How to create a text file You can create a text file on your computer with a text editor. An example ofa text editor is Notepad, which is included with Microsoft Windows, Tip: When we refer to a "text file" we are talking about a plain text file without any text formatting (eg., bold), images, different fonts font sizes, ete. Ifyou need to ereate a more rich document with any ofthese features see: How to ereate a document ‘Tip: The below recommendations are for programs included with an operating system. You can also download and install a more powerful and free text editor such as Notepad++ to ereate, view, and edit text files, Open and use Notepad The easiest way to create a text file in Windows is to open up the Notepad software program on your computer, The Notepad is a text editor included with Microsoft Windows, Tip: A text file is considered a plaintext file and Notepad is only capable of ereating and editing plaintext files. Notepad saves any text file with a txt file extension, which means no special formatting or fonts ean be used. “The Windows Notepad program can be found by following either of the steps below. 1. Click Start2. In the Run ot Search box, type Notepad and press Enter. or 1, Click Start, 2 Open All Programs, Accessories, then click the Notepad shortcut. Save the file as a text file ‘You can also create a text file using any other word processing software program, like Microsoft Word or WordPad, When saving the file, change the file name or file type to Plain Text to save ita a text file, In many of these programs, you'll also have the option to save the file as a Rich Text Format et > (ic 7 Be lax aveAfter the file is created and saved, it can also be edited using Notepad or another word processing software program, Create a new text file from the desktop Another way to create a text file is to right-click on your desktop sereen and in the menu that appears click New and then click Text Document. Creating a text file this way opens your default text editor with a blank text fle on your desktop. You can change the name ofthe file to anything you want, You can edit the file in the Notepad program or any other word processing software program, like Microsoft Word. Tip: These same steps can be used in any other location on your computer, for example, you could do ths in another folder on your computer Create a text file from the command line While in the Windows command line, you also can create a new text file in the current directory. With earlier versions of Windows, a ‘ew file of any type, including text files, could be created by using the edit command line command. Later versions of Windows removed the ability to use the edit command for this purpose. Instead, you can use the echo command at the Windows eommand line to create an empty text file in the current directory. An example of using this shown below. echo. myfile.txtIn the above example, you are using the echo command to create a file named "myfile.txt" in the current directory. Note that there are ro spaces between echo, the period, the greater-than sign (>), and the file name. Another option for ereating a text file from the command line is by using the start command as shown in the example below. start notepad myfile.txt In this example, you are using the start command to open Notepad withthe file "myfile xt", Assuming this file does not exist, it ‘would be ereated and saved in your current directory, Ifthe file did exist, you would be editing that fle, Create a text file from within a Linux shell Several commands can be used to create a text file in @ Linux shell. One easy-to-use text editor is pico. You can use it like this pico myfil After entering the above command, the editor will be opened and allow you to create a text file, When done, press Ctt1+X to exit the file, When prompted to save the file, if you want to keep the file, press "Y" for yes.‘Tip: The .txt file extension is not required in Linux, It is a file extension most commonly found and used with Windows. If you do ‘not need the file to open in Windows, you can have no file extension or rename it to whatever you watt. (© 2020 Computer Hope