REVIEW OF MS NOTEPAD

Microsoft Notepad is unique to other applications in that it first appeared with Windows back in 1985. You could think of Notepad as one of the first and most basic word processing applications, which was first part of the Windows 1.01 bundled group. Another interesting thing about MS Notepad is that in the past 16 years, not much has changed. When you look at Word or WordPerfect, tons of memory is used on the computer but with MS Notepad, just 52KB is used.

Although you could take notes in MS Word for meetings or daily tasks at home, you need to consider the vast amount of memory being used. For instance, you could open up Word and easily be using 6,000K plus. However, for taking notes, MS Notepad would only use about 375K. This means the system will run quickly and because it is basic, it is easy to use while begin functional. With this, you could be running research through your internet browser and take notes actually quicker.

In addition, you can also use MS Notepad for coding HTML. If you have a website for your company or for personal use, Notepad makes a great solution. With Notepad, an ASCII editor is used, meaning all HTML is done from scratch. However, if you were to use something such as FrontPage, which uses WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get), then you could get more detailed with your design. Still, MS Notepad makes a better choice when it comes to CGI and Javascript coding.

Keep in mind, another benefit of using MS Notepad is that this program can be used to open literally any type of text (.txt) file. Sometimes, people will download a file, which then includes a readme file but in an unknown extension. In this case, Notepad would open it and although the content may not be perfect, it is usually enough to figure out what you need. The only drawback is that if you use Notepad prior to Windows, any type of file that is more than 64K would not open while newer versions can handle any size file.

This no frills type of software is great for the beginner. Easy to learn and easy to use, MS Notepad has the basic features and options in just four tab menus. While other types of word processing software has multiple tabs and multiple choices under each tab, Notepad offers only File, Edit, Format, and Help. Using this program, you simply type in the white space and then save your work.

One thing that some people do not like is that with MS Notepad, just one document can be opened at a time. However, because the file is so small, using very little memory, you can open more than one instance of Notepad. If you need, you can change the font in Notepad but only for the entire document. In other words, even if you were to highlight a specific word and then change the font, the entire document would change. Even with a few minor drawbacks, this basic word processor is something that people continue to use because of its functionality and simplicity.