Notepad Breaks 41-Year Streak to Introduce Spellcheck

It’s been decades in the making, and now the Microsoft standard of Notepad is finally introducing an inbuilt ability to spellcheck. First introduced for MS-DOS in 1983, Notepad has long existed as an extremely simple and barebones text editing program that has nonetheless remained important. Notepad has never been flashy, but it has been a useful plain text editor that many still use today.

As part of a recent reexamination of older software, Microsoft has finally put Notepad in its sights. Spellcheck and autocorrect find themselves in the crosshairs in Windows 11, giving us even more reason to turn back the clock and remember from where we’ve come.

Classics are Classics for a Reason

As for why Notepad is so important, it owes a lot of thanks due to the appeal of its base systems. We see similar appeal in many tools and entertainment, illustrated well in entertainment platforms like the online bingo at Paddy Power. These modern digital takes on bingo like the Crystal Room and Paddy’s Jackpot Room still draw users in like the classic game, they just update the formula with greater functionality. It’s still the bingo that’s been popular for decades, just in a more accessible package in mobile and desktop systems. This is the same idea used by Notepad, or the shark, in that they’ve barely had to evolve to survive and succeed.

While it’s not exactly an entertainment product, Notepad has long been the go-to for users who want the simplest word-processing system possible on Windows. As covered by Lenovo, it’s lightweight, it can be used to edit a wide range of files, and it can even be powerful enough to program in, though it’s not recommended.

Reaching the Balancing Point

The inclusion of spell check and autocorrect illustrates a big move for the humble program, but there are concerns that this might illustrate Microsoft interfering with a good thing. Software companies are famous for ruining formerly great programs through meddling, and as Killed by Microsoft shows, the developer of Windows is no exception.

The issue is one that many older computer users have had when updating between Windows versions over the years. Microsoft tends to move things around in unnecessary redesigns. While the goal is ostensibly to make things easier for beginner users, it can come at the cost of usability for veterans.

Notepad might occupy a simple place in history, but it’s this simplicity that made it famous. Sure, you might misspell a hundred words in a simple Notepad document, but if you wanted to do serious word processing then you wouldn’t have chosen Notepad to begin with. Simplicity has always been part of the charm, and polluting this simplicity through genericizing it is like missing the forest for the trees.

Of course, this could be a case where older users are falling into the slippery slope trap. You can still turn these features off, and this will hopefully remain the case for any other feature introduced in the future. Still, it does make us wonder what Notepad will look like in another 40 years, that is if we’re still around to see it.