Is it possible to quit TextEdit by clicking the red x of the last open file (w/o add’l software)

applicationstextedit

If you open TextEdit and then click on the red x in the top bar of the document, TextEdit will remain open. This is evidenced by the little black dot under TextEdit, despite no TextEdit documents being open. Why Apple designed it like this? I haven't the slightest idea.

I've found a piece of third-party software that offers this functionality called "RedQuits."

Is it possible for TextEdit to automatically quit itself when the x is pressed, without installing additional software?

Best Answer

The document window's close button in TextEdit does just what it's supposed to do, it closes the document window. It's not there to close the application, that's what ⌘Q is for.

So, to answer your question, no you cannot quit TextEdit by clicking the close button of a document window by itself, you'd need to use a third party app to add that functionality.

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Try pressing Command⌘ while you left-click on the document window title text. It will show the folder hierarchy in a pop-up menu.

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The only way to do this with all file types is to create a service in automator, which actually should make things easier for you.

Open Automator and select "Service".
In the "Service receives selected..." dropdown, change it to read "receives selected files and folders in any application"
Select Utilities from the library menu in the left pane and double-click "Run Shell Script"
Change the "Pass Input" dropdown to "as arguments"
Delete the default script and replace with the following:
```
if [ -f "$1" ] ; then
    open -a "TextEdit" "$1" ;
fi
```

Save this file as whatever you want it to show up as in your contextual menu, something like "Open With TextEdit" and you're done, you'll now have the option to open any file with text edit.

It won't be in the open with menu, it will be a separate item in the contextual menu grouped with any other services you have running.

On a side note, if you're developing on a mac you should really think about using a better text editor like TextMate or TextWrangler or Sublime Text, some of these even add the service for you to save you doing all of the above.

Best Answer

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MacOS – Apple TextEdit – where is the file being saved

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