How to make text file created in Ubuntu compatible with Windows Notepad?

Sometime I have to use the text files created in Ubuntu, using editors, in Windows editors. So basically when ever I create a text file in Ubuntu I append the extension .txt, and it does make the file open in Windows very easily.

But the actual problem is the text files created in Ubuntu are so difficult to understand (read) when opened in Windows' Notepad. No matter how many lines have been used, all the lines appear in the same one line.

Is there a easy way to save the text files in Ubuntu's basic editors so that it can be seen exactly the same in Windows' notepad?

Unlike Unix where a new line is represented by a LF character we need a combination CR/LF for files in DOS/Windows:

Gedit

We can let Gedit save text documents with Windows-style line endings in the File -> Save as dialog.

• Adjust the settings for Line Endings in the drop down menu to Windows.

  

Nano

To make nano write text files in DOS format we have to run it with the following command line option ¹:

nano --dos <filename>

Vim

Vim can convert files from Unix to DOS format with the following control sequences ² :

:update
:e ++ff=dos
:w

Emacs

To set the buffer coding to DOS style issue Meta + x :

set-buffer-file-coding-system utf-8-dos

Converting Unix-style line termination to Windows-style and back

I'm not sure if it's installed by default. Try this to be sure

sudo apt-get install dos2unix

You can convert the files with this to Windows-style

unix2dos myFileFromUbuntu.txt

And with this back to Unix-style

dos2unix myFileFromWindows.txt

Changing them back is often unnecessary. You will find, that the standard text editors handle Windows-style line termination just fine.