Using TextEdit as a text editor

On Thursday, one of you all showed me a situation in which you had copied some HTML code from a web page, pasted it into TextEdit (using your Mac), then saved the page as an .html file. The result was not an HTML page, but rather a page of HTML code. When we looked at the source code, it looked like a jumble of stuff.

In the INLS461 session, the same situation cropped up and one of the Mac users there pointed out the problem. As with other editors (MSWord, for example), TextEdit want to add its own HTML code to a text page that you want to save as an .html file. Thus what you end up with is HTML code that TextEdit added surrounding the HTML code that you wanted to use.

The solution to this lies within TextEdit itself. As I recall it, when you paste the copied code into TextEdit you should - before you save it as an .html file - find the menu that is called "view" or "format" (I don't remember which, but it was the third of four tabs, counting from left to right), and choose the option that allows you to treat the text you just pasted in as "plain text."

I found two sites that seem to provide some guidance on this issue

1. HOW DO I SAVE HTML FILES FROM TEXTEDIT?
2. Mac OS X: How to Set Up TextEdit as an HTML or Plain Text Editor
   

The key for all of us is to be able to work with a simple, basic text editor that will allow us to create plain, simple HTML code. What we don't want it to do at this time is to think for us and add its own HTML code to the page we are creating.

If a more skilled Mac user has additional advice, please post it to the blog. One of your peers has already done this in an earlier post.