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How to Use Notepad

Author Info | Tech Tested


Updated: November 5, 2019
Notepad is a very basic text-editing program that comes as an included application on Windows operating systems. Notepad
is great for writing short documents that you want to save in plain text. Notepad has some additional features to take
advantage of as well. However, Notepad is just a text editor, so images are not compatible. Because Notepad is basically the
same on both Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, the only difference is how you open the program. Learning the basics of
Notepad is quick and easy!

1
Open Notepad. On Windows 7, open your Start Menu and type “Notepad” in the search box. Select Notepad to open the
application. You can also navigate to the "Accessories" folder in the Start Menu and select Notepad from the list of
applications
 On Windows 8.1, type “Notepad" into the Start screen search box.
2
Explore the Notepad user interface. Once Notepad is open, you will see a simple screen with a limited set of text editing
options. Notice menu options for File, Edit, Format, View, and Help.

3
Open the File Menu. You will see a drop down list with New, Open, Save, Save As, Page Setup, and Print. These are the
basic options for word editing. Select “New” to create a document.
 Whenever you save a file with either Save or Save As, Windows will automatically save the file in .txt format, which
will launch it in Notepad.
 You can choose to save Notepad documents in HTML by choosing Save As and selecting All Files from the list of
choices, then saving the file with .htm or .html as its extension. Type your HTML code directly into your document as if you
would plain text.
 In order to properly save a document in HTML, you will need to have Word Wrap enabled. You will find instructions
on how to enable this feature a little later.
4
Format your page Setup. Navigate to Page Setup from the File menu. You will see just a few simple formatting options.
Choose your desired paper size, orientation, and header and footer options from this menu.

5
Add a header and footer. Notepad includes a header by default, which is the name of the document and the date it was
printed. The default footer text is the page number. You can remove these defaults by selecting the Header and Footer
option from the File menu on the menu bar and deleting the codes inside. All header and footer setting must be entered
manually each time you want to print a document. These settings cannot be saved. To change headers and footers, choose
Page Setup from the File menu and enter the desired command(s) in the Header and Footer text boxes. The following is a
short list of header and footer commands[2]:
 &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
 Leaving the Header or Footer text box empty will result in no header footer on your printed document.
 You can insert words into the Header and Footer text box and they will print in their appropriate position. Letters after the
"&" sign do not need to be capitalized.
 In Notepad, your header is centered, regardless of the formatting codes you use, if the formatting code is not the first
item in the Header text box. For example, to align a title to the left side of the page, use &lTitle text.
Using Notepad

1
Become familiar with the “Edit” tab on the menu bar. Undo is the first item you will find under the Edit pull down on the
menu bar. You can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Z for this function also. Once you use Undo you will find Redo as an
option in its place.
 The rest of the menu, Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, Find, Find Next, Replace, Go To, Select All, and Time/Date, are
standard in nearly all Windows programs that deal with word documents.
 The “Go To” option is only available if Word Wrap is disabled and if your document contains numbered lines. Notepad
defaults with Word Wrap turned off.
2
Enable Word Wrap. Unless Word Wrap is enabled, all text you type will be on the same line until you press the “Return” key
and the line will scroll indefinitely. In order to fix this, open the next pull down on the menu bar. Word Wrap is the first option
you will see. Simply select Word Wrap and your document will be adjusted accordingly.

3
Adjust your font. Select Font from the Format option on the menu bar. Now, you have the ability to select from a series of
preloaded fonts, choose options for Bold, Italics/Oblique, or Bold/Italics. You can also select your font size from this window.
 A change in font affects the entire document. You cannot use one type of font on one part of the document and another
type on another part.
 From the dropdown menu item listed as “Script” in the Font window, you can find characters that are not available in the
standard “Western” style fonts.
4
Use the “View” pull down from the menu bar. The only option you will find is called “Status Bar.” This option is also only
available when Word Wrap is disabled. When word Wrap is disabled, a notification will display on the lower border of your
document window showing you where your cursor is located in the document.

5
Start typing. It is recommended that you enable Word Wrap. Adjust the font as you desire and remember that it will be
consistent with the entire document text.
 Note that the “Tab” key will move your cursor ten spaces across your text line, unlike Microsoft Word, which moves five
spaces.
6
Save your document. Once you have finished, navigate to the “Save As” option from the File pull down on the menu bar.
Notepad uses the default folder “My Documents” on Windows 7, and the “OneDrive” folder on Windows 8.1.
 If you would like to save your document in a different place, simply browse your preferred folder from the “Save As”
window and select it. Notepad will switch to this choice for future documents.
 Remember that all of your files will be saved with the .txt extension.

7
Print your finished document. Click on the File menu and then select the Print option from the dropdown. This will bring
you to a separate window where you can select the printer and options you would like, and click print. To change the settings
that determine how your printed document will look, click the File menu, and then click Page Setup:
 To change the paper size, tap or click a size in the Size list.
 To change the paper source, tap or click a tray name or a feeder in the Source list.
 To print the file vertically, click Portrait; to print the file horizontally, click Landscape.
 To change the margins, enter a width in any of the Margins boxes.

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