Windows Notepad facts for kids
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Notepad on Windows 11
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| Original author(s) | Richard Brodie | ||||
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| Developer(s) | Microsoft | ||||
| Initial release | 1983 (as Multi-Tool Notepad) |
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| Stable release(s) [±] | |||||
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| Operating system | Windows 10, 11 | ||||
| Platform | IA-32, x86-64, and ARM (historically Itanium, DEC Alpha, MIPS, and PowerPC) | ||||
| Predecessor | MS-DOS Editor | ||||
| Type | Text editor | ||||
| License | Freeware | ||||
Windows Notepad is a simple program on Windows computers. It helps you create and change plain text files. Think of it like a basic digital notebook! It first came out in 1983. Back then, it helped show people how useful the computer mouse could be.
Contents
The Story of Notepad
How Notepad Started
In May 1983, at a big computer show called COMDEX in Atlanta, Microsoft showed off something new. It was called Multi-Tool Notepad. This program was made by Richard Brodie. It was a simpler version of another program called Multi-Tool Word. Notepad could not make text bold, underlined, or italic.
These programs were created to help sell the new Microsoft Mouse. The mouse cost $195 and often came with Notepad or Word. Many people at the show had never seen a computer mouse before! The mouse started selling in July 1983. At first, not many people bought it. This was because it only worked with the programs that came with it. These included a tutorial, a drawing app, a music app, and Notepad or Word.
Changing Names
Later, Microsoft decided to change the names of its "Multi-Tool" programs. A person named Rowland Hanson suggested this. He believed that the product's name should be the "hero." He thought people would not automatically connect "Multi-Tool" with Microsoft. So, Multi-Tool Notepad became Windows Notepad. Multi-Tool Word became Microsoft Word. Hanson also convinced Bill Gates to change the name "Interface Manager" to "Windows." This happened before Windows 1.0 was released.
Since then, Notepad has always been a part of Microsoft Windows.
Notepad's Updates and Changes
Since 2012, Microsoft has been changing how some Windows apps are updated. They turned some built-in apps, like Sticky Notes, into "Microsoft Store apps." This means these apps can get updates more often, without waiting for a new Windows version.
Notepad has appeared in the Microsoft Store a few times. In August 2019, it showed up briefly. People thought Microsoft wanted to update Notepad more often this way. It appeared again in April 2020 with a new look.
On February 16, 2022, Microsoft released a new version of Notepad for Windows 11 users. This version added a cool Dark Mode. It also had an improved "Find and Replace" tool. Notepad is now available in the Microsoft Store for both Windows 10 and 11.
In March 2024, Microsoft announced new features for Notepad on Windows 11. These included spellcheck and autocorrect. In November 2024, Microsoft also added tools that use AI to help rewrite text. Users can now change how long text is, its tone, and its format. These new features are available to people in the Windows Insider program. They will be available to all Windows 11 users later.
What Notepad Can Do
Basic Features
Notepad is a text editor. This means it is made for editing plain text. It can open and change text files, which usually end with ".txt". It also works with other simple file types, like batch files and log files.
Notepad has very basic tools. You can find words or replace them with other words. For a long time, it did not even have many keyboard shortcuts. It also could not count lines of text. Starting with Windows 2000, common shortcuts like "New" and "Save" were added. A status bar that counts lines also appeared, but only if word-wrap was turned off.
Before a Windows 10 update in 2018, Notepad had trouble with text files made on Unix or Mac computers. It now understands these different ways of ending lines. This update also added a shortcut to delete the previous word (Ctrl). You can also zoom in and out of your text. Plus, there is a "Search with Bing" option.
Microsoft has worked to make Notepad faster. It can even open text files that other programs are using at the same time.
Text Appearance and Printing
In older versions of Windows, Notepad used a font called Fixedsys. Starting with Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 98, you could choose your own font. However, you cannot change the font for just one part of the text. The default font changed to Lucida Console on Windows 2000 and Consolas on Windows 8.
You can print files from Notepad. You can also change how the top and bottom of the page look. You can add the date or file name to the printed page.
Copying and Logging
Notepad can take text from the Windows clipboard. When you paste text into Notepad, it removes any special fonts or styles. This can be useful if you want to get rid of formatting from text you copied.
Notepad has a simple logging feature. If you open a file that has ".LOG" on its very first line, Notepad will automatically add the current time and date to the end of the file each time you open it.
In 2025, Notepad also added simple support for Markdown text.
Different Languages and Characters
Notepad supports many ways of encoding characters. This helps it show text correctly in different languages. It can handle Unicode, which is a way to show almost all the world's writing systems.
Since a Windows 10 update in 2018, Notepad can understand different ways that lines end in text files. This includes styles from Unix and Mac computers, not just Windows.
Notepad can also work with languages that read from right-to-left, like Arabic.
Notepad's Limits
Notepad has always had limits on how big a file it can open. In very old Windows versions, it could only open files up to 54 KB or 64 KB. For bigger files, Microsoft suggested using other programs like WordPad.
On Windows XP, Notepad could open files up to 32 MB. If a file was bigger, it would not open. On Windows 11, Notepad can open much larger files, up to about 1 GB. If a file is even bigger than that, Notepad will suggest you use a different program to open it.
How Notepad Detects Text Types
Older versions of Notepad on Windows NT computers sometimes made a mistake. They would think some plain English text was actually a different type of text called UTF-16. For example, if a file contained "aaaa aaa aaa aaaaa", Notepad might show strange Chinese characters instead. This problem was fixed in Windows Vista and newer versions.
Other Text Editors
Notepad is very simple. It does not have many features that other text editors offer. For example, it cannot select blocks of text easily. It also cannot open many files in one window.
Many other programs are available that are like Notepad but have more features. Some popular ones include AkelPad, Metapad, Notepad++, and Notepad2. These programs often have cool features like:
- Being able to undo many changes
- Coloring different parts of computer code (syntax coloring)
- Folding parts of code to hide them
- Using special search patterns (regular expressions)
- Recording actions to repeat them (macros)
- Choosing different ways to show characters
- Different visual styles (themes)
- Sorting text
- Changing text to all uppercase or lowercase
- Showing line numbers
- Automatically indenting text
- Removing blank lines
- Running without needing to be installed (portable mode)
See also
In Spanish: Bloc de notas para niños
- MS-DOS Editor, an older text editor that came before Notepad
- XML Notepad
