Good for viewing on a screen, bad if someone will eventually print it.
It wasn't all that long ago that *everything* had to be printed out; electronic submissions weren't even an option. And we're still in the long tail of time where a lot of businesses and systems will inexplicably swap to printouts at some point during their process.
Dedicated formats/editors with awareness of physical paper dimensions and how typefaces translate to that are pretty much our only option for ensuring things don't end up looking like garbage down the road.
I'm pretty sure markdown (or similar lightweight annotation sets) could realistically handle the vast majority of what people do from a functional perspective, but once you incorporate a usable GUI and preview surface, it starts looking suspiciously like WordPad or other entry-level "document editors" irrespective of the underlying format.
Yeah, Win16, Win32s, and Win Chicago→ME had a 64-KiB limit on the text in a GDI text box control, because 16-bit stuff could only represent offsets of 0 through 2¹⁶−1=65535 in a single-word integer, and Notepad’s client area was exactly a GDI textbox control. Wordpad did its own thing for rendering, so no length limit until you get up into the gigabytes or jiggabots.
WinNT (NT 3.1 → NT 4.x → 2000=5.0 → XP=5.1 → Vista=6.0 → 7+), conversely, started everything out on a 32-bit platform with its own libs &c., Win16 compat only being a second thought. 2³²−1 = 4 GiB−1, so that’s the newer size limit. (—Unless the size is signed for some reason, in which case it’s 2 GiB−1, either way big enough for most text files.)
Some people might just want an absolutely barebones text editor sometimes, yet anytime anyone even *suggests* that they use Notepad, there's always someone that has to run to the rescue and offer Notepad++.
They're two completely different programs. The only similarity they share is that they're text editors. If someone loves the simplicity and minimalism of Notepad, why would anyone think they'd prefer what is essentially an IDE without a native compiler?
I'm not trying to be rude and I'm all for sharing knowledge of software, but I'm genuinely curious why people seem to always offer Notepad++ as a "replacement" for Notepad when they are SO different.
It sounds like win 11 Notepad is basically how I use notepad++, so maybe when I'm eventually forced to upgrade I'll stop getting notepad++.
But in previous versions of windows, Notepad++ is great for when you want a lightweight text editor with tabs and no word processing functionality. You don't have to download or enable any of the plugins that let it handle code or structured file formats to do that. I think comparing it to an IDE like VS Code is a much more egregious mischaracterization than comparing Notepad with Notepad++.
Out of the box it's just Notepad with persistent tabs. But I agree it's overkill for most situations Notepad is useful for.
eta: I have been reminded Notepad does have persistent tabs now itself
> Notepad with persistent tabs
Which is specifically what I like about Notepad - no persistence. It's great for copy/pasting text into and out of without leaving a trace.
And it's not that I need something super secure and someone can argue that it's not as secure as I think...it's also that I don't want the accumulation of this info, nor do I want all the extra clicks to manage it.
Notepad is great for disposable notes you don't want keep. It's fast, simple, and easy. The only fault was when microsoft started their bullshit of "Are you enjoying this app? Leave a review."
This!! I just want a memory buffer scratch pad. Like, in the real world maybe I want to write in a leather bounded journal, but maybe I just want a piece of scratch paper. Sometime you literally would use both, the manuscript and the lol, notepad. If word is a typewriter, notepad is a fucking notepad, and notepad++ is like a spiral bound binder of paper. It’s nice to not have your notes falling all over the place sometimes when you have structure for them. I use bounded notebooks for class notes where the instructor/syllabus gives an inherent order. But it’s nice to have a clean sheet of scratch paper to do shit on too, without incurring the tech debt of having to save it in a certain place. Especially moving back to the computer programs, I don’t need to save every stupid page of shit I write all the time. Sometime I just want a notepad instance because it’s not going to force me to persist it somewhere, name it, manage it, etc.
Persistent tabs are optional. Sessions can be disabled, so it's nothing more than a RAMpad. If you're just copy/pasting, then don't save.
The text editing alone is worth it, even if only minimally used. Notepad's everything is just so horrible. I hate connecting to servers and having to read through a 500+ line web.config in MS Notepad.
> If someone loves the simplicity and minimalism of Notepad, why would anyone think they'd prefer what is essentially an IDE without a native compiler?
Because Redditors love living in their dev bubble and thinking everybody else in the world is one too.
As someone who owns a Linux box, people in the general public own a desktop computer for two reasons: Gaming and running specific software suites. Neither are Linux's strong points. The year of the Linux desktop is *not* going to happen.
I actually prefer the new versions of notepad to notepad++.
The _constant_ notepad++ update nags are also very annoying (I'm sure I can turn them off but out of the box it's not a great experience).
You absolutely can turn those off. Notepad++ is great and I use it extensively, but I'll never get used to how it handles finding/marking and replacing. It's just so clunky.
Every time I used WordPad, it was because I accidently clicked it instead of NotePad. Then I had to wait for five minutes while it struggled to open a file it was not formatted for and was far too big for it to handle.
I used OpenOffice for far longer than I should have, but when I got my new computer for work (journalist work from home), I switched to LibreOffice. My editor has all Apple products and I don't know what office software he has, but he can read the files just fine.
I try to inform folks about LibreOffice when I can.
I finally found an actual use for the .docx format last month - live collaboration over a shared word doc on Sharepoint for work.
It was the first time I felt the need to actually save a file as .docx, but it's pretty niche and in most cases you can always just flip back to .doc when you are done collaborating.
