Fetch Softworks

unable to edit (6 posts)

• Started 17 years ago by jilln
• Latest reply 17 years ago from Scott McGuire

• jilln Member

  I am trying to use Fetch to maintain a Web site. I have a Macintosh with OS 10.3. When I download a file to edit, I change the extension to .txt. Then I can open it in Word or TextEdit, but it comes in like one big image or something that I can't even highlight any part of. I cannot edit anything.

  What am I doing wrong?

  Thanks in advance.

  Posted 17 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi,

  We'd like some more information to help us answer your question.

  What kind of file is it supposed to be? If it's an HTML or a text file, it should have the correct extension on it already; you shouldn't need to change its extension. Does the file have an extension when it's on the server?

  Do you see the text or HTML code when you open it in Word or TextEdit, or is it just an unrecognizable blob of gibberish?

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 17 years ago #

• jilln Member

  They are all html files, with the extension .htm or .html on the server. When I try to open it (it downloads in Safari), Word just won't open it at all and TextEdit opens it as if it were an image pasted into the page - it looks like a Web page (with images missing) and you can't click on anything or highlight or edit at all.

  Posted 17 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi,

  There are several different things going on here.

  TextEdit on Mac OS X 10.3 can't edit HTML files, which is why they appear to be one big image. So opening the HTML files in TextEdit probably isn't the way to go.

  Since they're HTML files, you probably shouldn't change the extension to .txt after you download them - that may confuse the applications that you're opening them in, because they are claiming to be plain text but the contents are HTML (that may be why Word won't open it). (Yes, HTML files are a special kind of text file, but the .txt extension usually is meant to indicate plain text.)

  What you really want to do is change the application that files downloaded by Fetch open in to be something other than Safari, so you don't have to change the files' extension.

  If you're using Fetch 5 (which requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later), you can do this in the Transfer Options section of the info window. For instructions on how to do this, see the Changing the application a file opens with topic in Fetch Help, or just click on the link here.

  If you're using Fetch 4, you can do this with the Suffix Mapping command, see the Suffix Mapping topic in Fetch Help for more information.

  Finally, Word isn't a very good choice for editing HTML files either; if you don't mind editing the HTML codes directly, TextWrangler is a good free text editor. You can find out more about it at http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/index.shtml .

  I hope this helps clarify things. Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 17 years ago #

• jilln Member

  Thanks! I had already changed the transfer options for it to open in TextEdit.

  I downloaded TextWrangler and set it to download and open in that, and it worked fine. Must be something about TextEdit.

  Thanks again!

  Posted 17 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi,

  Glad to hear TextWrangler is working for you. Thanks for the followup.

  Best,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 17 years ago #