Microsoft Enriches Notepad with Basic Text Formatting

[AleksandarK]

Microsoft has updated its most popular and most basic text editor with some new functionality. In Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev Channels on Windows 11, Microsoft has updated Notepad to version 11.2504.50.0, introducing basic text formatting to its previously simple text editor. Now, it supports Markdown integration, featuring formatted Markdown and Markdown syntax views in the view menu, which allows users to type out Markdown syntax and view it rendered later on. While this may seem like a minor functionality improvement, it is an effort from Microsoft to enrich its basic text editor to a point where it is just enough for lightweight text editing but not close to its flagship Word text editor/processor. As you may recall, Microsoft also recently integrated Copilot, its AI assistant, into Notepad. This update, along with Copilot, will enable users to perform basic text processing with the help of AI, correcting grammar, spelling, and even Markdown syntax mistakes on the fly.



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[mashie]

Microsoft must be completely oblivious what people are using their software for.

The number one use of notepad is to dump text in there to strip off any formatting before pasting it somewhere else.

 

[AleksandarK]

Microsoft must be completely oblivious what people are using their software for.

The number one use of notepad is to dump text in there to strip off any formatting before pasting it somewhere else.

Or also during meetings to jot down whatever you manage to hear!

 

[mashie]

Microsoft OneNote is much better for that btw.

 

[Daven]

Microsoft OneNote is much better for that btw.

OneNote is a great meeting note taking tool. I second this post!

 

[Cheeseball]

Microsoft must be completely oblivious what people are using their software for.

The number one use of notepad is to dump text in there to strip off any formatting before pasting it somewhere else.

I just checked this out and there is an option to still have basic text handling only.

I think this new version is using enriched text and not exactly/fully Rich Text Format (RTF) which is what the deprecated Wordpad handled. I can be completely wrong with this assumption though.

 

[ymdhis]

They could've just... kept WordPad for this, and left Notepad for the format-less text. The only improvement Notepad needed was more efficient loading and rendering (on large files it was extremely slow).

MS has no clue what they are doing. It's incredible how they manage to develop all their software backwards.

 

[kondamin]

Microsoft must be completely oblivious what people are using their software for.

The number one use of notepad is to dump text in there to strip off any formatting before pasting it somewhere else.

Microsoft is doing it's darn best to get technical people off of the platform so they no longer get criticism

 

[_roman_]

i hardly used notepad - even as a windows user sometimes.

 

[Muser99]

Spyware!?

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Microsoft must be completely oblivious what people are using their software for.

The number one use of notepad is to dump text in there to strip off any formatting before pasting it somewhere else.

They could've just... kept WordPad for this, and left Notepad for the format-less text. The only improvement Notepad needed was more efficient loading and rendering (on large files it was extremely slow).

MS has no clue what they are doing. It's incredible how they manage to develop all their software backwards.

It’s the new Notepad with Copliot+!

 

[math_dude]

Microsoft: deprecates wordpad
Also Microsoft: adds wordpad's functionalities to notepad

 

[xSneak]

Seems like they are replacing wordpad with it.

It's still a farce how bad file explorer is and instead of fixing it they mess around with notepad.

 

[nis]

Notepad++ is the answer.

 

[windwhirl]

The number one use of notepad is to dump text in there to strip off any formatting before pasting it somewhere else.

I have the new version of the app. It seems that you need to either open a "Markdown tab"
or use the formatting options in the toolbar to have Markdown enabled.


Sort of. It seems the default view is "Syntax" for new Markdown tabs, which just shows plain text as usual and hides the format toolbar.

 

[sLowEnd]

Seems like Microsoft is trying to fix what isn't broken.

 

[Kwadratowicz]

For me Notepad is broken, it has tabs -.- I need small text editor that is single task, cause if the text is messing up I can force shut down it, not entire txt files that I've opened.
And only with windows 11 notepad I've had problem that text was messing notepad to not responding -.- and it was hard to kill.

 

[b1k3rdude]

The photo in the artical patronising and typically american, a bit like micro$haft..