10 Best Notepad Alternatives With a Better UI and Features

1

Notepad

As far as features go, Notepad has exactly none. It was designed back in the days of MS-DOS, and as a result was intended to be used in writing programs that would be easy to compile and execute. Notepad has undergone very few, if any, changes since its inception, and there has been no need for change either. Microsoft has its word processing software, Microsoft Word, for users who need a more feature writing software. However, we still need a text editor from time to time, especially programmers and web developers. For them, Notepad is antiquated; fortunately, there are several alternatives on the market and almost all of them are completely free to use. Here we take a look at the top 10 Notepad alternatives.

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2

Notepad++

EditPad Lite is again on the lighter end of the spectrum when it comes to features, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The program is fast and boots up instantaneously. While it offers some good features over Notepad, it comes nowhere near Notepad++ in terms of sheer functionality, which definitely makes it a lot more user-friendly and suitable for beginners. The app feels dated, especially in the shadow of Notepad++, a much more feature packed software. The program has certain features geared towards programmers, so it does not make immediate sense why the developers would not integrate more features that might be useful to a developer. It is almost as if the developers of the app decided to make a text editor for programmers, then switched tracks midway towards a more word processing oriented application.

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TabPad bills itself as “yet another Notepad clone”, and it is absolutely en pointe It is identical to the bundled Microsoft program, except it has tabs. A very useful feature of TabPad is that it has integrated automatic saving and recovery features, allowing you to salvage your work if the app crashed or your operating system froze or if the power suddenly went out. It also features support for drag and drop so that you can directly open files in TabPad from Explorer itself.

4

EditPad Lite

EditPad Lite is again on the lighter end of the spectrum when it comes to features, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The program is fast and boots up instantaneously. While it offers some good features over Notepad, it comes nowhere near Notepad++ in terms of sheer functionality, which definitely makes it a lot more user-friendly and suitable for beginners. The app feels dated, especially in the shadow of Notepad++, a much more feature packed software. The program has certain features geared towards programmers, so it does not make immediate sense why the developers would not integrate more features that might be useful to a developer. It is almost as if the developers of the app decided to make a text editor for programmers, then switched tracks midway towards a more word processing oriented application.

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5

Bend

Bend is probably the most well-designed text editor there is. Modeled after the Windows Phone UI style, first pioneered in Microsoft’s portable music player device Zune, Bend looks elegant, attractive and also has many useful features to boot. It has syntax highlighting features for programmers and a flexible search function so that you can find exactly what you are looking for in large documents. It is evident that the app has taken inspiration wherever it could have. UI flourishes from major apps like Safari and Microsoft Word are distinct and is in no way a bad thing. Bend looks attractive and fluidly performs any task you throw at it.

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TabPad bills itself as “yet another Notepad clone”, and it is absolutely en pointe It is identical to the bundled Microsoft program, except it has tabs. A very useful feature of TabPad is that it has integrated automatic saving and recovery features, allowing you to salvage your work if the app crashed or your operating system froze or if the power suddenly went out. It also features support for drag and drop so that you can directly open files in TabPad from Explorer itself.

7

DocPad

From the name itself, it is evident that this app is a mesh of WordPad and Notepad. The app is relatively new and has a clean and useful interface that looks fairly dated at this point. With DocPad, the focus is more on building a lightweight yet powerful text editor; this app is not a good choice for coding or programming. Formatting and other word processing features like bookmarks, word wrapping, block indentation, search and replace, etc. take precedence over syntax highlighting and code completion.

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8

GetDiz

A veteran app in the text editor space, GetDiz has perhaps a unique look and interface than others. The interface looks sparse and empty and the colour combinations make it seem like the app is inspired by WordStar, an early command line based word processing software (incidentally used by famous author George R. R. Martin to write his series A Song of Ice and Fire, whose adaptation is the world famous TV show Game of Thrones). GetDiz was originally meant to offer increased functionality with DIZ and NFO files, and while they still exist, it is obvious that only the most niche users are going to avail of those features. Throwback features like creating ASCII art will impress the older users who remember engaging with the pre-image internet. The app can save text files as GIF images as well, so that is an impressive functionality that not many other apps can offer.

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9

NoteTab

NoteTab also supports HTML5 and CSS3, the latest versions for HTML and CSS documents. This allows the app to automatically correct and predict syntax, thereby speeding up development times significantly. It also includes vast and expansive libraries for HTML and CSS. Throw in a tabbed interface for enhanced multitasking, a powerful syntax highlighting feature and it is easy to see why NoteTab is one of the most popular text editing programs for web developers and webmasters. The app is a paid app, but there also exists a free version that has to do without some of the powerful features in the full version. Do your diligence to confirm if the app is the worth the money for you or not; makes no sense to buy an app for the features that you might never end up using.

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TabPad bills itself as “yet another Notepad clone”, and it is absolutely en pointe It is identical to the bundled Microsoft program, except it has tabs. A very useful feature of TabPad is that it has integrated automatic saving and recovery features, allowing you to salvage your work if the app crashed or your operating system froze or if the power suddenly went out. It also features support for drag and drop so that you can directly open files in TabPad from Explorer itself.

TabPad bills itself as “yet another Notepad clone”, and it is absolutely en pointe It is identical to the bundled Microsoft program, except it has tabs. A very useful feature of TabPad is that it has integrated automatic saving and recovery features, allowing you to salvage your work if the app crashed or your operating system froze or if the power suddenly went out. It also features support for drag and drop so that you can directly open files in TabPad from Explorer itself.