saving a patcher as text not working

    MaxMSPbeginner
    mkap7's icon
    mkap7's icon
    mkap7
    Mar 17 2023 | 3:52 pm
    Hi folks,
    I'm having trouble with something that used to work fine for me - saving a patcher as a text file. (Basic, I know.) The online documentation says to open a patcher, go to Save As in the file menu, and select the Max text format ( .mxt). But I do not see a Max text format among the choices. Any idea why not? Thanks, -mk
    • ecuk's icon
      ecuk's icon
      ecuk
      Mar 17 2023 | 4:08 pm
      Save it as a .maxpat file, which should be plain text.
      Share
    • mkap7's icon
      mkap7's icon
      mkap7
      Mar 17 2023 | 4:26 pm
      Hmmm.....ok, and I know you can open any .maxpat as a text file......but then what is this Max text format (.mxt)?
    • ecuk's icon
      ecuk's icon
      ecuk
      Mar 17 2023 | 4:47 pm
      I am not sure, but my suspicion is that it is a holdover from the days when some filesystems only allowed you to have three-character extensions. Just guessing, though.
      Edit: Looking around a bit more it appears that .mxt is a pre-JSON text format. Maybe some who was around before version 5 (I believe) will have a more enlightened answer, however.
    • Julien Bayle's icon
      Julien Bayle's icon
      Julien Bayle
      Mar 17 2023 | 6:29 pm
      why would you need to save a patch in Max Text format ?
    • mkap7's icon
      mkap7's icon
      mkap7
      Mar 18 2023 | 1:13 am
      I guess there isn't much need for that if the maxpat file itself is just a text file. (I didn't realize that.) I went into the Max help stacks looking for how to share patches, and got onto a page about saving things as a "Max text" file (.mxt).....so that's what I tried to do. I see now that it's not necessary - just open as text, cut and paste.