We always run into a situation when we have some small bit of information that we have to jot down somewhere. Gone are the days when we used to carry a pen and a scrapbook or a pocket diary.
In this age of electronic devices, there are plenty of notetaking apps. Microsoft has Sticky Notes and One Note, which come with the Windows operating system. Google has Keep, and there are others like Notion and Evernote.
All these are popular because they have an autosave feature, and the file is stored in our account in the cloud, enabling us to access it anytime, anywhere.
Besides Sticky Notes and One Note, an app that comes along with Windows is the good old Notepad. It's so basic that very few people use it.
But since it's one of those very early Microsoft Windows apps (from the pre-cloud era), it's always on the top of my mind, and instinctively, I open it when I have something quickly to jot down.
But I have never been happy with it because when I close the app, it asks me to save it, and I have to give a name for it.
Additionally, it's on the device; I can't access it on the go unless I save it in a folder that is backed up to my account.
Notepad is best when we have to paste some text as "plain text", especially when we have to copy and paste the text from one interface onto another.
Anyway, finally, after more than two decades, Microsoft has paid some attention to Notepad. A few days ago, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw a notification regarding the autosave feature. No need to give even a file name. No need to save it in a folder.
Open Notepad. Key in anything. Close it. Next time, when you open it, you can resume from where you left off.
Besides this, there is a feature to open new tabs. If you close an individual tab, then Notepad will ask if you want to save the changes. If we say "yes", then it gets saved to a folder.
But still, it's saved only on the device and not in the account. Yet, it's a very good user-friendly update that Notepad has got.
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteI gave away Microsoft more than a decade ago... total Google gal these days... YAM xx
Hi Yamini - I am on both. I need Microsoft since my office stuff runs on Windows. When I retire in about a year and a half, I might think of shifting to Google fully, along with a Chrome book. :-)
DeleteI haven't used Notepad for years. I used to find it useful but that was many years ago. Auto save seems pretty basic now.
ReplyDeleteYes, too little; too late.
DeleteI am glad. Thanks for the info
ReplyDeleteThank you. :-)
DeleteI haven't used Notepad much at all - it was handy if I needed to strip text of formatting, but I never have the need for that these days. I'm still a pen and paper girl at heart.
ReplyDeleteHi Leanne - Notepad doesn't have so much utility value, barring as you rightly said, for deformating. Glad to see that you use pen and paper. I use the pen and paper, in office, while taking down notes.
DeleteOn the Mac side, there's BBEdit that similarly does an autosave, and it saves to your iCloud account so you can pick it up later...
ReplyDeleteHi John - Thanks for that info. That's nice. Anything that backs up on the cloud is always useful, is it not?
Deletei always prefer a pen and paper, i see people using the cell phone even for sessions, and they read it directly from the document. i am more comfortable to write it down and use it for ready reference. I used to use note pad years ago in my life, but now no longer use it. Thanks for sharing .
ReplyDeleteI carry a pen and a small pocket notebook. That's more out of habit. But when I am working I use mostly either Notepad or Keep. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
DeleteI use Notepad quite extensively on my desktop even today, although Google Keep is my favorite on mobile. Notepad is simple and easy - that's something I love!
ReplyDeleteHi Rajesh - For me too. The autosave is a huge help.
DeleteThat's encouraging. I save everything on Word - bit slow to catch up with the modern world ;-)
ReplyDeleteYa, Word or One Note is a better option.
DeleteI have several little files on my desktop that are notepad. It's such a useful little program. I'm glad it hadn't ended up in the abandonware files.
ReplyDeleteSuper interesting..
ReplyDeleteNotepad till date is my best friend . Even now as i m typing this- my notepad is open.
Infact i shud confess- many a times when we try to post a comment on someone's blog - due to connectivity issues it doesnt get posted. Then we hav to re-type it..... Many times i hav used Notepad to type my comment & paste it on blog :)
Hi Viyoma, Yes, notepad is a very accessory when working on the laptop. Regarding posting of comments, what you said does happen to me as well. So, I too sometimes, type out the comments on Notepad and paste it on the blog! And notepad is where I type out all my rough notes.
DeleteI still like carrying around pen and paper. ~grin~ I've seen a friend struggle with cloud storage when he wanted access to a project.
ReplyDeleteHi Darla - If it's something not quite important, I scribble on a paper notepad. But if it's something that I need to preserve which I should not risk losing, I will store online.
DeleteI know sometimes accessing online resource can be a challenge. And it has it's own other drawbacks like losing access if the password is lost, etc.
I've also used notepad when I needed something as plain text. I can't believe it took them this long to put in autosave.
ReplyDeleteYes it's surprising that they took so long.
Delete. . . And this new feature of Notepadis so useful.
ReplyDelete