Windows 11 Notepad Gets Rich Text Features: The Good, the Bad, and the Future

The Windows 11 Notepad app has always carried a unique status in the Microsoft software ecosystem: a humble, lightning-fast text editor valued for its minimalism and instant launch times. For decades, Notepad has been a refuge for coders, sysadmins, and everyday users who simply wanted to jot down ideas, edit configuration files, or strip unwanted formatting from web copy. Its role seemed eternally defined by its simplicity—until now.

Notepad Evolves: New Formatting Abilities Arrive​

Recently, Microsoft rolled out a significant update to Notepad for Windows 11, one that’s resulted in both excitement and controversy within the community. These changes, quietly tested in Insider builds over the past year, have now reached the mainstream as Microsoft pushed a revamped Notepad app via the Microsoft Store for all users running the latest versions of Windows 11.
The headline feature? Notepad now supports lightweight rich text formatting. For the first time in its history, users can add headings, bold or italicize text, create numbered or bullet-point lists, and insert hyperlinks. A quick glance at the newly refreshed Notepad suggests it’s slowly picking up design language and capabilities from WordPad, the mid-tier word processor Microsoft retired in 2023.

What Are the New Features?​

The most prominent upgrades in this Notepad update include:

• Headings and Subheadings: Users can now structure their notes with hierarchical text, adding clarity to longer or more complex documents.
• Text Styling (Bold & Italics): Formatting options allow important terms or blocks to stand out, making Notepad feel closer to a markdown editor.
• Lists: Numbered and bulleted lists make organizing tasks, outlines, or ideas far easier than before.
• Hyperlinks: Instead of plain text, you can now embed clickable links—helpful for referencing web resources or supporting documentation within a note.
• Toggleable Formatting Mode: A ‘Formatted’ button at the bottom of the window lets users toggle these features on or off with a single click, effortlessly switching between plain and rich-text editing.

These enhancements may sound subtle when compared to the feature-rich titans like Microsoft Word, but for Notepad’s traditionally bare-bones approach they’re a dramatic leap.

The Community Reacts: Love It or Loathe It?​

Microsoft’s decision to flesh out Notepad has touched a nerve. Responses, especially on forums like Reddit and tech news comment sections, have been passionate—and polarized.

The Case for Rich Formatting​

Supporters, many of whom express nostalgia for WordPad, applaud the change. WordPad occupied a sweet spot for users who needed a bit more than Notepad’s plain text limitation but didn’t want (or need) the complexity and processing heft of full-blown Word. With WordPad gone, Notepad’s growth into its space seems sensible, even overdue.

• Productivity Boost: Students, professionals, and power users can now create more readable and structured notes without leaving Notepad.
• Accessibility and Clarity: Headings and styling make documents easier to navigate, especially for lengthy troubleshooting logs or personal knowledge bases.
• Seamless Transition: Instead of hunting for a third-party replacement, existing Notepad loyalists gain new functionality natively.

The Backlash: ‘Bloat’ and Mission Creep​

On the other side, many loyalists are wary—if not outright hostile—to the new direction. The core complaint: Notepad’s identity is rooted in its minimalism. The fear is that, step by step, it will become heavier and slower, mirroring the fate of many once-nimble Microsoft utilities.
Common concerns include:

• Performance Worries: Even a small increase in startup time or memory usage is unacceptable for users who open Notepad dozens of times a day for tiny edits.
• Feature Creep: Critics point to a pattern in software where incremental updates chip away at simplicity until a tool is burdened with unnecessary complexity.
• Loss of Identity: The essential difference between Notepad and applications like WordPad or Word could be blurred, confusing the app's core use cases.

Analysis: Bolstered or Bloated?​

To fully understand the stakes, it’s worth analyzing Notepad’s transformation in the wider context of Windows 11’s user experience and Microsoft’s history with utility software.

From Plain-Text Editor to Hybrid Tool​

Notepad was released with Windows 1.0 in 1985 as a basic utility for opening text files and making quick edits. Over time, it became synonymous with several workflow tricks: stripping formatting by copy-pasting through Notepad, quick code snippets, and instant notes. Apart from adding support for larger files and, more recently, dark mode and auto-saving, Notepad’s interface and codebase remained remarkably spartan.
Microsoft’s decision to sunset WordPad in 2023 was met with little public outcry at the time. But with Notepad now assuming many of its functions, that absence is acutely felt by certain users. There’s a clear push for Notepad to play double duty: to serve as both a plain-text scratchpad and a basic document editor.

The Principle of Least Surprise​

For Microsoft, evolving Notepad carries risks. The tech-savvy user base that relies on its original behavior expects reliability and speed above all else. At the same time, making the default editor more versatile could address gaps for casual users who neither want to buy Word nor trust free, ad-funded word processors.
Microsoft appears to be threading the needle—at least for now—by making formatting an opt-in feature. As the TechRadar report notes, turning off formatting is as simple as clicking the “Formatted” button at the bottom of the window. This design choice is critical: it allows purists to continue using Notepad as they always have, while letting others experiment with richer formatting.

