# IE\>File\>Edit With Notepad

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-file-edit-with-notepad/44797>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 9, 2000, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-file-edit-with-notepad/44797 "2000-12-09T19:34:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 19\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peace)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2000, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-file-edit-with-notepad/44797/1 "2000-12-09T19:34:36Z")

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When I open it, there is someting looking as a program. Is it? What’s it purpose? I mean, I do not care why M$ put it there or what is written there; can I do anything practically? And does it relate to IE in general or to any given page only?

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**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2000, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-file-edit-with-notepad/44797/2 "2000-12-09T19:37:16Z")

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Say what?

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**Author:** ![peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peace)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2000, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-file-edit-with-notepad/44797/3 "2000-12-09T19:58:49Z")

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C, in your IE (if you use it), go to File (upper left corner), left click it. On the drop down menu, left click on the third from top line, “Edit With Notepad”.  
If you can get that far, tell me please if there is anything one can do in the opened Notepad? Apparently, you do not know, but perhaps somebody does.

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**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2000, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-file-edit-with-notepad/44797/4 "2000-12-09T20:09:14Z")

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I have IE 5 and the selection is ‘edit’.  
Anyway, "Edit with Notepad’ should be the same; you can edit the file (if it can be) using Windows Notepad editor application.  
I hope that helps.

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**Author:** ![Bill\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@Bill\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_H)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2000, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-file-edit-with-notepad/44797/5 "2000-12-09T20:29:02Z")

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**peace** , this allows you to edit the web page you’re looking at. If you have MS Frontpage installed, it’ll give you the option of editing in frontpage or notepad.

If you do edit in notepad, you’ll be editing raw HTML, so you have to know HTML to do anything constructive. Note that if you edit some remote page, such as one on SDMB, you can’t actually save it back there; you’ll have to save it on your hard drive.

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**Author:** ![peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peace)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2000, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-file-edit-with-notepad/44797/6 "2000-12-09T20:54:16Z")

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Sorry for the confusion, in my IE5.5 it’s “Edit With Notepad”.  
So, if I understand correctly, if I know HTML, I can change things on a web page (e.g., remove adds, edit text) more then “Page Setup” will allow, before saving the page?

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**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2000, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-file-edit-with-notepad/44797/7 "2000-12-09T21:32:16Z")

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You can edit the HTML code using Notepad. Basically, HTML is a set of tags that describe the formatting of a web page. It’s not an actual programming language. For example, you can specify text colour, background colour, typefaces and so on. The page setup option doesn’t edit anything. It’s used to set printer options for any web pages you print. **Bill H.** is absolutely right in that if you edit a page using Notepad the changes won’t be reflected on the actual page, just on your “local” copy of it.

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**Author:** ![peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peace)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2000, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-file-edit-with-notepad/44797/8 "2000-12-09T21:54:58Z")

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Tx. I probably confused Page Setup with some editing feature in NS. I remember that I was able ty edit a page to some extend somehow, before typing it out. My actual concern was this: some web pages are designed using “tables” or “templates” or something. As a result, sometimes the text is printed scattered all over the page, instead of line-by-line. So, I thought of using “Edit” feature as page editor.

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**Author:** ![Kyberneticist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kyberneticist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyberneticist)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2000, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-file-edit-with-notepad/44797/9 "2000-12-09T21:59:54Z")

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Nitpick on \*\*mattk/b]'s comment.  
While HTML isn’t a programming language, the stuff within \<SCRIPT\> tags is. And it is possibly to do remarkably sophisticated stuff with it.

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**Author:** ![Shiva](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@Shiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shiva)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2000, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-file-edit-with-notepad/44797/10 "2000-12-09T22:48:07Z")

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**peace** , if I understand you correctly what you want to do is print text neatly from a web page where the text is arranged unusually.

The easiest way to do this is to copy the text from the page and paste it into Word, then edit away.

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**Author:** ![Kyberneticist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kyberneticist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyberneticist)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2000, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-file-edit-with-notepad/44797/11 "2000-12-09T23:41:47Z")

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If a website has very complex formatting (all the tables in a SDMB thread make cut n paste a pain, for example) and I still want a text version of it, I run htmltotext. Under Windows, you could probably save it, open in Word, then do a save as text.

