Windows Notepad will soon support tables because why leave well enough alone

[Alfonso Maruccia]

In context: Microsoft is going in some very wild directions with Windows development, with Notepad being one of the most outstanding guinea pigs in AI and design experimentations. Notepad now has the ability to add tables to textual notes, and forum users are already asking how to restore the old behavior.

Notepad recently gained new formatting capabilities, including support for tables. Redmond developers described table support as an expansion of the editor's "lightweight" formatting features. Users can now quickly insert tables in documents to improve note composition using the new "Table" option in the formatting toolbar or by entering the correct Markdown syntax. Once added to a document, users can quickly edit a table by adding or removing rows and columns. Table support is currently available only to those in the Windows Insider program, but it should soon appear in a stable Windows 11 release.

Microsoft is once again altering Notepad's nature by adding tables to what was supposed to be a minimal, no-frills text editor. The company recently deprecated and removed its other minimalist RTF editor, WordPad, leaving users without a simpler alternative unless they install a third-party app.

Trying to understand exactly what Microsoft is doing with Windows has become a fool's errand. However, you can bet your expensive RAM banks that AI is now the primary focus of Redmond's development plans.

Tables aside, Notepad is also gaining an improved AI text experience, with "streaming" results in Write, Rewrite, and Summarize. Currently, streaming support is limited to locally generated results on Copilot+ PCs. Those features require the user to log in to their Microsoft account.

Microsoft is adding more features to Windows 11's Notepad, alienating users who just need to edit plain text quickly. Oddly, the company now offers an optional command-line text editor that is even simpler than the traditional Notepad. However, its minimal interface and reliance on typed commands make it less user-friendly for most people. This contrast highlights Microsoft's push toward specialized tools while leaving basic text editing in a more fragmented state.

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Windows Notepad will soon support tables because why leave well enough alone

 

[3ogdy]

We have Microsoft's Word and the OpenOffice alternatives for tables in a written document. Notepad's selling point was its simplicity.
Telemetry,Windows 11, now Notepad... why can't Microsoft leave what's perfectly fine alone?

 

[DrSuess]

Fine, add another feature I will never use. I use not as a scratch pad that is it.

 

[gamerk2]

Notepad is gradually morphing into Wordpad.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Notepad was ruined when they added in those tabs that remember previous notes and open them all up, making it a royal PITA to keep track of what is saved where.

 

[user556]

It's looking like a markdown editor. I'd be okay with it picking up that feature providing it shows the raw source too.

PS: It makes sense for M$ to be adopting markdown too, since that's what Github docs produce.

 

[Axeia]

Just leave notepad alone. If anything they could have added syntax highlighting through plugins but that's where it should stop.

They shouldn't have gotten rid of WordPad and just stuck the features in there. Notepad had always been for simple text files, WordPad for simple text documents - when you want to add a little bit of flair without having to install a full office suite.

 

[daffy duck]

Notepad++ is all you need, why try and polish a an absolute turd.

 

[p51d007]

Notepad++ is all you need, why try and polish a an absolute turd.

Yep, using it for years.

 

[Puiu]

For real note taking I'm using notepad++

I don't think adding tables to notepad is a problem, I just hope they don't bloat it too much.

 

[MasterAce]

All I ever needed notepad for was to edit some .ini or .cfg files and I already hated the tabs. Well done M$, well done.

 

[ComputerGuy55]

Notepad was ruined when they added in those tabs that remember previous notes and open them all up, making it a royal PITA to keep track of what is saved where.

Yeah, I turned the feature off to open all previous tabs, that's just an annoying feature and another thing to cache in the system.

 

[BobHome]

Just another reason to leave the M$ ecosystem behind.

I'm getting a little computer to test other OSes and programs/apps. The shenanigans since Win 11 are pushing me there--and I've been with them since the DOS 2 days.

 

[bviktor]

Ah yes, the wonderful multi-tabbed app that cannot distinguish between users. So if you opened a file as admin, then tried to open another as a user, it'll save the 2nd one as admin too, locking you out.

Genius indeed. I want more of these lovely, new, gen-z, vibecoded, well designed features.

 

[spam joe]

Notepad is what I use when I want plaintext with zero formatting. Wtf is MS doing.