Safari can read RTF files, so all I do is drag the file onto the Safari icon in the dock and it opens it right up, quickly and easily. It's much nicer than using TextEdit. The only caveat is Safari can't read RTFD files, so if you have one of those you're stuck with TextEdit. Rich Text Format (RTF) file is a basic document file type from Microsoft. As you know, there’s a longstanding rivalry between Microsoft and Apple, but that doesn’t mean you can’t open or convert RTF files on your Mac. You absolutely can. Open RTF Files on Mac. Mac has a default text editor that goes by the name TextEdit.
Your first step when you receive an email with an attachment is to keep your eyes peeled for the extension of the attached file. Most of the document-related files will work on your Mac while windows-specific executable files will put you out of luck on your Mac.
Rich Text Format (RTF) file is a basic document file type from Microsoft. As you know, there’s a longstanding rivalry between Microsoft and Apple, but that doesn’t mean you can’t open or convert RTF files on your Mac. You absolutely can.
Open RTF Files on Mac
Mac has a default text editor that goes by the name TextEdit. As a Mac user, you must have used TextEdit, at least once. To open a RTF file, type TextEdit in Spotlight. Or simply double-click on the RTF file for it to launch, by default, on TextEdit.
Rtf Mac Os X
TextEdit has a setback though. The format of the RTF file isn’t as dapper as it is in the original file. In other words, the formatting may be far off, with text and images not in array.
In such cases, you can always give a whirl to other text editor and word processing apps. Neo Office is yet another word processing application freely available to the masses. You can not only open .RTF files but also a plethora of Office-related documents can be viewed without breaking a sweat.
You’ll be bowled over to know BookReader, which is a widely known e-book reader, can also open RTF file on your Mac. So, if you have BookReader installed on your machine, you are free to open these pesky RTF file.
You can set your preferred encoding to enable TextWrangler to open RTF files; however, images and other formatting will be lost. Another widely known application is Microsoft’s Office for Mac. Similar to Neo Office, opening and editing documents on Office is a breeze.
Convert RTF To PDF File
To avoid the boringly uninspiring process of trying out new apps, if RTF file is not in your regular crowd of everyday documents, then convert them into PDFs.
Converting RTF to PDF is a simple process. You can use Neo Office to open RTF file and from the menu, click on Save as and save the file as PDF. The same affair holds true for Office for Mac. But what if you don’t have these apps installed on your Mac?
Use online tools. You can use Zamzar, which is a well-known free service to convert RTFs and RTFDs into your desired format and get back the file in your email.
Here is another tool for converting Rich Text Format files into Adobe PDFs. And if you don’t want to download the file, but view it online, then consider using this tool which converts RTF into HTML file.
Now you know how to open and convert RTF files. Ultimately, it is up to you to decide what you want to do with that file.
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Many users working with office applications from Microsoft or analogues from other developers often encounter inconsistencies in document formats. Files with the * .rtf extension cannot be opened by older versions of applications. To avoid such a problem at the wrong time, you need to have a simple way to convert documents.
Rich Text Format (RTF) is not always adequately displayed on the web on different platforms. The simplest solution is to convert RTF to plain text and then transfer it to a txt file or paste it into an email, depending on your needs. In macOS, this can be done easily and simply.
Convert RTF to TXT via TextEdit
Rtf Editor For Mac
Here’s how to do this using only the built-in TextEdit application:
- Launch TextEdit;
- Creat a New document;
- Write or fill it with text this document;
- In the “Format” menu, select RTF;
- Click “OK” and Save the file;
- Next open Finder and locate your RTF file;
- Right-click on it and choose “Get Info”;
- Here open tab “Name & Extension”;
- And rename extension prefix from RTF on TXT;
- After that in window choose “Use .txt”;
- Congrats, you have done it!
Read more:How to Convert PNG to JPG and JPG to PNG on a Mac?
Convert RTF to TXT via Terminal
The utility that is pre-installed on every Mac has a textutil module. It supports the following document formats: txt, html, rtf, rtfd, doc, docx, wordml, odt or webarchive. This means that you can easily “overtake” the document in any of the above extensions to another available one. To convert in the Terminal, enter the command:
You can convert the following formats: txt, rtf, rtfd, html, doc, docx, odt, wordml, and webarchive. Here is an example of the syntax for translating a file called test.rtf to txt format:
Textutil will automatically merge the file name with the correct extension. If you want to give a new name to this file, use – output as follows:
Conclusion
As you can see, there are some simple and effective ways. Choose the one that is more convenient for you.