The Hidden Impacts​

Even so, changes under the hood—such as supporting rich text rendering, managing a broader range of file formats, and handling lists or hyperlinks—can subtly impact memory footprint and application launch times. If Notepad accrues additional background services or dependencies, there’s a risk these will persist between launches, eating away at its famed responsiveness. Third-party benchmarking and early user reports generally suggest performance remains snappy for now, but vigilance is warranted as further features are introduced.

The Future of Notepad: Roadmap, Risks, and Opportunities​

What happens next could define how Notepad—and lightweight utility software in general—evolves on the Windows platform.

Expanding the Feature Set​

The newly introduced formatting features won’t be the last. Insiders and leaks have alluded to other experimental capabilities in Microsoft's pipeline, including:

• Tabs and Multi-Document Support: Already rolled out in some builds, allowing multiple notes open in tabs.
• Spellcheck and Grammar Tools: A feature often requested by casual users and those making longer notes.
• Cloud Integration: Potential syncing across devices via OneDrive, a logical step given Microsoft’s growing investment in cloud-first workflows.

While many users would welcome these improvements, each successive addition increases the app’s footprint and risk of diverting from its original purpose.

The Windows Utility Paradox​

There is a paradox at play: users demand innovation, but not at the expense of the reliability and speed they have come to expect. Microsoft faces pressure to both modernize legacy apps and maintain backward compatibility—competing requirements that have tripped up the company in the past.
The “bloat” critique isn’t without merit. Microsoft Edge, for example, started as a streamlined browser and has steadily grown to include features for shopping, gaming, PDFs, and more, leading some users to seek leaner alternatives. The trajectory of Notepad, in this light, is cause for caution.

Maintaining Two Modes: The Best Compromise?​

The current solution—the format toggle—serves as a potential model for how to manage legacy and modern demands within a single app. If Microsoft can commit to preserving Notepad’s lightning-fast plain text mode, while cordoning off richer functions behind a user-controlled switch, the company may satisfy both audiences.
However, maintaining two modes places its own burden on development and quality assurance. Over time, the risk grows that bugs, inconsistencies, or regressions slip through, diminishing user trust.

The Broader UX Strategy​

Notepad’s changes also fit into Microsoft’s broader push to close the perceived “feature gap” between Windows’ out-of-the-box utilities and third-party tools. The resurgence of interest in open-source editors like Notepad++ and cross-platform utilities such as Visual Studio Code demonstrates that users crave both power and efficiency.
By improving Notepad, Microsoft may hope to keep Windows users within its own ecosystem rather than losing them to alternatives. The integration with the Microsoft Store for updates ensures that new features and fixes reach users more quickly, independent of infrequent Windows system updates.

What Does This Mean for Users?​

Whether you welcome or resist the changes, understanding the tangible impact on your daily workflow is key. Users who value stability, speed, and zero learning curve can continue using Notepad almost exactly as before, toggling off formatting with a click. For users who want a bit more polish, paper, or shareability in their notes, Notepad is finally catching up to modern expectations.
Practical scenarios where the new features shine include:

• Drafting quick outlines for meetings or notes with formatting cues that aid clarity.
• Creating simple, shareable documents with embedded links for colleagues or clients.
• Maintaining personal task lists or study notes that benefit from headings and organization.

For scripting, editing hosts files, log reviews, or stripping formatting from text, Notepad remains as reliable as ever—so long as Microsoft maintains its current dual-mode approach.

Conclusion​

The updated Notepad in Windows 11 represents more than an incremental software patch—it’s a microcosm of how legacy tools can evolve (or stray) as user expectations and technology platforms advance. Microsoft’s addition of headings, lists, basic styles, and hyperlinks is a logical response to the demise of WordPad and the demands of a more diverse user base. Yet the challenge is real: how to modernize without compromising ultralight speed and simplicity?
Early responses demonstrate that Microsoft’s choices here will continue to invite debate. Supporters hail the new features as a much-needed evolution, while critics urge restraint and warn against bloat. The inclusion of a formatting toggle is a clever—if not perfect—way to bridge the divide. It’s crucial that Microsoft commits to performance, transparency, and user choice as it iterates.
For now, Windows 11 users gain a more powerful tool than ever before, without sacrificing the Notepad they know and trust. Whether this balance endures is up to Microsoft—and, as the divided feedback shows, to the ever-vocal Windows community. As Notepad continues its journey from plain text simplicity to lightweight document editor, its fate will hinge on maintaining the delicate equilibrium between utility and convenience, tradition and innovation, in the ever-shifting landscape of Windows software.

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Source: TechRadar Windows 11’s Notepad app gets a polarizing feature that’s sparking controversy, but I think Microsoft’s made the right move