Just to add to the debate…
As has been pointed out, Notepad is yer basic ASCII editor but is kind of sparse on features (like search and replace - it can find, but it can’t replace). There are other freeware text editors that can do more.
But the most annoying thing to me is that Notepad has a limitation on the size of file it can open - not sure what it is exactly, but many times I’ve tried to open a file in Notepad and been told it was too large. :mad: That’s the main reason why I generally use a third-party text editor.
I find Notepad helpful when I need to get rid of formatting quickl; for example, if I am creating a book list and the book titles all have hyperlinks. Dumping the text into Notepad cleans it up; I can then dump it back into Word to formaqt it. It’s a small thing, but a huge time saver.
I do a lot of HTML coding, and for that I always use Wordpad. Wordpad is easy, reliable, handy. Most importantly, its is simple enough that it doesn’t stick in extra code that mucks up your HTML. Do not, repeat, do not ever use Word for HTML work. I have never had any problem with HTML in Wordpad, since I just use plain ASCII text, no formatting apart from line breaks. Its replace feature really saves a lot of time.
I have no use for Notepad, even though the HTML snobs refuse to use anything else. Notepad has only one font, which is the one of the ugliest fonts in existence. Hurts my eyes to look at it. When you move a whole site, as I have done twice, and you have to change the code on every page, believe me, the replace function of Wordpad is a godsend.
While it’s true that Notepad can only display one font at a time, you can change what font that is. I don’t remember where the option is in Windows 98, but in Windows 2000, pick Format, then Font.
I think that the powers that be think like you do, because Notepad in NT and 2000 has a replace feature.
I’d like to second Shoshana’s response about notepad removing formatting.
I especially find this useful when copying text from a web page and pasting it into an HTML email. Windows tries to bring over all the images, tables, etc so I copy it into notepad first and then recopy for final pasting into the email. I keep text file on my desktop just for these purposes (saves the time of having to name a new file).
As for HTML/script editing, I find Homesite 4.5 to be the best (just don’t use the design tab!). Having the line numbers is essential for debugging and the subtle color coding makes it much easier to read. You can also do not only search & replace, but regular expressions.
Word is great for times when you are writing a big doc with an updateable table of contents, headers, footers, spell check and images. The version of Word that comes with OfficeXP is much improved in the fact that when it tries to guess what you are trying to do and ‘helps you’, a little blue underline comes under the affected content and you can tell it to revert to the way you originally typed it.
WordPad is good for opening binary files and looking for any text string that resides within (e.g. if you suspect a virus has overwritten or modified one of your files, etc.) HexEdit is also good for this, but you have to pay for it.
Finally, I wouldn’t recommend notepad for writing professional letters unless you are used to living without spell check.
Ugh. If you want to read binary files, get a proper hex editor. If you want to edit text files, get a proper text editor, with nice features like syntax highlighting and frilly pretty things like that.
