NOTEPAD

Text editing is an important activity when it comes to computers use. Even applications and web pages rely on tons of lines of code to make everything work. There are some default tools Windows puts at your disposal, but if you’re looking to try something new, alternatives like NOTEPAD can prove to be the right choice.

The application was built on the Java Runtime Environment platform, which means you need to have it installed on your computer to run the program. On the other hand, NOTEPAD itself doesn’t need to be installed, and can even be used from a USB flash drive, without having to worry that the target PC gets affected.

On the visual side of things, features are stored in a clean interface, with a neat arrangement of buttons and functions, with most of the space representing your canvas. Unlike the Notepad in Windows, this one also supports rich text, which means you’re able to load and save RTF files as well, besides plain TXT. However, you can’t drag them over the main window to view content.

The canvas is clean and simple, with no rulers to help you align text in a specific manner, nor any counters to let you know how many words or characters are in a document. However, format options give you the possibility to convert letter casing, and even change the type, size, and style of text, but not the color, and settings apply to the entire text, and not just your selection.

Other options are general functions found in basic text editors, such as copying or pasting text strings. There’s an additional option with which to quickly find a word or string of interest, or even replace it with another. Be careful when pressing the save button, because you’re not asked whether to save a new file, and the original is automatically overwritten.

Bottom line is that NOTEPAD wants to provide basic text editing options in an intuitive, simple environment. Sure enough, this is accomplished, but it’s not a lot different than what Windows puts at your disposal in terms of features, which makes overall practicality rather questionable.