Ever wished you could slightly format your notes in Notepad, with bold text or a heading?
Well, you’re in luck.
That’s what it’s like in the cyber security world right now.
Microsoft is giving Notepad a little upgrade. This could make quite a difference for those of us who still use it to jot down notes, meeting minutes, or quick checklists.
Part of the appeal of Notepad is that it’s lightweight and simple. It’s responsive, opens quickly, and saves fast. That’s why so many people still love it.
Microsoft is now testing a few light formatting features. This includes things like bold, italics, hyperlinks, headings, and basic bullet points.
The aim is not to turn Notepad into a full-blown word processor, but to allow users some control, to make their notes a bit clearer.
These new formatting features are based on something called markdown. It’s a no fuss way of adding structure to plain text by using simple symbols. For instance, adding a couple of asterisks around a word makes it bold.
It’s still light, clean and not as resource intensive as Word or other editing tools. And, if you prefer Notepad without formatting, you can turn it off completely.
There is some concern that adding these additional features has the potential to bloat the app and make it slower. But the changes are minimal and optional.
And with WordPad officially being retired as of 2024. There’s a need for a tool that sits between plain text and a fully featured word processor.
This may be a welcome change for smaller businesses that need a simple tool for documentation. It allows for clear structured notes which require minimum time and system resources.
It’s small, but helpful.
Microsoft is modernising even their most basic tools for Windows 11 without losing what makes them useful in the first place.
Keep an eye out for the new changes if you’re using Windows 11. And maybe try some bold headings when you’re scribbling some notes in Notepad.
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