txt<p><strong>Let's get started with <a href="https://goto.77nn.it/tags/notepad" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Notepad</span></a></strong></p><p>One of the greatest benefits of owning a personal computer, being it shipped with <a href="https://goto.77nn.it/tags/windows" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Windows</span></a> or <a href="https://goto.77nn.it/tags/macos" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>MacOS</span></a>, or being it built with any <a href="https://goto.77nn.it/tags/gnulinux" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>GNULinux</span></a> distribution, is that applications that can handle the <a href="https://goto.77nn.it/tags/plaintext" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>plaintext</span></a> file format are always available to the user without having to install any additional software on the machine. It was even there <em>before</em> the graphical operating system was actually invented.</p><p>Of course graphical interfaces made working with computers easier for everyone, and also <em>text editing</em> was made simpler. Some purists still prefer working with <em>command-line interface</em> programs, like <a href="https://goto.77nn.it/tags/vim" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>VIm</span></a>, but they have a steep learning curve that many beginners may find confusing and unnecessarily complicated.</p><p>Depending on your operating system you may have different text editors available, and assuming that GNU/Linux users are already well-versed in <em>text editing</em> and may already have their favorite text editor, the first step in the plain-text world, then, shall be <strong>Notepad</strong> for Windows. We are reviewing the <strong>pre-Windows-11</strong> version, as the newest version stepped up in terms of features... we will review them in a future post.</p><p>Notepad, let's call it <em>classic</em> has a minimal <a href="https://goto.77nn.it/tags/gui" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>GUI</span></a> interface, and a typical <a href="https://goto.77nn.it/tags/win32" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Win32</span></a> application layout, featuring a Menu bar at the top and a Status Bar at the bottom. Here's the few bonuses that Notepad can offer, and please note that a few of them are really not trivial!</p><ul><li><p>You can change the font typeface and size to any available on your system.</p></li><li><p>You can search and replace, but without regular expressions.</p></li><li><p>You have an auto-wrapping function for longer rows.</p></li><li><p>You can add a timestamp like this: '11:37 PM 11/25/2024' just by pressing F5.</p></li><li><p>You can change the text encoding when saving files. Available options are:</p><ul><li><p>ANSI Latin 1</p></li><li><p>Unicode (UTF-16)</p></li><li><p>Unicode (UTF-16 big-endian)</p></li><li><p>Unicode (UTF-8)</p></li></ul></li><li><p>You can set-up document header and footer when printing, using the following placeholders:</p></li></ul><pre><code>| Command | Action |
|---------------------|-----------------------------------------|
| &l | Left-align the characters that follow. |
| &c | Center the characters that follow. |
| &r | Right-align the characters that follow. |
| &d | Print the current date. |
| &t | Print the current time. |
| &f | Print the name of the document. |
| &p | Print the page number. |
</code></pre><p>Of course it does not support any "syntax highlighting" feature, but you can can still write <a href="https://goto.77nn.it/tags/html" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>HTML</span></a>, <a href="https://goto.77nn.it/tags/markdown" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Markdown</span></a> and any other format, like this post that was created with it.</p><p>This is the most basic editor, has very little capabilities, but it's lightweight and available as soon at the OS is installed: want it or not, you'll deal with it at some point!</p><p><a href="https://goto.77nn.it/tags/plaintextrocks" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>plaintextrocks</span></a> <a href="https://goto.77nn.it/tags/reviews" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>reviews</span></a></p>