Category: Geeks r Us
Okay, I went to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_file#Formats
and still don't understand this.
"Most Windows text files use a form of ANSI, OEM or Unicode encoding. What Windows terminology calls "ANSI encodings" are usually single-byte ISO-8859 encodings, except for in locales such as Chinese, Japanese and Korean that require double-byte character sets. ANSI encodings were traditionally used as default system locales within Windows, before the transition to Unicode. By contrast, OEM encodings, also known as MS-DOS code pages, were defined by IBM for use in the original IBM PC text mode display system. They typically include graphical and line-drawing characters common in full-screen MS-DOS applications. Newer Windows text files may use a Unicode encoding such as UTF-16LE or UTF-8."
So, what's the difference between a Windows and a DOS .txt file. Does it matter, when reading with a DOS text editor or wordprocessor, whether I saved the file with Notepad as .txt or saved it with Wordpad as .txt (MS-DOS format)? If not, then why does Wordpad have a MS-DOS format option? I'm pretty sure that Notepad doesn't use unicode because I can't save Greek files with it and always have to use Wordpad and save them as rtf. I know that files saved as either type of .txt will read under Word Perfect and NoteWorthy but WP (including the text editor) acts strangely with VocalEyes at times, not reading complete lines and sometimes skipping lines, and I'm trying to find out why it does that. Interestingly enough, it doesn't do this with all files. I thought that perhaps it was word wrap but apparently, it's automatically set to on, so that might not be the case. I need this sorted so that I can decide how to save my documents that I'll be transferring over to the other machine, or if it's not the formatting, then I need to learn what changes have to be made either in VocalEyes or in Word perfect so that it reads properly..
So today, I decided to see how Word Perfect 5.1 and Ed.exe would read files saved as .txt in Notepad and .txt (MS-DOS format) in Wordpad. The only difference that I noticed is that the lines started and stopped at different points so that a sentence that began on one line in one format might have already begun on the line above that in the other. In both cases, VocalEyes didn't read the sentences properly in Ed.exe. The words at the end of each line would cut off. But in Word Perfect 5.1, it read the lines perfectly. I'm baffled by this, since Ed is from Word Perfect Corporation and even uses the same commands as 5.1. The only difference is that it saves as .txt and not as .wpd and it doesn't convert the .txt files to .wpd when you open them. I then checked the settings in VocalEyes in both programs and they were the same.
I'm completely confused here. Why is it doing this? I would gladly use NoteWorthy, as I love that program, but the file was too large for it to handle. I'd like to try Microsoft Word 5.5, but for some reason, it's only downloadable as an .exe file and it's over 1.44mb. The DOS machine that I'm using right now only has a floppy drive (the pcmcia slot is taken up by the KeyNote Voicecard synth, which I won't remove unless absolutely necessary) so I have no way of getting the program on there. It also doesn't have the regular editor that's supposed to come with MS-DOS 6.21 and I can't seem to find that anywhere! I on't even know if it's accessible. Can anyone help me or recommend another editor for me to try? Should I use JAWS or ASAP to see if I get different results or are the settings in the program rather than in the screen reader?