Microsoft outlines Notepad store improvements - including RTF and syntax highlighting

Notepad has been a core application in Windows since the first version of the operating system. However, unlike other features in the operating system, the text editor has not been improved.

That changed recently when the Redmond company gave the text editor a much-needed overhaul. If you're not in the loop, the latest version of Notepad brings several new features such as multi-level undo and redo, emoji support, drag-and-drop text, Unicode characters, and more. The program's interface has been revamped, with a smooth design with rounded corners, new menu styles, settings pages, and even a dark theme.

Rich Edit

A development blog post on Microsoft's website highlights the technical details behind Notepad improvements. The classic version of the text editor has features such as end-of-line detection (CR, LF, CRLF) and display of Unicode control characters. These obstacles make it difficult for Microsoft to transition to new versions.

The latest version of Notepad uses the RichEdit engine implemented in Microsoft Office applications such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote. This allows developers to modernize the program to add features such as automatic URL detection, color emojis, and more. Notepad is already available in the Microsoft Store, allowing companies to easily update and improve the app.

The future of Notepad

A blog post by Microsoft engineer Murray Sargent outlines plans for Notepad. Because RichEdit is properly implemented in Notepad, the tool has access to additional formatting options, including text coloring, spell checking, and other Rich Text Format (RTF) features. Notepad has the potential to help programmers write code faster with features like syntax highlighting, indentation of XML files, switching between opening and closing tags for HTML/XML, JSON, and more.

It's certainly interesting to see where the basic but essential text editor is headed. I admit I was worried about whether the new Notepad would be weighed down by new features. But compared to how the older version ran, it's very similar in terms of performance. Of course, my use case may be different from yours. I mainly use this program to view/edit small documents, or take notes because it's the fastest program in Windows.

Microsoft's article does mention that the program has difficulty handling large files. It turns out that automatic URL detection is one of the biggest culprits in the experience. But it also goes on to say that the text editor's performance needs to improve for such tasks, so that's what we can expect. The post also states that some of the features added to the text editor are inspired by the options available in Visual Studio Code. These include new find and replace drop-down menus, character selection, and plain text controls. https://u.jd.com/BLqjPYU

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