How do I save a TextEdit (mac) file with a custom extension (.sas)?

Question

So, I'm in the process of writing some code for SAS and I realized I have to save the file as filename.sas. My professor mentioned that I would have to use note pad or another text editor on my computer.

How can I use TextEdit on the Mac to save a .sas file? Opening TextEdit, adding some text, and saving causes the file to have a .rtf or .odt extension added to it.

Should probably add that my mac version is 10.5.8

Answer 1

Your Mac comes with TextEdit, which is a perfectly good basic text editor. Be sure to choose Format > Make Plain Text so that you get a text file. Be sure to uncheck Hide Extension when you save, and provide the .sas extension manually. Or you can change the extension later using File > Get Info in the Finder.

You also have pico, vim, vi, emacs, and probably a host of others in the Terminal.