Microsoft just gave the Windows 11 Notepad app a controversial feature that people are either loving or hating

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Microsoft just gave the Windows 11 Notepad app a controversial feature that people are either loving or hating

New formatting abilities have arrived in Notepad for Windows 11
Microsoft previously tested these features, but they’re now rolling out to all Windows 11 users
Some welcome the move as a useful addition to Notepad’s editing powers, while others feel Microsoft is just bloating the text editor

Windows 11’s Notepad app has been fleshed out with new formatting powers, and the app is morphing, slowly but surely, to become more like WordPad (the more extensive text editor that Microsoft canned quite some time ago).

Windows Latest reports that it downloaded an update for Notepad from the Microsoft Store which provided the new functionality to a PC running the finished version of Windows 11 (as opposed to test builds, where these features were previously being trialled).

The fresh formatting powers include the ability to add different kinds of headings or subheadings, use italics or bold text, and create numbered or bullet-point lists. It’s also now possible to add hyperlinks to selected text.

Others on Reddit have been sharing their opinions on the introduction of these new lightweight formatting abilities over the past few days, so it seems the rollout is definitely underway.

So how’s the new Notepad being received so far? To say it’s had a mixed reception, going by the reactions on Reddit, is an understatement.

Analysis: bolstered or bloated?

(Image credit: Microsoft)

The polarization in the feedback to these changes is quite something. There are two camps, as you might guess: those who welcome the move, and those who, well, very much don’t.

The welcomers are generally folks who miss WordPad, which Microsoft sent to the great app graveyard in the sky early last year. WordPad was essentially a midway point between Microsoft Word, the firm’s full-on word processor, and Notepad, which was originally conceived as a super-lightweight text editor for duties in a pinch.

With that compromise app now gone, what Microsoft has been doing for a while now is adding more features to Notepad in order to make up for the loss of WordPad. This latest move to usher in basic formatting tricks bolsters Notepad considerably in terms of its editing clout, and a fair few people are happy about that as a result.

The folks who feel otherwise are concerned that all Microsoft is doing is bloating Notepad. Bear in mind that this introduction of formatting powers is the latest in a long line of additions, and the fear is that eventually Notepad is going to become more bloated, and perhaps less responsive or even slower to start – which defeats the whole point of the app as a quick and easy editor.

However, there’s a crucial point to remember here, namely that the new formatting features can all be switched off. If you don’t want them, Microsoft has made it so that support for formatting can be dispensed with in a single click, which should go some way to placating some of the haters – even if they still won’t approve of the general direction Microsoft is taking with Notepad, which doesn’t appear to be a course the software giant is planning on altering.

If you’ve got the new version of Notepad and have noticed the formatting functionality, and you’re wondering how to switch it off, that’s easy. At the bottom of the app window you’ll see it says ‘Formatted’ to indicate that formatting is active – just click on that, and all formatting will be disabled.