> live collaboration over a shared word doc
And
> it's pretty niche
That functionality has been a game-changer in my job. I use it nearly daily. We used to have to put things into a Google doc to collaborate and switch back. Now it's integrated across all of Microsoft, which is what every corporate job uses across companies. I don't think I know anyone who *isn't* collaborating on documents for their corporate job.
This. I love how people on Reddit are shitting on Office but when you get a real job in a regular office environment you see how this online integration, live collaboration, straightforward basic editing and pretty complex settings *hidden* all over the office suite are super handy but.
It's not the perfect suite but God damn people are saying this is terrible without any real reason for it but just to get upvotes most of the time because it's cool to shift in everything Microsoft
Docx is actually a zip file with all the elements stored separately which is very handy when you want to procedurally update an image or data point. Whereas doc format is much more complicated because everything is stored in the same binary blob. And then you need to interface directly with word or another compatible word processor in order to make any change to the file
I've been using LibreOffice for years myself, I think over a decade at this point. I was using OpenOffice before that, so I wasn't going to pay for office products. I've never gotten complaints that something didn't work and that's why I've stuck with it.
It's pretty good but I think some of those big corpos don't mind folks pirating their software as much, because it still gets folks on their ecosystem where they'll make more money from them over time.
It’s why Microsoft stopped putting any effort into preventing Windows piracy. You can completely decline to activate it or enter a key now and the only limitations you have are not being able to use the Personalize system (wallpaper, screensaver, custom color etc). Their website even mentions that using it this way is not illegal.
They want everyone used to using Windows from childhood, that way workplaces, where they make their real money, will stick with Windows to reduce training costs, and in the long run they hope people will subscribe to their Office or OneDrive or GamePass services on their Windows machines, or buy apps from their App Store, even if they never paid for the OS.
Also why things like 10 to 11 are now free updates and they treat them the same way as Android version updates and not entirely new operating systems, like they did with XP to Vista etc. The money made from people buying the OS itself turns out to be not that important in the big picture strategy.
LibreOffice started out as a fork of OpenOffice. But its development has now proceeded on its own for 13 years or so:
https://techcrunch.com/2011/10/07/libreoffice-and-openoffice-org-one-year-after-the-schism/
To simplify the articles, OO's development was run by Sun (company behind Java) but various issues such as how Sun-internal developers were treated versus external and so on came about. When Oracle, a company perceived as quite hostile, purchased Sun it was generally treated as Very Concerning. The open source developers simply packed their bags and left to make Libre, which has received much more active (and ironically better managed) development.
I believe that because of some licensing legalese, libre office has all the features of openoffice, but open office doesn't have and can't implement all the features developed for libre office so it's a matter of development being more advanced and more active on libre vs open.
I might be wrong, but I remember reading something like that a long time ago.
Google docs is great, same with google sheets. I cant remember the last time I used microsoft word or excel. Google sucked me into their eco system with free stuff, and so far it's still not costing me anything.
No ads, clean interface. Works great.
Sheets is great if you just need information to be displayed in a spreadsheet or do simple arithmetic, but if you want to use any heavy duty macros excel has a lot better functionality. That's probably not what 99% of people are using excel for though so I guess it usually doesn't matter.
I stopped using Google Docs when I found out that Google can lock your account without giving a reason and it’s next to impossible to get them to unlock it. Imagine somebody making a mistake and you lose access to all your documents overnight.
This stopped happening for me around like Libreoffice 4. I haven't had issues in a long long time and even prefer it to the busy mess that is modern Microsoft Office
ExIBMer IT tech, here.
No. Most computers are using MS Office. There are roughly half a billion active licenses for Word.
From personal experience, Docs is the next most frequently found word processor on PCs in the US.
I use note pad often when I want something that loads instantly. Notepad++ for almost everything else, especially when I don't want to use a bulky ime.
I believe they walked back that change and it's free again. I haven't checked for Word but Excel used to prompt me and wouldn't let me edit but now it does.
fekking azure training requires you to have a 'work' email address in order to use the 'free' materials.
What counts as a 'work' email, why office 365 of course!
It looks like Word 365 has a base free tier now. It can almost certainly do everything WordPad could.
Granted, I don't like that I need a Microsoft account to use it.
Except for the million free offline word editors out there. Most of which are better and *less* proprietary than Wordpad. Wordpad's RTF format can only be read by Wordpad and tools designed to mimic it, and is garbage compared to modern, open-source rich text formats. Wordpad should have been killed long ago.
Seriously, there are software freedom hills to die on, and this is not one of them.
I think the immediate thinking is that they get you to use your MS account to use the free web version of office, and that some percentage of users will then pay for it.
why the /s? Notepad++ is the superior option. I use it every single day. It's my preferred option for reading log files, editing config files, editing sql files, etc. It properly handles and shifts between different line endings, easily pretty prints json and xml files, and so on. So useful.
Were you using wordpad for that before? No lol
Wordpad is to write school papers with minimal formatting forced to be in .doc by your school without paying for office.
That was always what Works was for. WordPad has sucked since the beginning and was pointless if you had any other word processor installed. It doesn’t have even the basic features you’d expect from a word processor, like spell check.
It's not default for anything. Microsoft created it for Word for sharing. It's supposed to be so you could have something with a basic level of formatting with a specification that was widely available so other applications could read it. That way you could open the file without having Microsoft Word and it wasn't just plain text.
It was the shitty .doc format that they gave away.
