You can place other files (for example, other text files, spreadsheets, or PDF files) or entire applications within a TextEdit document. The embedded files or applications appear as icons alongside the text in the document. Viewers can double-click the icons to open the embedded files.

Files can only be embedded in Rich Text Format (RTF) documents and Web Archive documents. To convert your document to an RTF file, choose Format > Make Rich Text. After you add an embedded file, the next time you save the document, it is saved as an RTFD file.

You can't open or drag an embedded file from a TextEdit document until you save the document.

If you add a large file to a TextEdit document, you increase the size of the document by the size of the file you add. For instance, if you embed a 700 MB application in a TextEdit document, the document size becomes 700 MB plus the original size of the TextEdit document.