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Microsoft is Updating Windows Notepad Application For the First Time in Years (theverge.com)

Posted by msmash on from the about-time dept.

Microsoft is giving its Notepad app for Windows a surprising amount of new features. From a report: You'll soon be able to do wrap around find and replace alongside the ability to zoom into text by holding down the ctrl key and using the mouse wheel to zoom in and out. Microsoft is also adding in extended line ending support so that Unix/Linux line endings (LF) and Macintosh line endings (CR) are supported in Notepad. The status bar will now be enabled by default in Notepad, and it includes the ability to display line and column numbers when word-wrap is enabled.

11 of 248 comments (clear)

  1. Zooming into the future by AlexanKulbashian · · Score: 5, Funny

    jumping from 1991 to 2002 in a single version update

  2. It's about time! by ScentCone · · Score: 4, Funny

    Did this happen during the last administration? I don't think so. Now that the Notepad Tax has been reduced, this is exactly the sort of reinvestment we should expect.

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    Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  3. Notepad++ by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sounds like it will still be behind Notepad++ or even Textpad in functionality.

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    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    1. Re:Notepad++ by Drethon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I do like how lightweight the Notepad app is relative to Notepad++. I'd prefer they keep Nodepad very simple, though the line endings update is a good idea.

    2. Re:Notepad++ by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 4, Informative

      So what? It's a simple text editor. It does exactly what is needed.

      It doesn't need bloat or "features". It allows one to get things done quickly without having to worry about this or that.

      If you need functionality, use Notepad++. That's what it's there for. For the rest of us who want speed and ease of use, Notepad all the way.

      Notepad++ is just as quick and easy as regular notepad. You can use it for simple things just like Notepad. The advanced features may take a little more knowledge- but the basics that notepad has are in the exact same place on Notepad++. No learning curve needed, and it opens just as quick.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    3. Re: Notepad++ by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Fast to open, my ass. Virtually every time I reopen Notepad++ it complaints about having to update all the plugins and the dialog blocks the app, forcing a decision which potentially had to update the whole application.

      If I want a reliable, instant plain-text empty buffer for pasting or typing, MS Notepad is the way to go. I hope this update doesn't screw it.

      Your experience would be because you:

      a) Have lots of plugins installed.
      b) Don't even actually update anything- just skip the update everytime
      c) or only use Notepad++ once a year so get caught with the update everytime you open it.

      - I probably see a window telling me to upgrade one time out of every 2 or 3 hundred times I use Notepad++

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    4. Re:Notepad++ by EndlessNameless · · Score: 4, Funny

      I would imagine that my PC would weigh just the same no matter what version of Notepad I was using.

      Well, that depends on how many 1s are in their binaries. Everybody knows it's the 1s that add weight.

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      According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.
  4. Macintosh Line Endings? by Marillion · · Score: 5, Informative

    Does anyone at Microsoft understand that Macintosh line endings haven't been CR for over 15 years? Macintosh is now Unix. Has been since 2001. Please inform the Excel team too.

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    This is a boring sig
  5. personally I prefer notepad just as it is. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's installed on every windows machine and always works and is very light. It's the one application that Microsoft really hasn't touched and guess what..it works the same as it always has.

    Now they're touching it, it'll snowball and eventually be moved into an AppX application with a tiled interface with ribbons and Cortana build into it.

  6. Re:No one cares... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Notepad is probably one of very few apps that is used constantly, in the manner you described. It's familiar, quick, convienent and in many cases totally sufficient for the things you use it for. This hasn't gone unnoticed by Microsoft.

    All the telemetry collected by Windows is telling them there's an application that they haven't properly monetized. There are ads in Minesweeper and Solitaire, but Notepad is far more useful and you spend more time looking at it. And they know. The telemetry tells them what apps are running and for how long.

    They are 'updating' the Notepad application to include hooks to their advertising framework. It's no use displaying ads in places people aren't looking, and you're looking at Notepad. And they know, and soon you'll be looking at advertisments, jammed into whatever "helpful" widget is added to "help" you. Because it looks like you need help, and you're going to get it, whether you like it or not.

  7. Re: No one cares... by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ^^^ This. My favorite locked-down machine trick is one where they "only" let you have admin access to Notepad, which is plenty of access once you open up Notepad's "file open" dialog and essentially get to have admin access to File Explorer.