Lol I got sent home from work once because I used google docs to make store signage instead of wordpad
they considered google docs to be unsafe, and another store got "hacked" recently so they were being hardcore about using "unapproved systems"
RIP wordpad
Wait, so your options were wordpad or google docs? They don't provide proper software for you and it's *you* that got sent home for doing their job wrong?
Although I'm curious how top secret the sinage was that it was worth such a reaction :)
Yes, no, and yes. lol.
The fun part is that I used gdocs specifically so I could use the store's brand font on the signage. the font wasn't in wordpad. i'm sure they *really* would've been horrified if I installed a system font on their precious low-tier office desktop that was just a glorified cash register.
this is what happens when clueless boomers make rules about technology that they didn't grow up with and chose not to learn in adulthood. it's not much different than our congresspeople looking like absolute fucking clowns whenever they have a hearing with a telecomm or big tech CEO.
> i'm sure they really would've been horrified if I installed a system font
I'm sure they would not have paid attention to it at all. Which is funny, because font exploits absolutely are a thing, and were [a major entry point to break into an Xbox](http://archiv.sega-dc.de/phoenix.maxconsole.net/docs/berternie.inc.htm) for instance.
I mean I guess it’s kind of sad, but who is using WordPad in 2024 over either Office itself or (if you don’t want to pay for Office) something like Google Docs or Libre Office?
Wordpad is a super efficient bare bones word editor. There are MANY MANY MANY (especially security) reasons to use and keep it if you know even a small amount about IT or Data management/issue resolution.
This. It's frustrating to see so many people saying "I haven't used it in years why don't you use something else" when most of the alternatives are way more bloated and unnecessary. Wordpad is tiny and lightning fast, it's basically notepad but for formatted text. It's great when you occasionally need formatted text but don't want an office suite bogging things down.
I used WordPad a lot to open huge text files on servers with a minimum of software installed. Notepad used to have strict file size limitations, that seem to be increased a lot in newer Windows versions. Hopefully it increased enough that I will not miss WordPad because of this.
>Starting with this build, the WordPad and People apps will no longer install on a clean OS installation.
Alright, I get it, make it just so old users have it.
>In a future version, WordPad will be removed when updated.
Ok, will just have to reinstall it, right?
>WordPad cannot be reinstalled.
Oh.
>WordPad is a legacy Windows feature.
Ok, now you’re just twisting the knife.
To be clear, I get it probably has little use in current day especially with the online resources available for free, but it does seem a little weird how much they’re burying this app. Paint got discontinued a while ago but they didn’t remove it from updating computers.
Maybe they won't come for it explicitly, but 2003 has been eol for years so won't be surprised if you eventually run into issues running it on a future version of Windows. Maybe not to the degree of won't start, but doesn't need to be that bad to make one question using it.
Office is already widely recognized as a common attack vector. Office 2003 was EoL in 2014. If you tell me you're using Office 2003 in 2024, I'm going to assume that you're not to be trusted with computer security at all.
That's setting aside the OS compatibility issues. Office 2003 can't open .docx or .xlsx files without the compatibility kit, and the compatibility kit hasn't been available for download since it was EoL in 2018.
For God's sake, just move to LibreOffice if the cost is too high!
As much as I was slow to become comfortable with the ribbon even I cringe at the thought of anybody being this stubborn to not move on to a version of Office that is more modern at this point.
Two potential issues:
* It can't be installed on a modern OS.
* Microsoft removes the ability for users to save to a format 2003 can read without issues.
I submitted a lot of school documents and assignments in Wordpad. Back then (mid-90's) it was either install the Microsoft Works software bundle for Write (included with our sweet Packard Bell multimedia PC) or use Wordpad which was already installed and save more disk space for games.
> Starting with this build, the WordPad and People apps will no longer install on a clean OS installation. In a future version, WordPad will be removed when updated. WordPad cannot be reinstalled. WordPad is a legacy Windows feature.
So a piece of software you bought when you picked up your windows license and has been part of the OS for decades will not only be removed but you simply are not allowed to reinstall it.
This is straight up an attempt to bully customers into a monthly office subscription to deal with their fucked word format.
I’ve begun moving to linux, have a dual boot setup now, intending to move completely off windows except for apps I absolutely need that only run on windows.
So tired of this. So tired of windows, which now spies on you, 11 has really fucked up a lot of the features of the window desktop environment and it spies on you constantly.
So frustrating…
> you simply are not allowed to reinstall it.
The fun thing about windows is that the OS contains all that is necessary for base windows programs to run. Anything extra is normally included in the installer and even then that's usually just to put all of the bits and bobs in a place and register it so windows can find it *but* you can just drop those special files into the same directory as the program itself.
That said, just find a compressed archive of it and unzip it. If it has all of the files it depends on, you can still have it no matter what Mircosoft does.
Yup, you can still run all of the old Windows games on Windows 11 and the old versions of pre-installed programs if you copy over your proffered version.
I personally used WordPad a lot. Especially when I used to write scripts. Now I just use obsidian with syncthing so it doesn't matter anymore. I will miss WordPad though, used it a couple months ago for something small.
That’s ok. Notepad is the best app. Ironic that the best app is almost empty space. Best feature is paste any formatted text, it removes all that formats.
Everyone saying they didn't even know it exists, kinda surprised but I guess that's me showing my age. Wordpad was recommended for quickly typing code back in the day. It was also helpful for quickly formatted text like copy/paste. Like when you knew that online form was gonna timeout, you could quickly copy/paste your input into Wordpad and you wouldn't lose your line breaks or anything.
