Acer Swift 3 Rich Text Format There is no error message - just nothing happens at all.

ALCC
ALCC Member Posts: 5

Tinkerer

edited June 2023 in Swift and Spin Series

Hi all - I've just bought an Acer Swift 3 (having been a Mac user for many years). There is a piece of software I use for work that exports certain reports as Rich Text Format (.rtf) documents, rather than eg in Word (you can then save them as Word but can only export in .rtf). All other exports seem to be working fine (PDF and .txt) but not the .rtf ones. There is no error message - just nothing happens at all.

I can open existing .rtf documents on my laptop just fine. The exports work when I do it on a different machine (eg an HP).

Does anyone know if Acer has a particular issue with .rtf formats?

Thanks

[Edited the thread to add model name to the title and to add issue detail]

Answers

  • ALCC
    ALCC Member Posts: 5

    Tinkerer

    Hi there - thanks so much for replying. I've tried that but sadly it hasn't worked. I don't know if it's something to do with the interface between the software and my computer but when I try and use any of the exports that go to .rtf , still nothing happens. There's no error message or anything…

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,944 Trailblazer

    WordPad defaults to rich text format.

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  • ALCC
    ALCC Member Posts: 5

    Tinkerer

    Hi there - yes, most things I can work around. But unfortunately this particular software ONLY has an export format option as .rtf. So if rtf is not enabled, it simply won't export at all. So I need to find a way of re-enabling rtf as a format…

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,944 Trailblazer
    edited June 2023

    RTF format isn't a function of the OS, it's a function of the application.The OS doesn't care how the file is formatted, only what app is used to open that file type. With Windows the .rtf file type can be opened by Wordpad, or other apps.

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  • ALCC
    ALCC Member Posts: 5

    Tinkerer

    Hi there - it may be something to do with the interface between the application and Windows 11 - but the only option to export reports from the application is .rtf - so without .rtf being enabled or working, the reports don't export at all. So I can't open them in WordPad because there's nothing to open. So I really do need a way of making .rtf a valid format on my laptop, unfortunately. If anyone has any suggestions for how to do that, I would be very grateful.

    Thanks

    Anna

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,944 Trailblazer

    That sure sounds like an issue with the application. Like I said the OS doesn't care what format the file is so it's not doing anything to block the export. Is the application trying to save the export somewhere where the user doesn't have write access? It likely should default to the documents folder, and there shouldn't be any issue there…

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  • ALCC
    ALCC Member Posts: 5

    Tinkerer

    It's just how the software was developed, rather than it being a bug or a glitch. I completely understand that rtf format documents are handled by Wordpad in Windows 11 - and I can open other rtf documents no problem. But it's just with that one application, it either exports certain reports specifically as a .rtf file or it doesn't export at all. Once exported I'd be absolutely fine using other word processing applications for editing.

    It is quite an old piece of software now and although it's been updated for different things over the years, there's never been a need to tinker with the report export formats. It's proprietary software so either the developers make changes or no-one does (long story), and it sounded like it would be easier to re-enable .rtf on Windows 11. But having done some digging I don't think that's the case - I don't think you can re-enable .rtf quite in the way that it sounded, unfortunately! I'm just going to have to keep my old laptop going just for exporting those reports, I think. It is what it is…!

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,944 Trailblazer

    You shouldn't need to do anything other than select export and let it save the .rtf document. There's nothing going on in the OS that stops you from saving, except when saving to a protected area.

    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.