A couple of months back, we reported Notepad in Windows 11 to get a new OS look and feel and a redesign too. Well, Microsoft is now rolling out an updated Notepad with a Dark theme and dark mode support, rounded corners, and Mica effect to Windows 11 insiders in the dev channel.
Notepad has been part of Windows since Windows 3.0.
Till Windows 11, Microsoft hasn’t thought about polishing its design, however of late, the company has been updating Windows 11 apps with new designs, till now, Photos, Tips, Paint got the treatment, now, Notepad has got its turn now.
Windows 11 Notepad
Highlights:
- Windows 11 Notepad is rolling out to insiders in the dev channel
- Notepad comes with a redesign and own Settings dialog to change font and theme to light, dark and use System theme
- Notepad supports Windows 11 dark mode as well
- Supports full emoji😊
Insiders running Dev need to open the Microsoft Store app and check for updates and launch Notepad to see the changes.
As with other new features, Microsoft will offer the new Notepad to beta and release preview insiders after that to production build. This may take months.
While Notepad++, open-source Notepad replacement and Text editor received dark theme and Windows 11 dark mode support, the native component of Windows 11 getting those features also.
Notepad supports dark mode. If you set Windows 11 to the dark theme in Personalization, it adopts the theme changes and switches to it in no time to please your eyes. You can also enable a dark theme if you’re using a light theme on System.
Enable Dark theme for Notepad in Windows 11
- Fire up Notepad by searching for it in Start or type “notepad” in the Run dialog and press enter
- Click on the cogwheel icon at the far right end of the window on top
- Click App theme
- Select Dark and enjoy.
It’s a pity you need to leave your current working document in Notepad to switch to Settings, you can switch to the text file you’re immediately by clicking the back button. The workaround is to open New Notepad to manage Settings.
Like you can modify the theme, you can change the font used in the text that is displayed on Notepad in Settings. Check out various font families, styles, and sizes available under Font in Settings.
Dark Mode is the most demanded feature from users and Notepad in Windows 11 now supports that.
Notepad supports Windows 11 Dark Mode:
- Open Settings > Personalization
- Click on Colors
- In the dropdown for “Choose your Mode”, select “Dark“
Now if you set Notepad to follow “use system setting” in its Settings, it instantaneously goes dark.
For that
- Open Notepad
- Visit Settings > App theme> use system setting
The find and replace feature in Notepad has got an upgrade and now supports multiple undo.
Find feature comes with “match case” and “wrap-around” options and drop-down arrows to navigate to see highlighted words in the text on Notepad.
Find feature hasn’t worked 9 out of 10 times for us. Maybe a bug, hope Micorosft irons these sort of issues in the future.
Microsoft promises to make Notepad a stand-out tool in productivity, performance, and reliability.
If you’ve been overjoyed with Notepad new features, it also comes with a set of known issues given below:
Known issues:
- Unexpected behavior when using shift+click to select text or when scrolling.
- Keyboard access keys usage may get affected when switching between different input languages or while using Japanese.
Do you use Notepad? How excited are you to see it getting new features? Let us know in the comments below.
More on Windows 11:
Windows 11 bringing new Start Menu layouts & Clock on the taskbar to Multiple Monitors
Windows 11’s New Media Player w/ Fluent Design now available