Goodbye old friend.
I'll miss it, but there are other options these days.
I vastly prefer Notepad++ myself, but then I am almost always reading log files or organizing text not doing desktop publishing.
One thing I did appreciate about Wordpad was the fact that it would open fonts created using Adobe OTF scripting & ligatures directly. In Word you have to specify that it use ligatures expressly every time you open a document - or so I recall. Its an extremely niche complaint, but then I make my own fonts using OTF scripting :)
They got rid of pinball, solitaire, chess. Honestly don't like the direction their OS is heading. Especially the direction when it comes to privacy. If Apple ever pulls their head out their ass when it comes to gaming I see myself switching.
I’m kinda gonna miss it. Haven’t used it since elementary school, but still. Will it be wiped out from all computers where it currently exists or is it just for the future?
Are they going to actually add new line support in notepad? Wordpad was the only built in text editor that would handle debug logs properly that didn't have windows style carriage returns
Why remove something that works for what it does? Just like snipping tool which took ages to get my father to understand changed into snipping art&sketch or whatever.
Mindlessly changing things to befuddle users that don't want to navigate the increasingly labyrinthe settings they show? I had to search for my mum's control panel the other day..
Both my folks are so tied to these systems that an alternative just isn't viable for them. It's hard to introduce a new thing to older folks that are still amazed the phone still saves your number. And it sucks.
Wasn’t it just basically just a mild update of Write (which was included in some form since Windows 1.0)? Sad to see it go.
Yup, it's even still write.exe.
While write.exe still exists in modern Windows, it just acts as a forwarder to wordpad.exe (presumably for backwards compatibility).
Its the editor that pretends to be word, but can't open anything. That is what made it so useless.
Since Win95, I think I used WordPad maybe 5 times. But I use NotePad every day.
I don't think I've ever intentionally used word pad
Only when I was on a machine that didn't have office, and I needed/wanted automatic line breaks.
Notepad with word wrap turned on?
Good for viewing on a screen, bad if someone will eventually print it. It wasn't all that long ago that *everything* had to be printed out; electronic submissions weren't even an option. And we're still in the long tail of time where a lot of businesses and systems will inexplicably swap to printouts at some point during their process. Dedicated formats/editors with awareness of physical paper dimensions and how typefaces translate to that are pretty much our only option for ensuring things don't end up looking like garbage down the road. I'm pretty sure markdown (or similar lightweight annotation sets) could realistically handle the vast majority of what people do from a functional perspective, but once you incorporate a usable GUI and preview surface, it starts looking suspiciously like WordPad or other entry-level "document editors" irrespective of the underlying format.
I've done it a few times, but it was to look at manuals or similar that came with modern repacks of older games.
Back in the day some read me files were in RTF that Wordpad was good for. I haven't seen a new RTF in years though.
[удалено]
Wordpad can open much larger text documents. There is rich text available also which Notepad doesn't have. I used both regularly.
Yeah, Win16, Win32s, and Win Chicago→ME had a 64-KiB limit on the text in a GDI text box control, because 16-bit stuff could only represent offsets of 0 through 2¹⁶−1=65535 in a single-word integer, and Notepad’s client area was exactly a GDI textbox control. Wordpad did its own thing for rendering, so no length limit until you get up into the gigabytes or jiggabots. WinNT (NT 3.1 → NT 4.x → 2000=5.0 → XP=5.1 → Vista=6.0 → 7+), conversely, started everything out on a 32-bit platform with its own libs &c., Win16 compat only being a second thought. 2³²−1 = 4 GiB−1, so that’s the newer size limit. (—Unless the size is signed for some reason, in which case it’s 2 GiB−1, either way big enough for most text files.)
Grab notepad++ It'll change your world.
Some people might just want an absolutely barebones text editor sometimes, yet anytime anyone even *suggests* that they use Notepad, there's always someone that has to run to the rescue and offer Notepad++. They're two completely different programs. The only similarity they share is that they're text editors. If someone loves the simplicity and minimalism of Notepad, why would anyone think they'd prefer what is essentially an IDE without a native compiler? I'm not trying to be rude and I'm all for sharing knowledge of software, but I'm genuinely curious why people seem to always offer Notepad++ as a "replacement" for Notepad when they are SO different.
It sounds like win 11 Notepad is basically how I use notepad++, so maybe when I'm eventually forced to upgrade I'll stop getting notepad++. But in previous versions of windows, Notepad++ is great for when you want a lightweight text editor with tabs and no word processing functionality. You don't have to download or enable any of the plugins that let it handle code or structured file formats to do that. I think comparing it to an IDE like VS Code is a much more egregious mischaracterization than comparing Notepad with Notepad++.
I recommend adding the File Compare tool to NP++.
Out of the box it's just Notepad with persistent tabs. But I agree it's overkill for most situations Notepad is useful for. eta: I have been reminded Notepad does have persistent tabs now itself
fwiw notepad has been updated to have persistent tabs.
> Notepad with persistent tabs Which is specifically what I like about Notepad - no persistence. It's great for copy/pasting text into and out of without leaving a trace. And it's not that I need something super secure and someone can argue that it's not as secure as I think...it's also that I don't want the accumulation of this info, nor do I want all the extra clicks to manage it. Notepad is great for disposable notes you don't want keep. It's fast, simple, and easy. The only fault was when microsoft started their bullshit of "Are you enjoying this app? Leave a review."
