I am attempting to execute (not open) a simple HTML file using Safari. I created the file using TextEdit, and saved it as INDEX.HTM. When I right click the file in Finder, and choose Safari as the Open With app, the HTML does not execute--it simply displays the HTML in Safari. Any help is appreciated.
MacBook Pro (M2, 2022)
You're welcome. If you want a full-featured text editor BBEdit is my favorite. Among its many features is a built-in web page preview customizable for any installed browser. It's in the App Store. Not free but worth it.
John, thanks so much for your response. Here is what I have done so far to fix this problem. First, in TextEdit, I changed the Settings -> New Document -> Format to Plain Text. I was pretty sure that the Rich Text Format would mess up my code. I confirmed this by looking at the code using Safari -> Develop -> Show Page Source. Changing to Plain Text did not work and I got the same output (it wrapped up my code and simply displayed my code in Safari). Next, I renamed the file to MyCode.HTML. This also failed. Next, I changed the URL in Safari to File:///users/.../MyCode.HTML. No luck. Then, I tried HTTP://users/.../MyCode.HTML. The code still did not execute. As a workaround, I was thinking of coding directly in the Show Page Source pane, however, I'm not sure yet how to do that. Thanks again to your help with this problem.
Eureka! Your solution above got me thinking that maybe I should also change Textedit -> Settings -> Open and Save -> When Opening a File to Display HTML Files as Code instead of formatted text. The new solution sounded kind of wonky, but I gave it a try, and, IT WORKED! Thanks again for the help.
TextEdit's default document format is Rich Text. Save it as a web page.
Save... menu > File Format > choose Web Page (.html)
That should work.
How Do I Execute an HTML file using Safari
