How to open TXT files

A TXT file is an un­for­mat­ted text file that doesn’t require any special programs to be created or opened. To open a TXT file, most operating systems offer word pro­cess­ing programs such as Windows’ Editor or macOS’ TextEdit. On smart­phones, on the other hand, free or pre-installed apps like Google Docs or File Aid are available.

Not all word files are made equal. Besides pure text (plain text), word files with endings like DOCX, ODT, or RTF also include ad­di­tion­al in­for­ma­tion, for­mat­ting, or, in the case of Microsoft Word and Word al­ter­na­tives like Li­bre­Of­fice, they also include images, graphics, and macros. Most of these text files are therefore binary files and need their own word proces­sors or programs that support the format. That’s what makes the TXT format different. TXT is con­sid­ered the original text file format and the equiv­a­lent of the binary file.

Since a TXT file doesn’t contain any for­mat­ting such as bolding or fonts, no separate software is needed to open or edit it. Most operating systems include word pro­cess­ing programs that can create and open the TXT format. One important feature of TXT files is that stored text and character sets are in­ter­pret­ed as a sequence. Contents of binary files, in turn, can be in­ter­pret­ed in a variety of pre­de­fined ways. Although both binary and text files store in­for­ma­tion using binary code as bits and bytes, bits and bytes in binary files are user-defined data, while in TXT format bits stand for char­ac­ters, i.e. pure text.

Since the TXT format is the basic form of in­for­ma­tion transfer and word pro­cess­ing, TXT files offer a great advantage in that they can be edited and opened with numerous free programs. Unlike pro­pri­etary formats such as DOC or DOCX, no special software or special com­pat­i­bil­i­ty is needed. A pre-installed text editor such as Windows’ Editor, macOS’ TextEdit, or Linux’ Gnome Text Editor is already suf­fi­cient to open and create TXT files. Unlike operating systems, TXT files on Android or iOS require an app to work with the TXT format.

There are many reasons why you might want to open a TXT file. Maybe you want to find more in­for­ma­tion on a program’s README before in­stalling or using it. Or, as a software pro­gram­mer, you may want to use the TXT file to keep up with the latest de­vel­op­ments, or to record notes and in­struc­tions for other de­vel­op­ers. In any case, it’s easy to open a TXT file on your desktop or smart­phone:

Double-click on the TXT file once it’s on the computer (or via an email at­tach­ment). Unless otherwise specified, the TXT file will now open au­to­mat­i­cal­ly via the editor pre­in­stalled on your operating system. On Windows, you have the option between the programs Editor and WordPad. If you want to use another program, right-click on the file and select “Open with...”. If you want to open a TXT file with Word, you may have to select the encoding standard be­fore­hand, e.g. Windows (Standard) or Unicode (UTF-8).

Smart­phones are basically not designed to open or create TXT files. However, as the bound­aries between desktop and smart­phone word proces­sors become more fluid, you’ll find more and more apps that let you open, save, and edit TXT files. In addition to the Microsoft 365 Mobile Apps included in Office packages, like Word, the Google Docs app is also available on Android devices. On iOS, the free app File Aid is a good choice, and on iPad, you can use the Pages app.

Below are common free or paid word proces­sors, apps, and some of the best code editors to open, create, edit, and save files in TXT format.