Notepad and WordPad Replacements

Your Windows installation ships with Windows Notepad and WordPad.  The first is your all purpose text-editor; the second is your word processor.  But both are so very basic that certain features one would like to see in an editor are missing.  For example, both applications can only edit one document at a time. Notepad is notorious for its 64kb file limitation.  WordPad while not suffering from the same ailment also has issues that prevent it from being used for serious work (e.g., it can't insert a graphic file from the hard disk, it has no spell check, etc.).  Fortunately there are software applications made specifically for Windows that are intended to take the place of these two very basic text editors.  Below are freeware editors that are considered top of the line replacements for either Notepad or WordPad.  All of these carry no advertisements whatsoever.  I will be limiting my list to text and RTF editors that I have used myself and continue to keep in my computer.

Notepad Replacements

Notepad2 (Flos-Freeware http://www.flos-freeware.ch)

Right now, one of the Notepad replacements favored by programmers and non-programmers alike is Notepad2.  It is as small as Notepad but more powerful.  It can fit into a floppy disk and can function from it.  But of course with the advent of USB flash (pen) drives, who will need floppies for working with different computers?  Here, Notepad2 really shines out.  It doesn't have the file size limitations of Notepad, it launches quickly, it doesn't require too much CPU resources,  and what's more -- a real joy for programmers -- it has functions (e.g. code folding, syntax highlighting) that make coding easy.  Notepad2 is freeware.  It isn't the cripple ware like the following top-of-the-line replacements.

NoteTab Light edition (Fookes' Software http://www.notetab.com)

If you want a larger and feature-laden Notepad replacement, then use Note Tab Light.  It has two more powerful sisters called NoteTab Standard and NoteTab Pro with more features.  But comparing NoteTab Lite with the native Notepad (whether Win98, WinXP or Vista), then Fookes' software is definitely an advanced replacement. 

The NoteTab family of text editors are known for their tabbed Multi-Document interface.  One can open up several text files at once and see them all in a tabbed arrangement.  In addition, what is unique to this family of text editors is the Clipbar, a  customizable set of modules (or programmes if you wish) that automates NoteTab.  This feature is also present in NoteTab Lite and makes it a really powerful freeware Notepad replacement.  A comparison of the features of all three Notetab products are given at their web home (http://www.notetab.com).  While those of NoteTab Light are reduced, I can assure you that if your needs are modest, you'd be happy with what it offers.

JGSoft's EditPad Lite (Just Great Software http://www.jgsoft.com/editpad-lite.htm)

Like NoteTab Lite, EditPad Lite version has a big brother called EditPad Pro which is a programmer's dream text and html editor.  But if you wish a more powerful and fully-featured replacement for your Windows Notepad, here is one that is worth your money.  It is free, popular and very functional.  If you like tweaking with the config.ini's of your Windows desktop or your favorite application, preparing your emails offline or just enjoy taking notes, then you might enjoy EditPad Lite.

Gridinsoft Notepad Lite  (Gridinsoft http://www.gridinsoft.com)

Gridinsoft specializes in utility software; one of these is the Gridinsoft Notepad, made for Windows tweakers and programmers.  This has a free crippleware version called Gridinsoft Notepad Lite that one can also put in a USB flash drive and use it from there.  Gridinsoft's products are not very well known; perhaps this is because they are not well advertised.  Their Notepad however -- though not as well-known as the previous products mentioned here -- is very functional while looking much much better than your Windows Notepad.  Beauty, elegance and functionality -- these are the characteristics of Gridinsoft's Notepad Lite.  You can try it for yourself.

DocPad (Gammadyne http://www.gammadyne.com)

DocPad is not a crippleware -- it is simply free software that Gammadyne uses as an advertising tool for its products without it being a carrier of advertisements itself.  It doesn't have popups that tell you to buy products or alerts that nag you about visiting its home website.  It just sits there on your desktop waiting for your command and creates text files when you click it to do so.  DocPad has an interface that teenagers will love, and it comes with different skins (An software reviewer writes that the only problem with DocPad is its ugly interface.  The guy didn't see the look on my twelve year old niece's face the first time she saw my DocPad.  "Tito," she said, "is that a game?"  DocPad isn't ugly; it just looks different!).  It is unfortunate that DocPad isn't as popular as it should be.  It has a lot of features that a student or a home maker would like in a text editor.  It is the text editor for the non-programmer and can do its job in colorful skins too.

WordPad Replacements

There are quite a number of RTF editors available for download on the web but the following are no-nag, non-limited but functional WordPad replacements.

ABIWord   (Abiword   http://www.abiword.com)

Looking for a free replacement for WordPad and Word?  Abiword is your answer.  It is a word processor that can run not only in Windows but in other operating systems as well.  It has an interface that looks like those one sees in Red Hat Linux or XWindows and has a lot of formatting capabilities that even a professor of the sciences (chemistry, math and physics) would be able to use for his/her computer generated handouts .  The AbiWord plugins add to the application's functionality and the extra fonts for math and scientific notations are both offered separately for download. 