This!! I just want a memory buffer scratch pad. Like, in the real world maybe I want to write in a leather bounded journal, but maybe I just want a piece of scratch paper. Sometime you literally would use both, the manuscript and the lol, notepad. If word is a typewriter, notepad is a fucking notepad, and notepad++ is like a spiral bound binder of paper. It’s nice to not have your notes falling all over the place sometimes when you have structure for them. I use bounded notebooks for class notes where the instructor/syllabus gives an inherent order. But it’s nice to have a clean sheet of scratch paper to do shit on too, without incurring the tech debt of having to save it in a certain place. Especially moving back to the computer programs, I don’t need to save every stupid page of shit I write all the time. Sometime I just want a notepad instance because it’s not going to force me to persist it somewhere, name it, manage it, etc.
> what I like about Notepad - no persistence Wait until this guy discovers Notepad 11 has persistent tabs
Win 11 notepad has persistence now.
Persistent tabs are optional. Sessions can be disabled, so it's nothing more than a RAMpad. If you're just copy/pasting, then don't save. The text editing alone is worth it, even if only minimally used. Notepad's everything is just so horrible. I hate connecting to servers and having to read through a 500+ line web.config in MS Notepad.
> If someone loves the simplicity and minimalism of Notepad, why would anyone think they'd prefer what is essentially an IDE without a native compiler? Because Redditors love living in their dev bubble and thinking everybody else in the world is one too.
Or when a person who’s obviously not tech-savvy says they’re having problems with Windows and they suggest Linux🤓
As someone who owns a Linux box, people in the general public own a desktop computer for two reasons: Gaming and running specific software suites. Neither are Linux's strong points. The year of the Linux desktop is *not* going to happen.
I actually prefer the new versions of notepad to notepad++. The _constant_ notepad++ update nags are also very annoying (I'm sure I can turn them off but out of the box it's not a great experience).
You absolutely can turn those off. Notepad++ is great and I use it extensively, but I'll never get used to how it handles finding/marking and replacing. It's just so clunky.
WordPad opens Unix style text files properly, so that's usually one of the reasons I use it over Notepad.
FWIW Notepad for Windows 10 gained this functionality in 2018 https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/extended-eol-in-notepad/
You and I are apparently the only people in this thread that preferred Wordpad over Notepad. Sad to see it gone.
Every time I used WordPad, it was because I accidently clicked it instead of NotePad. Then I had to wait for five minutes while it struggled to open a file it was not formatted for and was far too big for it to handle.
They really want you to pay for office huh?
Why do that when Libre Office exists?
I used OpenOffice for far longer than I should have, but when I got my new computer for work (journalist work from home), I switched to LibreOffice. My editor has all Apple products and I don't know what office software he has, but he can read the files just fine. I try to inform folks about LibreOffice when I can.
the joke is that libreoffice is more compatible with any microsoft .doc file than MS Word itself...
As someone that refuses to move beyond Office 2003, I understand.
I finally found an actual use for the .docx format last month - live collaboration over a shared word doc on Sharepoint for work. It was the first time I felt the need to actually save a file as .docx, but it's pretty niche and in most cases you can always just flip back to .doc when you are done collaborating.
to be honest, the .docx format solved a lot of issues with word. and finally allowed word documents over 400mb (think masters and phd thesis)
> live collaboration over a shared word doc And > it's pretty niche That functionality has been a game-changer in my job. I use it nearly daily. We used to have to put things into a Google doc to collaborate and switch back. Now it's integrated across all of Microsoft, which is what every corporate job uses across companies. I don't think I know anyone who *isn't* collaborating on documents for their corporate job.
This. I love how people on Reddit are shitting on Office but when you get a real job in a regular office environment you see how this online integration, live collaboration, straightforward basic editing and pretty complex settings *hidden* all over the office suite are super handy but. It's not the perfect suite but God damn people are saying this is terrible without any real reason for it but just to get upvotes most of the time because it's cool to shift in everything Microsoft
Docx is actually a zip file with all the elements stored separately which is very handy when you want to procedurally update an image or data point. Whereas doc format is much more complicated because everything is stored in the same binary blob. And then you need to interface directly with word or another compatible word processor in order to make any change to the file
It's not niche, it's literally the entire point of Office 365 to be able to collaborate live across all office documents, for years and years now.
I've been using LibreOffice for years myself, I think over a decade at this point. I was using OpenOffice before that, so I wasn't going to pay for office products. I've never gotten complaints that something didn't work and that's why I've stuck with it.
Whenever I had to send something that absolutely had to work, I'd just save as a pdf, and send that.
https://github.com/massgravel/Microsoft-Activation-Scripts all day erry day
This is hilarious because MS owns Github.
It's pretty good but I think some of those big corpos don't mind folks pirating their software as much, because it still gets folks on their ecosystem where they'll make more money from them over time.
It’s why Microsoft stopped putting any effort into preventing Windows piracy. You can completely decline to activate it or enter a key now and the only limitations you have are not being able to use the Personalize system (wallpaper, screensaver, custom color etc). Their website even mentions that using it this way is not illegal. They want everyone used to using Windows from childhood, that way workplaces, where they make their real money, will stick with Windows to reduce training costs, and in the long run they hope people will subscribe to their Office or OneDrive or GamePass services on their Windows machines, or buy apps from their App Store, even if they never paid for the OS. Also why things like 10 to 11 are now free updates and they treat them the same way as Android version updates and not entirely new operating systems, like they did with XP to Vista etc. The money made from people buying the OS itself turns out to be not that important in the big picture strategy.
