Microsoft is enhancing the functionality of Windows Notepad with the introduction of built-in spellchecking and autocorrect features. After years of stagnation, Notepad is receiving modern updates to bring it up to par with other text editors.
Previously lacking in features compared to more modern alternatives like Notepad2 and Notepad++, Windows Notepad saw a significant development in May 2018 with the addition of Unix and Mac compatibility, including support for Unix & Mac EOL characters. Since then, Microsoft has steadily introduced various modern features such as wrap-around searches, text zoom, search autofill, line numbers with word wrap, improved UTF-8 support, Notepad tabs, and a character counter.
The latest update, currently in preview for Insiders in the Windows 11 Canary and Dev channels, introduces spellchecking and autocorrect functionalities. Notepad will now highlight misspelled words with a red squiggly line, providing suggestions for correction upon clicking. Autocorrect will seamlessly fix common typing mistakes as users type, enhancing the overall typing experience.
However, Microsoft notes that spellcheck will be disabled for log and source code files to avoid false positives due to non-standard words often used in these contexts. Users have the flexibility to customize these settings globally or for specific file types within the Notepad app’s settings. The autocorrect feature, on the other hand, automatically corrects grammar and punctuation errors as users type, streamlining the writing process.
