Notepad and WordPad: Basic Note-Taking Tools

So you have acquired a new computer, but you think you don't have the word processing tools to get it going? Look again. A newly installed operating like Win98 or WinXP will have at least two word processing tools packed with it: Notepad and WordPad. You can access both via Start--> (All) Programs --> Accessories.

Notepad is an ASCII text editor. It doesn't look much at first but when you start working with it, you'll find out that for straight and simple note-taking, it is a very functional application. WordPad, on the other hand is your Rich Text Editor. It saves files as RTF which stands for Rich Text Format. You can format the text anyway you like: bold, italic, underlined. You can put them in colors too. So if you are working at the office and you need to create reports, WordPad will do just the thing for you.

Using Notepad

A lot of people tend to overlook the functionalities of Notepad because -- some say -- one cannot make its texts look nice and it prints bad. If you treat Notepad like an RTF editor, then you are correct. But Notepad is not for the kind of thing an RTF editor is for. Notepad is for note-taking.

One use of Notepad is a text database for your clipboard. The Windows default clipboard is that invisible application that captures whatever you copy in your computer. But the clipboard only stores data one at a time. The next time one copies anything, the previous data is erased to give room for the new one. So how does one make Notepad a databank for text clips?

1. Open up a new File. File-->New
2. Save the new file as "myclips.txt" File-->Save As-->type: myclips.txt --> Save

Now you can click on the "Hide" button. To call back Notepad, just ALT-Tab and pick the Notepad icon. Each time you copy a text data,

1. ALT-Tab --> Notepad
2. Edit --> Paste (right click --> "Paste") or CTRL+V
3. Edit --> Save or CTRL+S

Another way of using Notepad is as a text diary. I have a niece who when watching her favorite anime show would occassionally rise from her seat and go to the computer to type in some notes about what she is watching. I make diary-like entries using Notepad for use as blog entries later. So how does one make use of Notepad as a text diary?

1. Open up a new file. File-->New
2. Save the new file as "mylogs.txt" File-->Save CTRL+S
3. On the very first line of this new text file, type .LOG (it must be in capital letters; take note of the dot!)
4. Save CTRL+S
5. Close Notepad
6. Go to where you saved "mylogs.txt" and create a shortcut for it on your Desktop (right click-->Create Shortcut)

Each time you feel the need to type in something, go to the "mylogs.txt-shortcut" and double-click on it. Notepad will come up and will automatically create the date and time for your entry.

Another way for making use of Notepad is for your email messages. Notepad is the ideal tool for preparing your long email messages offline. After typing your prepared email, open up your browser and go to your webmail account (may it be Yahoo or Google). Type in the TO address and SUBJECT, and then...

1. ALT+Tab -->Notepad
2. Edit --> Select All -->CTRL+C (or Edit-->Copy)
3. ALT+Tab -->Browser (Email)
4. CTRL+V (right click-->Paste)
5. Send

This is useful if you use the web only for emailing purposes. The Copy and Paste operation only lasts a few seconds. You will at most spend 15 minutes for logging into the web, opening up the browser and get to your email account. With Notepad -- and assuming you access the web from your own computer -- you will save a lot of time for emailing and you will have extra time for browsing.

There is another way to use Notepad: use it to create webpages! Or if you have a WordPress blog somewhere, you can prepare your blogs using Notepad the same way as you use it for your email. For more tips regarding this, go to this article from the Collectanea.

Using WordPad

The Windows basic word processor is WordPad. It doesn't give you a lot of options, but whatever choices it gives you may as well be the only thing you need. An RTF file is something that you can manipulate and format the way you like. And WordPad doesn't require much from your CPU. So you can open it and allow it to stay open.

Like Notepad, you can use WordPad as your Graphic and Rich Text clipboard database. It accepts graphics that you copy through your browser or from Windows Paint!

If you have typed some things into Notepad and you wish to have these printed out, the best way is to copy your data and paste them into WordPad. In WordPad, you can begin to format your paragraphs, add colors, and even graphic files if you wish! Note however that if you are going to save a WordPad document with a graphic file, you have to save it as RTF, not as TXT.

In Brief

You can begin using your computer with the basic installation of your operating system. For students and professionals who need to write plain and RTF documents, your Windows system already provides you with necessary tools. You can further enhance those tools of course through software that you can download from the web, but leave that for another day. If you need to write anything, you can start now...