Notepad doesn't display line breaks

[Colin McCormick]

When I view text files in Notepad under Windows 2000 Pro,
their line breaks are often replaced by small rectangles.
Word wrap doesn't change this, nor does changing the
font. This only happens with files from somewhere else,
never with files I have created. What's going on, and how
can I change it?

 

[Gary Smith]

When I view text files in Notepad under Windows 2000 Pro,
their line breaks are often replaced by small rectangles.
Word wrap doesn't change this, nor does changing the
font. This only happens with files from somewhere else,
never with files I have created. What's going on, and how
can I change it?

These files are probably Unix-format text files, which have only carriage
returns marking the end of each line instead of the Windows standard
carriage return plus line feed. What you need is a program that can
convert Unix linebreaks to Windows linebreaks. There are many such
programs available. I use NewLine from Steve Miller's Win32 Console
Toolbox <http://stevemiller.net/apps/>. It can be run from a command
prompt, but I found it more convenient to add an entry for it to the
SendTo menu.

 

[aleph]

Umm, try Wordpad, you'll be surprised to find out it DOES
in fact serve a purpose!

 

[aleph]

<quote>
What you need is a program that can
convert Unix linebreaks to Windows linebreaks.
</quote>

Like wordpad?

 

[Gary Smith]

<quote>
What you need is a program that can
convert Unix linebreaks to Windows linebreaks.
</quote>

Like wordpad?

Yeah, that does work. Open the file and save it, and all of the line
endings are fixed. I hardly ever use Wordpad, so it never occurred to me
to try it. Of course, it may not be the best solution if you have a whole
folder full of files to be converted. That's where the command line based
approach shines.