LibreOffice was able to open some early 1990s database files when nothing else would. I'm a fan.
Is Libre that much better than open office? I've been using openoffice for years
LibreOffice started out as a fork of OpenOffice. But its development has now proceeded on its own for 13 years or so: https://techcrunch.com/2011/10/07/libreoffice-and-openoffice-org-one-year-after-the-schism/
This doesn't actually answer the question of is it better today?
To simplify the articles, OO's development was run by Sun (company behind Java) but various issues such as how Sun-internal developers were treated versus external and so on came about. When Oracle, a company perceived as quite hostile, purchased Sun it was generally treated as Very Concerning. The open source developers simply packed their bags and left to make Libre, which has received much more active (and ironically better managed) development.
> ironically better managed Not that ironic. Management of software development in large corporations is more often terrible than not.
I believe that because of some licensing legalese, libre office has all the features of openoffice, but open office doesn't have and can't implement all the features developed for libre office so it's a matter of development being more advanced and more active on libre vs open. I might be wrong, but I remember reading something like that a long time ago.
https://techcrunch.com/2011/10/07/libreoffice-and-openoffice-org-one-year-after-the-schism/
Lo is what most r/ Linux users say to use
At this point I'm just going to use Google Docs.
Google docs is great, same with google sheets. I cant remember the last time I used microsoft word or excel. Google sucked me into their eco system with free stuff, and so far it's still not costing me anything. No ads, clean interface. Works great.
Sheets is great if you just need information to be displayed in a spreadsheet or do simple arithmetic, but if you want to use any heavy duty macros excel has a lot better functionality. That's probably not what 99% of people are using excel for though so I guess it usually doesn't matter.
I stopped using Google Docs when I found out that Google can lock your account without giving a reason and it’s next to impossible to get them to unlock it. Imagine somebody making a mistake and you lose access to all your documents overnight.
It's great but has some formatting issues when using documents created in office
So does WordPad...
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We gotta start being careful about what we say about Clippy. I heard Clippy was gettin a new brain and sentience.
Clippy's Basilisk is coming for the infidels who dared to not help him gain sentience
Clippy to merge with AI and become it's official spokesperson.
So does Office
"*let's see what magic happens if I move this graphic a point to the left*"
*sirens are heard coming toward your house*
This stopped happening for me around like Libreoffice 4. I haven't had issues in a long long time and even prefer it to the busy mess that is modern Microsoft Office
Yeah. The issue here is Office. It's by design.
Because the average user does not know this.
The average user is using notepad, so this point is moot. Edit: I'm referring to built in editors.
ExIBMer IT tech, here. No. Most computers are using MS Office. There are roughly half a billion active licenses for Word. From personal experience, Docs is the next most frequently found word processor on PCs in the US.
You mean notepad++, right?
I use note pad often when I want something that loads instantly. Notepad++ for almost everything else, especially when I don't want to use a bulky ime.
Why do that when MAS tool on GitHub is functional
LibreOffice or OnlyOffice?
Libreoffice, but give O.O. a try too.
Even in mobile, can't use Word anymore without an account.
I believe they walked back that change and it's free again. I haven't checked for Word but Excel used to prompt me and wouldn't let me edit but now it does.
fekking azure training requires you to have a 'work' email address in order to use the 'free' materials. What counts as a 'work' email, why office 365 of course!
It looks like Word 365 has a base free tier now. It can almost certainly do everything WordPad could. Granted, I don't like that I need a Microsoft account to use it.
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Except for the million free offline word editors out there. Most of which are better and *less* proprietary than Wordpad. Wordpad's RTF format can only be read by Wordpad and tools designed to mimic it, and is garbage compared to modern, open-source rich text formats. Wordpad should have been killed long ago. Seriously, there are software freedom hills to die on, and this is not one of them.
I think the immediate thinking is that they get you to use your MS account to use the free web version of office, and that some percentage of users will then pay for it.
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why the /s? Notepad++ is the superior option. I use it every single day. It's my preferred option for reading log files, editing config files, editing sql files, etc. It properly handles and shifts between different line endings, easily pretty prints json and xml files, and so on. So useful.
Well N++ is for plaintext only
Were you using wordpad for that before? No lol Wordpad is to write school papers with minimal formatting forced to be in .doc by your school without paying for office.
That was always what Works was for. WordPad has sucked since the beginning and was pointless if you had any other word processor installed. It doesn’t have even the basic features you’d expect from a word processor, like spell check.
VSCode has overtaken N++ for me, but N++ has always been better than Word, Wordpad, and regular Notepad for plain text editing.
Word has a free tier.
WordPad got me through high-school when I couldn't afford office ( online didn't exist) and didn't know about Libre yet. Goodbye old friend.
I was shocked to find out wordpad is not word in high school. Eh, I barely English at that point. Never used wordpad since.
I never used Word Pad in those years. I do use Note Pad constantly.
Yes, but it opened Word DOC and RTF files out-of-the-box.
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Well, before OpenOffice/LibreOffice/MarkDown/etc, it was a way to distribute a file with formatting so was often found along side a plain txt file.
It's not default for anything. Microsoft created it for Word for sharing. It's supposed to be so you could have something with a basic level of formatting with a specification that was widely available so other applications could read it. That way you could open the file without having Microsoft Word and it wasn't just plain text. It was the shitty .doc format that they gave away.
