PowerShell Out-file -width does not truncate content when exporting to a file -

i have windows 7 , powershell 4.0. when exporting content file -width parameter not format based on given setting. here sample of trying do:

"it nice hot sunny day" | out-file -filepath ".\output.txt" -encoding ascii -width 10 

the result of export not truncated @ 10th character. not truncated @ all. cannot figure out what's wrong.

this came of surprise me, apparently, -width parameter works formatted objects:

string(s) input, no effect

ps c:\> "it nice hot sunny day" |out-file '.\output.txt' -width 10 -force; gc '.\output.txt' nice hot sunny day 

format-table, works

ps c:\> new-object psobject -property @{text="it nice hot sunny day"} | format-table |out-file '.\output.txt' -width 10 -force; gc '.\output.txt'  text ----- a... 

format-list, works, in strange manner:

ps c:\> new-object psobject -property @{text="it nice hot sunny day"} | format-table |out-file '.\output.txt' -width 10 -force; gc '.\output.txt'  text :               n        ice         ho        t s        unn        y        day 

so, closest can propably format-table -hidetableheaders:

ps d:\> new-object psobject -property @{text="it nice hot sunny day"} | format-table -hidetableheaders|out-file '.\output.txt' -width 10 -force; gc '.\output.txt'  a... 

---

inspired @matt's answer, write own function truncate strings:

function resize-string {     param(         [parameter(mandatory=$true,valuefrompipeline=$true)]         [string[]]$inputobject,         [int]$width = 10     )      process{         $inputobject.substring(0,[system.math]::min([string]$inputobject[0].length,$width))     } }  ps c:\> "it nice hot sunny day" |resize-string|out-file '.\output.txt' -width 10 -force; gc '.\output.txt' ni