We are very excited to introduce to all of you the redesigned Notepad for Windows 11, which includes a number of changes we think the community will enjoy! First, you will notice a completely updated UI that aligns with the new visual design of Windows 11, including rounded corners, Mica, and more. We know how important Notepad is to so many of your daily workflows, so we designed this modern spin on the classic app to feel fresh, but familiar.
I mean, it’s just a notepad application, but finally seeing a modern Notepad from Microsoft is quite something for a company that’s been so lazy with its first-party applications for such a long time. I wonder if word wrap is still turned off by default?
I try to use cross platform stuff even though I have ditched Windows to keep all my options open. I use Notepadqq which is a clone of Notepad++. I used to use Textpad on Windows when I used to code. It made more sense than an IDE as I was coding to the Win32 API etcetera and I could hook all the usual nonsense like static analysers into it too.
On Windows Wordpad has always been crippled by not supporting page breaks.
I’ve only been exclusively on Linux for around a month and already beginning to forget Windows and whatnot. Oh, Notepad. I had forgotten it existed.
To be honest who cares that Windows Notepad has received a makeover? Does anyone count Bill Gate’s farts? It’s the same level. Free publicity for an entity which doesn’t deserve it
I have been using Gnomes Gedit for years. Has everything you need.
https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Gedit
> “I try to use cross platform stuff”
I use and recommend Sublime, under Windows / Linux and Mac.
It’s been a while since I’ve looked, but I don’t remember Sublime being opensource.
VS Code, on the other hand…
> To be honest who cares that Windows Notepad has received a makeover? Free publicity for an entity which doesn’t deserve it
The users do, at least I do.
I use Notepad as a tool to jot notes. Like when I’m on a phone call and I need to write down something: On Windows, I use Notepad because it is simple and quick to launch; on OpenBSD or Linux, I use vi because it is simple and quick to launch (I always have xterm open so start writing in vi is only 4 keystrokes away); on macOS, I use TextEdit because it is right there in the Dock.
Is the update to Notepad good? Yes, why not. I use dark mode as many places as I can, because I find light mode too bright, and it is my own preference.
Some people may use something like VS Code, Sublime Text, Emacs, or even simple as pencil and paper. I don’t use those, why? Those tools are too slow to launch, or in case of pencil and paper, I need to enter the information manually to the computer afterwards.
Your complain can apply on other Windows accessories like the calculator. Why are there converters built into it? Who cares? Well, the users who use it care, because it is ready for use, they don’t have to “Google” it (thus no internet connection needed). Contributors [1] care and their contributions show that.
You see, it is the use cases and preferences of other people. Same for other software: Why Emacs but not vi, when vi is almost pre-installed? Why tsch but not zsh, when zsh providers so many features? Why so many Linux distributions, when Debian is proven stable distro.? Why GCC but not LLVM, when LLVM is new and shiny? Why Firefox but not Chromium, when Chromium implements new features relatively earlier?
I really don’t like the kind of attitude that “I don’t use it, why should anyone care?”, as if you are the only one who the software vendors/ program authors should serve.
> Does anyone count Bill Gate’s farts?
Maybe it is a just a joke or whatever, but really: How do you (or anyone) count? How does this related to an operating system (main theme of this site, I suppose)?
Come on.
[1] https://github.com/microsoft/calculator/graphs/contributors
Exactly, I do the same.
By the way, I fail to see the improvement. I don´t think that the search function has improved. And moving 2 options out of the menu bar in an application with only 5 option (now 3) is stupid. Well, the dark mode for those that use it.
> And moving 2 options out of the menu bar in an application with only 5 option (now 3) is stupid.
I have access to the version on Windows 10 only. By comparing to the screen capture, Format and Help are removed.
From my perspective, I don’t think I ever need to use the Help option. I only use Format to (1) enable Word Wrap and (2) set to use monospace font, both done only after setting up a fresh new install, so it is less than 5 times (in 2~3 years) I think. So this change will have low impact to me. Of course, YMMV.
> By the way, I fail to see the improvement.
I would say multi-level undo is one of the improvements, not visible in the screen capture though.
I think they were moved to the gear icon in the right
I’m kinda in between caring & not caring myself. I generally agree with you that this is not THAT big a change.
YET… I’ve been part of UI overhauls on Android for both smaller apps and ones used by a great many users. I know how cleaning up the UI, making things more intuitive, and faster to get the info you want, is important. I even geek out about cleaning up codebases both architecturally and visually. So, congrats to the devs who got it out.
But, on the other hand, I would find it MORE exciting if they at least added *some* cool features from editors like vim. If notepad a something akin to the s/// operator in vim, I’d definitely love to see that.
So kudos to hard working devs on this project. But, if anyone at MS sees this post, please add something like s/// (and preferably where I can type it out instead of clicking/tabbing between a ton of fields).
Thicker menu and title bars to waste even more screen space. Yayy!!!
I guess I’ll continue replacing notepad.exe with notepad2 for the foreseeable future.
It really is a pretty chunky title bar isn’t it.
And… Notepad will be dead to me if it doesn’t have fast start up times anymore.
I wonder if this Notepad version suffers from the same issues most UWP-style installed apps have with roaming profile solutions (including Microsoft’s own… three at least). Historically, “app store” appx type apps break with roaming profile solutions as there’s too tight an integration between the user profile part of the app and the system part of the app – that’s (partly) why Server 2022 still ships with the old-style win32 calculator for example.
Notepad is one of those apps that really needs to be able to run no matter what.