons are included?

The lessons are TextEdit; Notes and Quick Notes; Preview: Images; and Preview: PDF.