Windows Notepad is indeed a classic, longstanding built-in tool that, despite its simplicity, has always won over users with its charm. Recently, Microsoft has rolled out some fresh features for this application, including bold and italic styles, hyperlinks, and support for Markdown. These updates represent a significant leap for a plain text editor that has been around for so long.
The newly added text formatting feature has introduced a formatting toolbar at the top of the Notepad, placed alongside the existing File, Editing, and View options. This toolbar includes options for bold, italics, and hyperlinks while also supporting lists and headings. Dave Grochocki, the Chief Product Manager of the Microsoft Windows Mail app, explained that this new experience allows users to input and format files in Markdown style, making it perfect for those who love using lightweight markup languages.
Users can easily switch between formatted Markdown and Markdown syntax view using the View menu or through the toggle buttons found at the bottom of the window's status bar. Since the notepad is primarily used for plain text editing, users can also effortlessly clear all formatting through the formatting toolbar or edit menu. If any users are not interested in these formatting options, they can completely disable these new supported features in the application's settings.
Recently, Microsoft began testing its AI text generation feature in Notepad, with the new writing functionality designed to quickly draft text based on prompts. Coupled with various formatting options, Notepad's interface increasingly resembles that of Microsoft Word. After decades of minimal updates, Notepad has transformed from a basic text file reader into a tool capable of generating messages independently. These new features largely stem from Microsoft's decision to remove WordPad, which had been in use for nearly 30 years, from Windows.
