Why Geeks Love Plain Text (And Why You Should Too)

November 29 by | 15 comments | Technology | Tags: ,

Plain text files are all the rage these days. Whether you are an iOS user that has one of the largest selection of plain text writing apps around, or a cross-platform guru that needs portability with her data and files; plain, good-ol’-fashion text files are the way to go.

There is something about writing or logging your day in text files that is quite different from writing in a Microsoft Word Document, Apple Pages Document, Google Document, or even an OpenOffice ODT format. Below we will show you why geeks love plain text files and why you should too.

Portability

One of the best things about plain text is that it is a portable format between almost any operating system that I have seen. You can use plain text files on Windows, Mac OS, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Linux, etc. All of these operating systems have ways of natively showing you the contents of a text file as well and also allowing you to edit its contents.

It’s safe to say that 20 years from now most operating systems (at their core) will be able to open a plain text file making your data safe and

Easy To use

Plain text files are at the zenith of ease of use. There isn’t really anything to learn; you just start typing text into a blank file. That’s it. No keyboard shortcuts to learn, or complicated menu structures, or ways to format etc. It’s all about putting data in a file and that is it.

You can create a new plain text file simply in any operating system with built in apps (ie. TextEdit.app or Notepad.exe), or if you are a real *nix geek just be typing something as simple as:

touch my_new_text_file.txt

Then open that sucker up in vim and type away (Don’t forgot to shift-z-z every once in a while to save, you nerd!). It couldn’t be simpler to get your thoughts down with a plain text file as the tool.

The best part about ease of use is that text files allow you to write, not fiddle with your tools. There are of course apps out there that allow you too mess around with your setup, but if you want to get some writing done a plain, no-frills text editor allows you to start writing right away.

No lock-in

Another great reason that geeks love plain text is that there is no vendor lock-in. This goes hand-in-hand with the portability reason mentioned above. There is no “special app” that only supports text files. There is no “compatibility issues” that you need to deal with (I’m looking at you, Microsoft Word). For all purposes, text files are just text files and can be opened by pretty much any document or text creation software.

This is a great thing when you want your data sticking around for the long term. When the .doc format dies in the next 80 years, it would be hard for me to believe that some system that exists in the world won’t be able to open the simplest of data forms (even if you have to load it up in your heads-up-display that is embedded in your eyes).

Good for almost anything

I use the word almost with care. I haven’t found too many things in my writing and developer journeys that plain text files aren’t good for, except one thing. Non-linear thinking (ie. mindmapping).

Text files aren’t very good at connecting non-linear ideas together in an easy way. I’m sure that it is possible, but I haven’t found a good way to do it when I need to brainstorm. This is one of the only things when it comes to writing that I don’t use plain text for.

The good thing about mindmapping, at least with any mindmapping applications that are worth a damn, is that you can export your data to an OPML format which is pretty portable as it is XML markup. You can open XML in any text editor as plain text.

Awesome apps for text creation and editing

Here are some of the best apps that I have found for creating, manipulating, and using your plain text files:

Plain text files are easy, portable, searchable, and aren’t locked to a specific technology. Not to mention you will be nerdy and cool when you use plain text (just ask Mike). So, if you are looking to keep your words and data around for a long time, look to us geeks for some advice. Use plain text.

CM Smith is a technologist, writer, and husband. He holds a degree in MIS and CMPSC from Penn State. CM is also interested in personal productivity, creativity and how to use technology to get things done. Check out his writing at devburner.net or follow him on Twitter.

  • http://twitter.com/Thats_Lexi Lexi ♫

    This is very true ! I’ve been using Notepad most of the time for quite a while now.
    Also, it’s very fast and use almost no CPU, which is really interesting when you already have “heavy” programs playing !

  • Bill Reid

    I would love to see someone do some sort of survey on how heavy text file users format their files.  What do you do to make bullet points or checklists, how do you separate topics, etc.  I’m sure someone’s come up with more creative ideas than lines of ========== above titles by now.

    • http://www.mostlymaths.net/ Ruben Berenguel

      I use org-mode in emacs, and also TaskPaper for iPad and iPhone. Add grep and you’re ready to go

      Ruben

  • http://www.profitblog.com Josh

    I’ve usually got at least 2 or 3 .txt files open at any given time. Usually write rough drafts of blog posts in them too. For me its just easier. Guess that makes me a geek.. lol

  • http://www.clintcora.com Clint Cora

    I use Text Edit on my Mac and I do find plain text easier to use when writing certain emails and articles to blogs like Lifehack.  I don’t end up with weird characters that I might get when copying Word text over.

  • http://www.nickberger.tumblr.com nickberger

    A couple other benefits:
    1) Plain text files and apps are lightweight and open lightning-fast.
    2) You can organize text files however you want. You don’t have to rely on an app to tell you how to organize your notes.

    • http://twitter.com/christopher_s Chris Smith

      Number 2 is important. How do you organize your text files?

      • http://www.nickberger.tumblr.com nickberger

        I simply put notes where they help the most: with their associated files. I love being able to put text files in any folder, to save notes associated with that folder. I’ll name the file “*NOTES”. The asterisk makes it stay at the top of the alphabetical list, so it’s easy to find.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-Fine/100000263160516 Michael Fine

    Honestly, plain-text files really don’t suit my needs. Evernote and Wunderlist serve up all of the devices that i use, so the ubiquity of pt doesn’t help. I like the interface more than Notepad or Vim. Finally, to-do lists are much easier with a dedicated software, and evernote’s hardware integration is great.

  • Micheal McEvoy

    There are some issues with going to/from Microsoft and *nix (including OSX) is that they use different end of line indicators.
    Also, you missed Emacs as a text editor.  Not quite as lightweight as VI/VIM, but just as useful.
    One thing you didn’t mention about text files is that you can run *nix in text mode (without a GUI) and get quite a bit of work done.

    • http://twitter.com/christopher_s Chris Smith

      Michael, you are absolutely right about the end of line characters, but for some reason I have never run into any issues.

      And, honestly, I have never used Emacs enough to recommend it.

      Isn’t there a higher learning curve to Emacs than vim?

      • http://www.mostlymaths.net/ Ruben Berenguel

        Hi Chris, 

        there is not a higher learning curve. Non-modal editors are after all more mainstream than modal editors… You know, I’m an emacs junkie, I even went as far as using only emacs (for almost everything in my computer) during 30 days in January.

        Ruben

        • http://twitter.com/christopher_s Chris Smith

          I’m going to give it a try. I don’t have a full neckbeard, but I am geeky, so maybe it will fit ;)

  • Pingback: ❂ Why Geeks Love Plain Text (And Why You Should Too) | Ryan Collins

  • http://alphaefficiency.com Bojan Djordjevic

    What do you think about Evernote? You can export it to html, which is pretty much same as text