Atlantis Nova  (Rising Sun Solutions http://www.atlantiswordprocessor.com)

Atlantis Nova is a promotional product for the Atlantis Word Processor.   It is a word processor on its own and not crippleware.  In this sense, it is very much like the Tomahawk PDF+, the light version of Tomahawk Gold (see below). 

Atlantis Nova has the following features

• well-documented help file (with the many features of Atlantis Nova, you'd be glad of this feature)
• very compact (in minimal configuration is takes about 600 KB of your hard drive space).
• allows one to work with up to 50 documents simultaneously.
• supports multiple document formats (RTF, MS Word 6.0/95/97/2000, MS Write etc).
• allows one to work with many graphics formats (BMP, EMF, WMF, JPG, GIF, PNG, PCX, TGA, ICO etc).
• zooming factors and the Easy Hand mode will make viewing your documents extremely convenient.
• offers about 200 Hot Keys
• Hot Calculator tightly integrated with the document window, contributes unbelievable possibilities to word processing.
• other features include:  Advanced Ruler, Document Bar, support for Column Blocks, the Drag & Drop operations, Clippy Bank, unlimited document size, unlimited undo/redo, large number of various ways for selecting text using the keyboard and mouse, the Wheel mouse support, support for paragraph styles.

Free?  It is!  Yet it has the features of a commercial software.    It isn't offered for download at the website of Atlantis (http://www.atlantiswordprocessor.com), but one can find it easily at Download.Com (http://www.download.com/Atlantis-Nova/3000-2079_4-10726391.html?tag=lst-0-10)

Jarte  (Jarte http://www.jarte.com)

Want an offbeat-looking RTF editor with a lot of features?  Then perhaps Jarte is for you.  I've been using it for the past four years or so and I haven't had any problems with it.  It also has a brother Jarte Plus, which is commercial, and Jarte, unlike the others mentioned here, makes it obvious that it is cripple ware.  It has certain buttons that when you click gives the alert "This feature is found only in Jarte Plus".  Such buttons however are few and honestly speaking doesn't matter really since those features were made for people who are dependent on computers for having things done.  If you would like a text editor that creates well-formatted Rich Text files only, then you won't feel the need for those extra buttons.

KeyNote  (Tranglos  http://www.tranglos.com)

Keynote is not only an RTF editor, it is a tree outliner notes organizer.  Its development was discontinued some years ago, but people still keep downloading it because while being free, its features are only found in expensive commercial editors.  It was made to work with Win95 but I installed it in Win98 some years ago (around the time development stopped) and now I still have it working for my XP-Vista OS.  I must tell you, it is one of the few softwares that have survived the many upgrades I've effected on my computer.  And it even works from a USB flash drive.

Keynote is a Personal Information Manager and RTF editor rolled into one.  Some of its functions now have been surpassed by existing commercial editors but, even if surpassed today, one can see how advanced it was while still in development. 

QJot   (xTort   http://www.xtort.net/xtort-software/qjot/)

If you wish to have an RTF editor that was intended to work straight from a floppy disk, xTort's QJot may just be for you.  The author lists the following features:

• Opens and Saves .doc files
• Insert images and objects
• Insert file into text
• Auto-saves user settings
• Set paragraph/line spacing
• Word Count
• Stay Topmost
• 100-level Undo/Redo
• Auto-URL Detect
• Close on ESC key
• Drag Drop
• Recent Documents
• Block Indent/Unindent
• Save selected text to file
• Page Setup
• Integrates with WordWeb
• Simple Print Preview

Compared to your native WordPad, QJot -- inspite of being a small application -- is a power tool.  For those who prefer to make notes in RTF, the "stay-on-top" feature can be a great help.  The "Word-Count" and "WordWeb-integration" features makes it a tool for writers who need to write a certain number of words per well-written article.  It is definitely a tool you can put into your USB Flash Drive and take along with you.

Tomahawk PDF+ (formerly Tomahawk Gold Lite  Nativewinds   http://www.nativewinds.com)

The most advanced WordPad replacement is perhaps Tomahawk PDF+.  It was formerly known as Tomahawk Gold Lite because of  Tomahawk Gold, the only word processor that saves its files into the portable document format created by Adobe.  Tomahawk PDF+ does not save into PDF but converts its files into PDF .  The technology behind this is duplicated in computers having a printer driver for PDF.  In addition, what makes Tomahawk PDF+ unique is that it is only one of the free RTF editors available on the web that can (a) work from a USB flash drive; (b) create tables; (c) work with a thesaurus (i.e. suggest synonyms as you type -- but you will have to download the needed applications from the website.  Don't worry, these are also free.).  These features and the rich text formatting functions of Tomahawk PDF+ make it more than a replacement for WordPad but a word processor that one can use for creating well-formatted documents.