Simple problem.. loading binary text files..

Okay, this will be a very simple problem for anyone who has done it before. I will use nehe''s tutorial 23 just as an example. Is there any way that I could open the world.txt file and save it in binary format, then when I run the program, it reads it from the binary format and loads the level? I used to know how to do this, and it was fairly simple. Can someone please remind me! hehehe Thanx in advance. ~Cobra~