You can link to the files instead of storing in UR, and then edit inside or outside of UR. Import the folder without storing contents, and then synchronize the folder to update UR's index with any changes to the external files, new files added, etc.
http://www.kinook.com/UltraRecall/Ma...portfolder.htm
http://www.kinook.com/UltraRecall/Ma...ronization.htm
UR always exports rich text items as RTF, but you could copy and paste from UR into a text editor to convert to text or use something like
http://rtf2text.codeplex.com/ to convert RTF files to text.