Enriched mode is a buffer-local minor mode (Minor Modes). When you visit a file that has been saved in the text/enriched format, Emacs automatically enables Enriched mode, and applies the formatting information in the file to the buffer text. When you save a buffer with Enriched mode enabled, it is saved using the text/enriched format, including the formatting information. To create a new file of formatted text, visit the nonexistent file and type M-x enriched-mode. This command actually toggles Enriched mode. With a prefix argument, it enables Enriched mode if the argument is positive, and disables Enriched mode otherwise. If you disable Enriched mode, Emacs no longer saves the buffer using the text/enriched format; any formatting properties that have been added to the buffer remain in the buffer, but they are not saved to disk. Enriched mode does not save all Emacs text properties, only those specified in the variable enriched-translations. These include properties for fonts, colors, indentation, and justification. If you visit a file and Emacs fails to recognize that it is in the text/enriched format, type M-x format-decode-buffer. This command prompts for a file format, and re-reads the file in that format. Specifying the text/enriched format automatically enables Enriched mode. To view a text/enriched file in raw form (as plain text with markup tags rather than formatted text), use M-x find-file-literally (Visiting). Format Conversion, for details of how Emacs recognizes and converts file formats like text/enriched. Text Properties, for more information about text properties.