The Verge – Microsoft is updating the Windows Notepad app for the first time in years.
Today, this news headline appeared in my news feed on my phone…Wait… What… Why? Why update notepad for windows now? I mean, who even used it any more with so many other notepad alternatives… In 2014 Online-Tech-Tips.com posted an article highlighting 10 of the best notepad replacements. Since early 2000, maybe 2004 or 2005 I have been using Notepad++, I download the free app and install it on any PC/Laptop I use, work or personal. Notepad has been lacking in features for so long… I’m sure it is only used on production servers (web, database, etc) where admins do not allow any desktop applications to be installed.
I checked a few other news sources and here is a short quick summary of the so-called newsworthy updates. Added features include:
- Wrap around find and replace
- Ability to zoom into text by holding down the ctrl key and using the mouse wheel to zoom in and out
- 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
- ctrl+backspace support to delete a previous word
- Performance improvements for large files
- Search for words on Bing through Notepad
- Arrow keys now unselect text before moving the cursor
- When saving a file in Notepad the line and column number don’t reset to 1 anymore
Are you kidding me… Notepad should have had those features (and more) 10 years ago. THIS was news that everyone had to post updates about?
Does Notepad:
- Have a tabbed interface?
- Have recent file history
- Have “Find in Files” feature
- Have a macro feature for repetitive steps
- Have color syntax highlighting
- Or other features that most simple editors have????
Nothing to see here… Move along.
Sources:
https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/12/17563704/microsoft-windows-notepad-app-update
https://fossbytes.com/microsoft-notepad-update-windows-10-in-years/