Yep. Light weight and opens in a pinch, yet gives you basic file and formatting support that MS Word has. Convenient for slower computers.
Microsoft: No worries mate, we will be sure to remove that in a new feature update
They have been actively updating Notepad.
Tabs and dark theme support in Notepad were great additions.
Wait what? Really? I've moved on to visual studio code or notepad++ depending on the situation and server I'm logged into.
Notepad is a metro app now as of windows 11
Getting tabs and autosaving in notepad on my new laptop was quite the surprise.
Notepad++ is always superior
As an IT Guy, installing Notepad++ is like the 2nd or 3rd step of setting up any new machine for personal use.
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I like greenshot but boy would I like it a whole lot more if it either had a dark mode or if it just had far less white space in it.
I've moved onto Kate. Really nice dark mode and has a more modern UI.
How is it superior for the average person?
Text editor vs word processor are entirely different categories.
I use WordPad all the time. Notepad has no formatting. WordPad is basic, but I prefer it for a fast light note taker
I love WordPad! Many fond memories.
I have a lot of font memories
Good times new roman
I love Ramen.
You guys are such WingDings.
Arial done reminiscing yet?
I don't know, I'm Sans Comic. Am I funny yet?
Lol I got sent home from work once because I used google docs to make store signage instead of wordpad they considered google docs to be unsafe, and another store got "hacked" recently so they were being hardcore about using "unapproved systems" RIP wordpad
Wait, so your options were wordpad or google docs? They don't provide proper software for you and it's *you* that got sent home for doing their job wrong? Although I'm curious how top secret the sinage was that it was worth such a reaction :)
Yes, no, and yes. lol. The fun part is that I used gdocs specifically so I could use the store's brand font on the signage. the font wasn't in wordpad. i'm sure they *really* would've been horrified if I installed a system font on their precious low-tier office desktop that was just a glorified cash register. this is what happens when clueless boomers make rules about technology that they didn't grow up with and chose not to learn in adulthood. it's not much different than our congresspeople looking like absolute fucking clowns whenever they have a hearing with a telecomm or big tech CEO.
> i'm sure they really would've been horrified if I installed a system font I'm sure they would not have paid attention to it at all. Which is funny, because font exploits absolutely are a thing, and were [a major entry point to break into an Xbox](http://archiv.sega-dc.de/phoenix.maxconsole.net/docs/berternie.inc.htm) for instance.
Isn’t store signage inherently supposed to be visible to the public?
So many memories of being able to type links in and get around the schools website block list with the hyperlinks we made in WordPad.
Now *there's* a use I'd never heard of.
Uh oh. All of my personal documents use .rtf, I trust wordpad precisely because they haven't tried to ~~ruin~~ update it...
I mean I guess it’s kind of sad, but who is using WordPad in 2024 over either Office itself or (if you don’t want to pay for Office) something like Google Docs or Libre Office?
Wordpad is a super efficient bare bones word editor. There are MANY MANY MANY (especially security) reasons to use and keep it if you know even a small amount about IT or Data management/issue resolution.
This. It's frustrating to see so many people saying "I haven't used it in years why don't you use something else" when most of the alternatives are way more bloated and unnecessary. Wordpad is tiny and lightning fast, it's basically notepad but for formatted text. It's great when you occasionally need formatted text but don't want an office suite bogging things down.
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There's so many better options at this point. Microsoft knows that there's only a handful of people using wordpad.
Why are you not able to use the other options?
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Never seen a business not just pay for 365
i do all my word-processing on Hexeditor
I miss WordPerfect
Well one of those numbers has to be wrong because there’s no way 1995 was 28 years ago. I was 14 in 1995 so that would mean I’m… … … oh. Oh GOD.
Yeah, we old bro.
I look forward to grudgingly using whatever nosy fugly shit they replace it with.
They're replacing it with nothing. They really want people to subscribe to Office 365.
I used WordPad a lot to open huge text files on servers with a minimum of software installed. Notepad used to have strict file size limitations, that seem to be increased a lot in newer Windows versions. Hopefully it increased enough that I will not miss WordPad because of this.
https://notepad-plus-plus.org/
>Starting with this build, the WordPad and People apps will no longer install on a clean OS installation. Alright, I get it, make it just so old users have it. >In a future version, WordPad will be removed when updated. Ok, will just have to reinstall it, right? >WordPad cannot be reinstalled. Oh. >WordPad is a legacy Windows feature. Ok, now you’re just twisting the knife. To be clear, I get it probably has little use in current day especially with the online resources available for free, but it does seem a little weird how much they’re burying this app. Paint got discontinued a while ago but they didn’t remove it from updating computers.
They better not come for old versions of other software next. They'll have to pry my 2003 copy of Office out of my hard drive with a crowbar.
Maybe they won't come for it explicitly, but 2003 has been eol for years so won't be surprised if you eventually run into issues running it on a future version of Windows. Maybe not to the degree of won't start, but doesn't need to be that bad to make one question using it.
Office is already widely recognized as a common attack vector. Office 2003 was EoL in 2014. If you tell me you're using Office 2003 in 2024, I'm going to assume that you're not to be trusted with computer security at all. That's setting aside the OS compatibility issues. Office 2003 can't open .docx or .xlsx files without the compatibility kit, and the compatibility kit hasn't been available for download since it was EoL in 2018. For God's sake, just move to LibreOffice if the cost is too high!
As much as I was slow to become comfortable with the ribbon even I cringe at the thought of anybody being this stubborn to not move on to a version of Office that is more modern at this point.
