This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Wordpad always seemed like an annoying and unnecessary half-step between notepad and word to me.
I liked having the minimal formatting options in WordPad without the bloat of Word.
Wordpad is also able to open large text files without having a stroke. RIP
This is my most common use. It is grrat for opening large log files on servers.
I read that like you’re Tony the Tiger. “It is GRRRRRREAT for opening large log files.”
Word is now so bloated that I fear using it. It's nice to have Wordpad.
T
Ah. Are you trying to write about Theodore Roosevelt? Bing can help!
The
Here are 10,000 links to Theodore Roosevelt
The fox....
As if Clippy wasn't doing that 25 years ago.
its pretty neat if you dont have access to word, which is likely why they want to get rid of it
Doubtful. There are a myriad of free and FOSS options that are available right now to people of even limited technological skill. WordPad isn't damaging their bottom line, but since it's certainly not adding to it, there's no point in maintaining it.
It was very niche, but it’s great for viewing docs or other light work on a system you don’t want to install a whole office suite onto.
Can't say I ever needed it in the 28 years I've been using Windows. I'm sure there are plenty who did, though.
Microsoft: We can't spy on your usage when you use wordpad, use O365 instead! (guessing since MS recommends using O365 Word in its place).
TBH, I haven't used wordpad since Windows 98. Not saying others don't use it, but Notepad++ and a myriad of other options are better anyway.
If they just wanted telemetry they'd just "enhance it" they way they did with the monstrosity that is new Paint or AI assisted notepad.
Does Notepad++ allow rich text?
On a default install on NP++ you can only save as rtf, but there are addable plugins that give some rtf functionality. So as a direct answer, no, it doesn't, but it can.
TBH, I haven't used wordpad since Windows 98
which is why they're getting rid of it
it would probably be pretty easy to just patch telemetry into it, except nobody uses it because why would you
What, they couldn't add AI to it?
You wouldn’t add AI to a hand bag?! You wouldn’t add AI to a car?! You wouldn’t add AI to a baby?! You wouldn’t shoot a police man?! … and then steal his helmet?! … and then add AI to it?!
I do not like to add AI.
I would not like it here or there.
I would not like it anywhere.
I would not add it in a handbag.
I would not, could not, in a car.
Not to a baby, not to a helmet.
Not in my house, Not on a mouse.
I do not like to add AI.
I do not now, nor ever will I.
Do you hear me Microsoft?
Take your AI and fuck off.
Could they please retire modern Windows UI design?
Those contrasting color squares are not the zen those designers think. UI layout being different in paradigm for every application is not the productivity improvement they think. Using titlebars for something other than titles and control buttons is not optimization. Those buttons being some scratches on the screen barely visible is crap from any PoV I can imagine.
And somebody should explain to them that a good design for a billboard, a good design for a glossy magazine, a good design for a shop front, a good design for an office, a good design for a videogame, a good design for a movie and a good design for a workstation are all mutually incompatible in vast majority of cases.
And again about zen, simplicity, air and all that. I understand they think they are very smart and understanding of aesthetics. But zen would be having clean window borders and clearly visible control elements, for starters. And buttons not being just color squares. And in general solutions being subordinate to functional goals of the UI being usable. Industrial ergonomics are zen.
EDIT: I know it's offtopic, not interested - keep walking
"We need to recapture the Apple market share!"
"Got it boss, we'll make it stupid."
I remember a while back Microsoft did an market research thing and found that of their brands, "Xbox" had positive consumer feedback while many of their other product names weren't nearly as favorable.
So what did they do? Did they try to understand what Xbox did differently to leverage that strategy elsewhere? Did they promote the Xbox marketing team to give them a wider purview?
No. They just renamed Zune Music to Xbox Music and Games for Windows to Xbox for Windows. THAT'LL FIX IT!
Oh get fucked Microsoft. Now I have to use notepad when I put the tape measure on the spacebar so teams doesn’t change my status to idle.
Just select yourself to chat with in Teams (top option in contacts) and put a battery on the delete key like a professional..
I like the cut of your jib. I’ll put a word in for you with the Bobs.
Wordpad, as I recall, only existed because back in the Windows 95 days nobody had Office and couldn’t open Word documents.
WordPad in Windows 95 was a demonstration of how to use the rich-text editing component built into Windows. Its C++ source code came bundled with MFC (Microsoft Foundation Classes - programming library for making Windows apps using C++) as a sample.
The fact that it was a useful tool for end users was essentially just a side effect.
here's a little known fact about WordPad: It was Microsoft's first word processing program. Originally introduced as an add-on to MS-DOS in 1981, WordPad later became a part of Windows in the 1990s after the release of Windows 95. It was designed to be simpler and more user-friendly than its more advanced counterpart, Microsoft Word.
WordPad didn't exist until Windows 95. You might be thinking of Microsoft Write, which predated it.
I've used windows since the 90s. Not once have I intentionally used WordPad.
It did open by default for some file types for a long time (.doc), usually mangling the content cause it couldn't actually handle them properly. I think it was also the default for .txt files at some point, causing many curse words when editing plain text files, that invisibly weren't so plain any more after... Programs expecting a configuration fine really don't like that sort of thing.
So: I'm very ok with this. Just install LibreOffice or something if you needa Word-like experience. Install notepad++ for anything "plain".
And so the bloodline of windows write is extinguished
This is kinda sad that if you want to do even basic word processing with Microsoft software, your only option now is an ongoing subscription to do so.
Word pad the goat of somehow interpreting files as not UTF8
I need any note taking app to require at least half a gigabyte of memory
I guess it's to direct more people to Microsoft 365 and Word. I hope that in reality more people will start to use LibreOffice and others.
Sad to see such a great program go…
