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How Notepad Evolves in Windows 10 19H1


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More improvements coming to Notepad in next OS update

Microsoft is very committed to improving Notepad with new features, and after rolling out a major update in Windows 10 version 1809, the software giant is now working on a series of other refinements that will be included in the OS update currently codenamed 19H1.
 

In Windows 10 version 1809 (October 2018 Update), Notepad received support for Unix/Linux line endings (LF) and Macintosh line endings (CR) in addition to Windows line endings (CRLF), as well as options to search for text with Bing, zoom in capabilities, and find/replace refinements with wrap-around to the find dialog.

While Notepad was already a tool that people loved, all these improvements make it even more useful, so Microsoft doesn’t plan to give up on this trend anytime soon.

As a result, Windows 10 19H1 will introduce several more updates for Notepad, including a bunch already tested as part of the most recent Windows Insider Preview build.

First and foremost, Notepad receives improvements for the UTF-8 encoding, with Microsoft explaining the following:

“We are adding the option to save files in UTF-8 without a Byte Order Mark and making this the default for new files. UTF-8 without a Byte Order Mark is backwards-compatible with ASCII and will provide better interoperability with the web, where UTF-8 has become the default encoding. Additionally, we added a column to the status bar that displays the encoding of the document.”

Notepad in Windows 10 19H1

The encoding is now displayed in the lower right corner when working with a Notepad document.

This new update also introduces a new indicator that lets you know whenever there are unsaved changes in your document. Basically, whenever you are working on a text document and you didn’t save your changes, you’ll see an asterisk in the title bar before the file name.

The asterisk shows up once you press the first key after saving and will stay there until you save the document once again. This way, Microsoft helps you make sure you’re not losing any work.

Additionally, Notepad also gets support for three new keyboard shortcuts, and power users certainly know what a big deal this is. Beginning with Windows 10 19H1, you can just press CTRL + Shift + N to open a new Notepad window and CTRL + Shift + S to open the Save as dialog. Also, CTRL + W now allows you to quickly close the Notepad window that you are working in.

Microsoft is also updating Notepad to allow the opening and saving of files that have a path longer than 260 characters. Also known as MAX_PATH, this has until now been a painful limitation, especially for developers.

Notepad in Windows 10 19H1

Since Microsoft is all about feedback these days, the updated Notepad version will also include a Send Feedback option under Help that allows you to tell the company what you think about this new update or to report bugs that you discovered while using the app. Click this option fires up the Feedback Hub in the Notepad section, so you can quickly send a new post.

There are also a bunch of fixes that refine the overall experience with Notepad, and needless to say, more are likely to be added in the coming months ahead of the public launch of the new Windows 10 feature update. However, it’s not known if Notepad would get any other new features.

Windows 10 19H1 is projected to be finalized in the spring, and according to Microsoft’s own release schedule, it should be ready in March. The RTM build will be first pushed to Windows insiders, while everyone else would get in April when the global rollout begins.

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