I’m an lively person of Home windows Notepad. I put it to use to make tough assembly notes, retailer hints for my passwords, and save information that I may have commonly; for instance, the hex or RGB values of a customized coloration scheme in my Energy BI studies. I like how shortly the appliance masses up and allows you to get instantly into your circulation with none fancy splash screens, animations, or strategies for templates. Nevertheless, I feel that the software program has been dropping its objective and imaginative and prescient over the previous few years.
It began again in 2021 when particulars a couple of Notepad redesign for Home windows 11 leaked with Fluent Design and minimalist menus. This was adopted by the rollout of a darkish theme and leaks about one other UX change, that being a tabbed interface. Then got here 2023 and we obtained automated save states, Edit in Notepad, and a personality counter. Most of those adjustments have been welcomed since Notepad had been in such a dormant state for such a very long time from a growth perspective.
Nevertheless, I might argue that this was the turning level as seemingly enthralled by the optimistic suggestions it was receiving, Microsoft determined to inject dreaded AI capabilities into Notepad as nicely. The timing was unlucky, on condition that Notepad growth had lastly been reactivated and AI tendencies have been on the rise too.
In January 2024, AI writing help options have been noticed by web sleuths, and subsequent month, Insiders may leverage Clarify with Copilot instantly in Notepad. Quickly after, Microsoft additionally launched a spellchecker. In the identical week, my fellow Neowin Editor Taras Buria revealed a information explaining the way to restore the previous model of Notepad, with out all the newest bells and whistles. It grew to become clear that not everybody desires new options being added to their easy note-taking app on a regular basis, particularly AI capabilities. Since then, Notepad has obtained a number of new capabilities, together with AI-powered Rewrite, textual content summarization, textual content formatting, and textual content era.
Notepad has advanced fairly a bit prior to now few years, for higher or for worse. I do assume it is dropping its unique imaginative and prescient although. Beforehand, we had Notepad for these fast note-taking situations, WordPad for extra customization choices, and Microsoft Phrase and OneNote providing the full-fledged textual content enhancing expertise for these with Workplace or Microsoft 365 licenses. Now, WordPad is lifeless, and the capabilities between Notepad, Phrase, and OneNote are muddled to the purpose that the strains between them are being blurred.
Notepad is turning into greater than a easy note-taking app, it is competing with different Microsoft apps within the space of AI-powered textual content modification. This is not inherently a foul factor, but it surely additionally implies that it would not be shocking to see the tech firm introduce much more AI options (bloat) within the app simply because AI and Copilot integration throughout all its merchandise is part of its newest technique.
What was a device to simply shortly launch and take notes is now yet one more promoting floor for Copilot. Further capabilities in an utility is not a foul factor, however it could actually detract from the core objective of the software program, whereas additionally opening the door to distasteful types of promoting that we all know Microsoft is able to. An early indicator of that is the truth that AI-powered textual content era requires a paid Copilot Professional or Microsoft 365 license with AI credit.
Maybe it will have been higher to maintain issues principally as they have been:
- Notepad for hassle-free note-taking, whereas borrowing fundamental textual content formatting capabilities from WordPad
- Microsoft Phrase / OneNote for these with Workplace or Microsoft 365 licenses and subscriptions
- Microsoft Phrase On-line for many who do not wish to pay for a subscription
Within the above state of affairs, Copilot capabilities could be provided to the latter two classes solely and Notepad could be restricted to its unique objective. However after all, that is me speaking from a person standpoint. From the enterprise perspective held by Microsoft, it solely is sensible to inject Copilot into as many merchandise as attainable, which is reasonably unlucky. One can solely hope that OneNote does not devolve solely into an advert platform for Copilot.
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