Microsoft has launched Windows Notepad on the Microsoft Store with a wide range of new features. Notepad has been an inevitable product included with each edition of Windows 10 for over 30 years. We have been working with Notepad for the last 25 years and each version improved significantly. It is one of the most popular text editors for programmers and software developers. I still remember those days when I typed my first Java code using Notepad.
The latest development is that Notepad has found a new home in the Microsoft Store. You can directly install Notepad from the Microsoft Store. Previously, Notepad was made available in the Microsoft Store in August 2019 but vanished. The app is now back with a wide range of new features. To install Windows Notepad from the Microsoft Store, you should be running Windows 10 version 19541.0 or higher.
Microsoft has made improvements to the find/replace modules in Notepad. The find/replace can be wrapped around the find dialog. Notepad will automatically remember previously entered values and the state of checkboxes. The data will automatically populate the next time you open the find dialog. If you select the text and open the find dialog, Notepad will automatically populate the search field with the selected text.
You can now zoom content easily in Notepad. by navigating to View | Zoom. There are three options such as Zoom In, Zoom Out and Restore Default Zoom. The current zoom level will be displayed in the status bar. Alternatively, you can make use of Ctrl + Plus, Ctrl + Minus and Ctrl + MouseWheel keyboard shortcuts to perform Zooming operations.
Notepad adds display line and column numbers when word-wrap is activated. You can also deactivate the status bar in the View menu. The performance issues involved with opening large files has been resolved. You can delete the previous word by using Ctrl + Backspace key. The arrow keys correctly unselect text and then move the cursor. The line and column number no longer reset to 1 while saving files in Notepad.
Microsoft terms Notepad as an app using which you can view, edit and search plain text documents and source code files instantly. In case if you had uninstalled Notepad from Windows 10, you can still work with the text editor by installing it from the Microsoft Store. There is no need to reinstall Windows. The only condition is that you should be running Windows 10 version 19541.0 or higher to install the Microsoft Store version of the Notepad.
