Notepad is a simple text editor that comes with all editions of Windows. It is also wonderfully useful as a direct result of its
simplicity. All of this also applies to any über-simple text program, such as
SimpleText (on
Macs). I think it should be one of a few programs in every
Windows users'
Start Menu, set up so that it's the only program that starts with "N", so that in order to open it you just hit
Start Button and
N. I often will use it for solving any of these problems:
Getting rid of unnecessary code when converting from format to format.
I keep a list of
music that I own on
my homepage. The list, originally, was in
Microsoft Word, which has a numbering feature, so that I can list how many albums I have. I wanted to copy the list onto my homepage, and so used copy-paste from Word to
Frontpage.
Easy, right? Well, the problem was that
FP would add tons of crappy code to every line in order to maintain the numbering. I still wanted the numbers, but I did NOT want a 350k (!) html file. Eventually,
I solved the problem (and many similar problems since) by copying it into Notepad first, and then into FP.
Another example of this would be if you're filling out your
AOL Instant Messenger profile, and you've got too many characters including the
HTML (which you can't see). To quickly get rid of all of the HTML (which will reduce characters dramatically without losing any text), just copy the text with links into Notepad, which will only retain the
raw text. Copy it back in.
And of course, if you're looking up tips on the Web on HTML or Perl or whatever, copying and pasting will often include crap like
& lt; LI > & lt;A HREF=example.html instead of <LI> <A HREF=example.html. Same process - copy into Notepad then copy it out again.
A To-Do list in the Start Menu
I keep a list of things that I have to do in my Start Menu. It has when various
bills are due, and occasionally
homework or other
reminders. It is a quick and easy way to see what I have to do, and to get to it all I have to do is hit the Start button and then "T" (using the tip in the first paragraph).
Copy-Paste without worries
I use the
cut-and-paste commands very often, for example, when I copied this text from my scratch pad into its writeup. Unfortunately Windows generally will replace
copied text when you copy something else. So if, for instance, I copied this writeup and then copied a password into an FTP program, my beautiful writeup would disappear, and it's only about
50-50 chances whether or not the final version of my writeup would still be there if I hit "back". The solution? Well, in
E2 you ought to update your scratch pad when you're finished so you don't lose your writeup, but the Notepad solution is to simply open up Notepad and dump your writeup into it for safekeeping.
Saving Everything writeup backups
While
Everything is a very reliable engine, if I should want to read one of my writeups (or have quick access to any other text file, such as a quote I liked), Notepad is a good place to stick it. Again, it's a small, easily run program that can be read on any platform whatsoever, and you don't have to go online to show off your beautiful writeup to friends (if you're that wierd).
Seeing super-small text
Some
Everythingites think it's cute to have some
SUPER TINY text in their home node (or, annoyingly, in a writeup). The easiest way to see that text is to copy it and pop it into Notepad.
I guess you could use it to write a letter or something, too.