Notepad may seem simple, but beneath its minimalist surface, there are hidden tricks that can boost your productivity and add some fun. Whether it's recording tasks or playing with scripts, these features may surprise you.
Why can't you just look at the simple appearance of a notepad?
Windows Notepad has been around since the early days of Windows, debuting in 1983 with MS-DOS. It's one of the simplest text editors on the market, and it's stuck with countless iterations of Windows. While it may seem basic, some notepad tricks can do more than it seems. I'm going to share six fun tips that can take your notepad experience to the next level.
Automatic and manual logs/date stamps
If you're looking for a quick way to save a journal or diary, here's a neat notepad trick. You can have Notepad automatically add a timestamp every time you open a file. Just start with . LOG (all caps) to start the document, and every time you open it, a new timestamp will appear. This hidden notepad feature is great for keeping track of things over time.
Open Notepad and enter the type at the very top. LOG。 Save the file as log.txt or any other name. Whenever you open a file, a new timestamp is automatically added.
If you want to insert the timestamp manually, just press F5 or go to Edit > time/date. It will put the current date and time where the cursor is. I use this handy feature when taking notes quickly and need a time reference.
Customize print headers and footers
Notepad may seem simple, but this tip allows you to make some customizations when printing. Go to File > Page Setup and you'll see options for the header and footer. You can use some special code to add details, such as:
- &f stands for the file name
- &p stands for page number
- &d indicates the current date
- &t stands for the current time
These can be added to the header or footer, so you can easily customize what appears when you print a document. This notepad technique is especially useful for organizing printed notes.
If you enter &f-&p in the footer, the printed page will look like this:
File - 1 Command line arguments for Notepad
Notepad is more than just a basic text editor, you can actually open and manipulate files using Notepad commands from the command line. This hidden notepad feature allows you to:
Use /A or /W to open an ANSI or Unicode-encoded file. Open a command prompt and type:
notepad.exe /A example.txt You can use /P to print files directly, which is great if you want to create batch scripts to print multiple files. Open a command prompt and type:
notepad.exe /P example.txt Create fun matrix code simulations
This is when you want to spoof, you can use a simple batch script in Notepad to simulate the green code in the matrix. It's a quick tech-themed prank, or just a fun show-off. All you need is the right code, save it as a ".bat" file, and run it to watch the magic happen.
Open Notepad, copy and paste the following code:
@echo off
color 02
:start
echo %random%%random%%random%%random%%random%%random%%random%%random%%random%%random%
goto start Save the file as a Matrix.bat. Double-click the file to run it and see the Code Drop effect.
Let your computer do the talking
If you want your computer to actually talk to you, Notepad can help you do that too. With simple VBScript, you can type any text and Windows will read it aloud for you. This fun notepad trick is a clever way to show off some hidden notepad features that can be easily done with just a few lines of code.
Open Notepad and paste the following code:
Dim message
message = InputBox("Enter the text you want me to say:")
Set sapi = CreateObject("sapi.spvoice")
sapi.Speak message Save a file with the ".vbs" extension, such as Speak.vbs, then double-click on the file, enter some text, and your computer will speak it out loud.
Unlock the Notepad Easter Egg
YOU CAN RUN THE COMMAND ./SETUP WITH NOTEPAD TO LEAVE IT COMPLETELY UNUSABLE. There's no minimization button, you can't type, and it won't even show up in the taskbar. Most people think it's an Easter egg from a long time ago and it may have something to do with the Windows installation process. It doesn't make any sense anymore, but if you like Easter eggs, it's fun to check it out.
Open a command prompt and type:
notepad.exe /.SETUP This will open Notepad in a weird non-interactive mode where you can't do anything but force it off via the task manager.
summary
Notepad may be one of the oldest and simplest text editors, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have some hidden gems. Whether you want to automate log files, customize printouts, or play notepad pranks and scripts, these fun tips show that Notepad still has surprises. So, the next time you open it, try one of these cool notepad tricks and see how much you can get out of this classic tool.