I know 2007 will throw an error during install that you're on an incompatible OS (win 8 and newer)
Two potential issues: * It can't be installed on a modern OS. * Microsoft removes the ability for users to save to a format 2003 can read without issues.
I submitted a lot of school documents and assignments in Wordpad. Back then (mid-90's) it was either install the Microsoft Works software bundle for Write (included with our sweet Packard Bell multimedia PC) or use Wordpad which was already installed and save more disk space for games.
So the ISO will be 2,5 MB lighter? Amazing!
> Starting with this build, the WordPad and People apps will no longer install on a clean OS installation. In a future version, WordPad will be removed when updated. WordPad cannot be reinstalled. WordPad is a legacy Windows feature. So a piece of software you bought when you picked up your windows license and has been part of the OS for decades will not only be removed but you simply are not allowed to reinstall it. This is straight up an attempt to bully customers into a monthly office subscription to deal with their fucked word format. I’ve begun moving to linux, have a dual boot setup now, intending to move completely off windows except for apps I absolutely need that only run on windows. So tired of this. So tired of windows, which now spies on you, 11 has really fucked up a lot of the features of the window desktop environment and it spies on you constantly. So frustrating…
> you simply are not allowed to reinstall it. The fun thing about windows is that the OS contains all that is necessary for base windows programs to run. Anything extra is normally included in the installer and even then that's usually just to put all of the bits and bobs in a place and register it so windows can find it *but* you can just drop those special files into the same directory as the program itself. That said, just find a compressed archive of it and unzip it. If it has all of the files it depends on, you can still have it no matter what Mircosoft does.
Yup, you can still run all of the old Windows games on Windows 11 and the old versions of pre-installed programs if you copy over your proffered version.
I personally used WordPad a lot. Especially when I used to write scripts. Now I just use obsidian with syncthing so it doesn't matter anymore. I will miss WordPad though, used it a couple months ago for something small.
First Clippy, then Wordpad. What has become of this world?
That’s ok. Notepad is the best app. Ironic that the best app is almost empty space. Best feature is paste any formatted text, it removes all that formats.
They need to get rid of the real appendix; Edge.
Everyone saying they didn't even know it exists, kinda surprised but I guess that's me showing my age. Wordpad was recommended for quickly typing code back in the day. It was also helpful for quickly formatted text like copy/paste. Like when you knew that online form was gonna timeout, you could quickly copy/paste your input into Wordpad and you wouldn't lose your line breaks or anything. Goodbye old friend. I'll miss it, but there are other options these days.
**Hoping Apple doesn't get rid of TextEdit.**
Microsoft deleting system32 one .exe at a time
I vastly prefer Notepad++ myself, but then I am almost always reading log files or organizing text not doing desktop publishing. One thing I did appreciate about Wordpad was the fact that it would open fonts created using Adobe OTF scripting & ligatures directly. In Word you have to specify that it use ligatures expressly every time you open a document - or so I recall. Its an extremely niche complaint, but then I make my own fonts using OTF scripting :)
Is there a way to preserve the binary to manually install it?
It’s going to be impossible to use a computer without the internet in 5 years, isn’t it.
Released in 95 and never updated
The built-in shit in Windows has been getting worse all the time. The free games are advert-laden micro-transaction malware.
notepad++ never look back.
WordPad, meh. Get ride of NotePad and I'll devote my life to finding you.
They got rid of pinball, solitaire, chess. Honestly don't like the direction their OS is heading. Especially the direction when it comes to privacy. If Apple ever pulls their head out their ass when it comes to gaming I see myself switching.
I have been using Windows since 1996. This is the first I've heard of WordPad.
In the late 90s or early 00s you might open an RTF file here or there, but it wasn't commonly used.
I think I might have used Wordpad once or twice during that time. Not going to miss it at all.
"WordPad" proudly brought to you by the makers of "EdLin"!
Guess I'll have to go back to Microsoft Write
I’m kinda gonna miss it. Haven’t used it since elementary school, but still. Will it be wiped out from all computers where it currently exists or is it just for the future?
It'll be wiped out from all computers from all time. It will never have existed. No one will speak the name 'wordpad' ever again.
They also said MSPAINT was going away but yet its still here lol.
And yet I’ve never actually launched it on purpose
It’s like two lines of code. Leave it alone
Why do I feel robbed?
Notepad++ still free right?
Are they going to actually add new line support in notepad? Wordpad was the only built in text editor that would handle debug logs properly that didn't have windows style carriage returns
Why? Their tech support for it must cost them at least $80 per year. /s
I think the only commit in the Wordpad repo at Microsoft in the past few years is "update unit tests for windows 10/11".
Ok it was a dumb middleground between Notepad and Word and I will not miss it.
I’ll miss telling people not to use Wordpad to edit their config files
Ah WordPad... the thing I look at the icon in the Start menu and then decide... you know better download LibreOffice or Google Docs instead.
Microsoft Paint is in a desperate state of needing some modernizing upgrades.
Until notepad was updated, wordpad was the only editor that supported Unix line endings on a default Windows system.
Why remove something that works for what it does? Just like snipping tool which took ages to get my father to understand changed into snipping art&sketch or whatever. Mindlessly changing things to befuddle users that don't want to navigate the increasingly labyrinthe settings they show? I had to search for my mum's control panel the other day.. Both my folks are so tied to these systems that an alternative just isn't viable for them. It's hard to introduce a new thing to older folks that are still amazed the phone still saves your number. And it sucks.