What is Notepad , and how does it differ from Notepad?
Jul 11, 2025 am 12:38 AMNotepad is more powerful than ordinary Notepad and is suitable for development and use. Its core advantages include: 1. Support syntax highlighting and code folding to improve code readability; 2. Provide a multi-label interface to facilitate multi-file processing; 3. Support macro operations to improve efficiency; 4. Have a plug-in ecosystem and rich extension functions; 5. Lightweight and fast, with low resource utilization. Notepad is available if only simple text editing is required, but Notepad is a better choice when programming or complex text operations are involved.
Notepad is a free, open-source text and source code editor that supports over 80 programming languages. It's built to be more powerful and flexible than the basic Notepad app that comes with Windows. While both apps let you edit plain text files, Notepad is designed specifically for developers and power users who need advanced features like syntax highlighting, auto-completion, and plugin support.
Why Notepad Is More Than Just a Notepad Replacement
The main difference between Notepad and Notepad lies in their intended use. Notepad is a simple text editor means for basic tasks like writing notes or editing short text files. Notepad , on the other hand, is built for editing code and handling more complex text manipulation.
For example:
- Notepad doesn't recognize different programming languages ??or format them accordingly.
- Notepad does syntax highlighting for languages ??like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, and many more.
- If you're working on a script or configuration file, Notepad makes it easier to read and debug.
Key Features That Make Notepad Stand Out
Notepad offers a range of tools that make it especially useful for coding:
- Syntax Highlighting and Folding : It automatically colors code based on language rules, making it easier to scan through large files.
- Tabbed Interface : You can open multiple files side by side without cluttering your desktop.
- Macro Support : Record and replay repetitive keystrokes to save time.
- Plugin Ecosystem : Extend functionality with plugins for FTP integration, document maps, and more.
- Lightweight and Fast : Although all its features, Notepad starts up quickly and uses minimum system resources.
These features make it a go-to tool for people who write or edit code regularly.
When You Should Stick With Notepad (and When to Upgrade)
There are still times when using Notepad makes sense. If you just need to jot down a quick note, view a log file, or edit a plain .txt file, Notepad is fast and straightforward.
But if you're doing any kind of development work — even something as simple as tweaking a batch script or editing a website's HTML — Notepad gives you much better tools. It's also handy for replacing text across multiple lines or files, which Notepad handles poorly.
So, while Notepad is fine for casual use, upgrading to Notepad is worth it once your text-editing needs go beyond the basics.
Basically that's it.
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Use the JSON Viewer plug-in in Notepad to easily format JSON files: Open a JSON file. Install and enable the JSON Viewer plug-in. Go to "Plugins" > "JSON Viewer" > "Format JSON". Customize indentation, branching, and sorting settings. Apply formatting to improve readability and understanding, thus simplifying processing and editing of JSON data.

Although Notepad cannot run Java code directly, it can be achieved by using other tools: using the command line compiler (javac) to generate a bytecode file (filename.class). Use the Java interpreter (java) to interpret bytecode, execute the code, and output the result.

Running Python code in Notepad requires the Python executable and NppExec plug-in to be installed. After installing Python and adding PATH to it, configure the command "python" and the parameter "{CURRENT_DIRECTORY}{FILE_NAME}" in the NppExec plug-in to run Python code in Notepad through the shortcut key "F6".

Notepad itself does not have automatic layout function. We can use a third-party text editor, such as Sublime Text, to perform the following steps to achieve automatic typography: 1. Install and open the text editor. 2. Open the file that needs to be automatically typed. 3. Find and select the automatic layout function. 4. The editor will automatically type the text. 5. You can customize the layout rules as needed. Automatic typography can save time and ensure text consistency and professionalism.

Notepad is a free text editor for Windows, which offers a variety of features such as: 1) syntax highlighting, 2) autocomplete, 3) macro recording, 4) plug-in extensions, 5) customizable interfaces and settings.

How to set Chinese display in Notepad: Open Notepad. Click the "Format" menu. Select Font. Select Chinese fonts in the Font dialog box. Click OK.

To use Notepad plugins, install them from the plugin manager and restart the editor. You can use plug-ins through menu items, shortcut keys, or custom toolbars. Useful plug-in examples include: Find in Files, AutoHide, Hex Editor, XML Tools, and TabMix Plus, which are used to search multiple files, automatically hide toolbars, edit binary files, edit XML documents, and improve tab management.

There are many ways to customize a development environment, but the global Git configuration file is one that is most likely to be used for custom settings such as usernames, emails, preferred text editors, and remote branches. Here are the key things you need to know about global Git configuration files.
