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I see lots of apps that can create "files that contain text", but the files are in their own proprietary format.

I would like to create a plain text file so that if the file is transferred to a computer, it could be opened using a common text editor, like notepad or gedit etc.

Is this possible?

Device

  • Samsung Galaxy Note 2
  • Running Android 4.4.2
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  • The question is equivalent to: What is a useful text editor for Android? Unfortunately it' hard to find a good one. I thought a found one, but it won't open "large" files like 3MB, even when I have 4GB RAM.
    – U. Windl
    Commented Sep 16, 2022 at 10:43

2 Answers 2

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You need to install a third-party app to create a text file. There is a swarm of text editors in Google's proprietary Play Store app store and on free/libre and open source F-Droid app store. Choose whichever text editor suits your needs.

Do note that some file manager apps also allow creating a plain text file, so check your file manager first to see if it provides such a feature or not.

You can also create a text file in your phone by connecting your phone to your PC in MTP (file transfer) mode and using your text editor in PC to save the text file in the phone.

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If you're serious about wanting to deal with plaintext on Android, I recommend installing Termux and learning how to use the Nano text editor (via Termux). Here are some links to help you get started there. Also, I recommend getting a bluetooth keyboard.

Okay, so once you have Termux installed, you basically have a Linux command-line app; no GUI, but you don't really need one terribly. You can install and use all sorts of programs that make your tablet useful--and you can make your own, if you're a programmer. As an added bonus, both Termux and Nano make it easy to multi-task once you learn how (in Termux ctrl+alt+c makes a new terminal; ctrl+alt+up/down moves between them; in Nano, you can move between open text files with alt+left/right).

So, in Linux, to create a text file, you can do it plenty of ways:

  1. touch myFile.txt (that will create it if it's not there)
  2. Type nano myFile.txt edit it, and save it.

Stuff like that. Learning how to use the Linux command-line will be important if you take this approach. You'll want to know commands like this:

  • ls to show the contents of the current working directory
  • cd myDirectory to change the directory to myDirectory
  • Follow just about any command with --help (e.g. nano --help) to learn more about how to use it. man whatEverMyCommandIs also helps (it opens the manpage for it, if available).
  • rm myfile to delete a file
  • rm -r myDirectory to delete a directory/folder
  • mkdir myDirectory to make a new directory
  • chmod +x myFile to make a file executable
  • ./myExecutableFile to run an executable file that is in the current directory.
  • exit to exit the shell (note you can type bash to create a new one running inside of the current one, so if you exit, you'll return to the old one)
  • pkg install myApp to install a program called myApp (if it exists in the package manager); I don't remember if Nano comes pre-installed; if it doesn't, type pkg install nano.
  • ctrl+c and ctrl+z are useful if you need to force quit a running program.
  • Press tab to autocomplete stuff you're typing (like file and directory names).
  • If you can't find a program for your purpose, see if someone has made one with Python; Python works on Termux, and so does pip (so, you've got access to lots of stuff).

There are more Termux-related apps on F-Droid, if you want to be able to do even more stuff with that.

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