Oh, and sorry about my (first ever :() screwed up vB code.  
p[

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**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2000, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-file-edit-with-notepad/44797/12 "2000-12-10T03:10:35Z")

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My ME says, “Edit with Microsoft Word for Windows.” And I don’t have Word.

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**Author:** ![peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peace)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2000, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-file-edit-with-notepad/44797/13 "2000-12-10T04:02:27Z")

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Editing pages is one of the things. I know about Word. But here is my problem: if the  
text is  
scattered all  
over  
the

page like  
this,  
it’s hard to edit it with “Delete”, “BS”, “Enter”, arrow keys and space bar. If only there was a command: “Words, fill the lines!”  
Alas!

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**Author:** ![Gaspode](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/aeb1de/32.png) [@Gaspode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaspode)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2000, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-file-edit-with-notepad/44797/14 "2000-12-10T12:59:43Z")

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Bet ya didn’t expect to see me here did ya Peace?

The way to get around this is simply to paste into Word then activate the " Find & Replace" window.  
In the [Find] tab there’s an option [Special] in the bottom RHS. Choose [manual line break] and replace these with a space-bar keystroke. This gets the whole sentence on one line.  
Activate the replace window again and this time choose [white space] and replace with a space-bar keystroke.  
Everything should now look like this:  
\*\*Editing pages is one of the things I know about Word. But here is my problem: if the text is scattered all over the page like this, it’s hard to edit it with “Delete”, “BS”, “Enter”, arrow keys and space bar. If only there was a command: “Words, fill the lines!” Alas! ! \*\*  
Not quite “Words, fill the lines!” More like “Spaces and returns, begone”  
This will only work if you wave your hands over the monitor three times and say “Ah la peanubutta sanwiches”

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**Author:** ![peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peace)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2000, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-file-edit-with-notepad/44797/15 "2000-12-10T16:16:10Z")

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Tx, Gaspode. I have Morw97, WMe. There is no “Find and Replace” window. What’s RHS?  
I have the following tabs across the taskbar:  
File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Tools, Table, Window, Help. None of them has Special.  
As you see, I am pretty dumb in some areas. I realize my deficiencies and am willing to listen to people who know better. I will answer you even if you say something like: “Bloody fool! Does not understand simple things!”  
BTW, my “graphic” example with “scattered” words did not show up in the actual post, but I’m sure, you know what I mean: the words are litrally scattered, not groupped at the beginning of the page.  
I will post in the “overeating” thread as well, but you look like you might know where to find the American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, 1986 on line. I tried word search, got “no results”, and I cannot enter names, they are not in “Salon” article.

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**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2000, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-file-edit-with-notepad/44797/16 "2000-12-10T16:25:19Z")

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**Peace** :

I have Word 97 and Windows 98. Here’s how I found it:

Open the **Edit** menu, then select **Replace** or **Find** (they lead to the same pop-up box, just different tabs on it). When the “Find and Replace” box appears, click the **More** button on the right-hand side (=RHS). It should open a new section at the bottom, and the **Special** button is included in the new section.

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**Author:** ![peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peace)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2000, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-file-edit-with-notepad/44797/17 "2000-12-10T16:47:40Z")

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Mattk, Tx.  
I found it! It will take time to learn, etc., but at least I know where to look. I could have looked RHS in any acronym finder, of course, stupid me! I got used to R for right and L for left, but the whole point is not important.

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**Author:** ![Gaspode](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/aeb1de/32.png) [@Gaspode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaspode)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2000, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-file-edit-with-notepad/44797/18 "2000-12-10T23:23:43Z")

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You didn’t wave your hands over the monitor three times and say “Ah la peanubutta sanwiches” did you Peace? I warned you, but would you listen? Oh no.

What Matt said except for some reason my replace pop-up comes with the ]more] already open and I have to remove it by clicking [less].

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**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2000, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-file-edit-with-notepad/44797/19 "2000-12-11T16:23:26Z")

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IE doesn’t come with it’s own HTML editor. Netscape does.

IE says for me, ‘edit with Netscape Composer’ because I have that.

You can get a free HTML editor for IE if you want. I have that too, I think that it’s called ‘Page Express’

You can set what program opens a HTML file for editing with IE from preferences.

That covers this one.