- Microsoft is rolling out the update that adds spellcheck and autocorrect features to Notepad for all Windows 11 users.
- The updates come as the company prepares to stop shipping WordPad with Windows 11.
In 1983, Microsoft launched a simple text editor, Notepad. Since then, the application has undergone several updates and version changes. In March this year, Microsoft started testing an application update, which included spellcheck and autocorrect. Now, the update that adds these two features to Notepad is finally being rolled out to all users of Windows 11 via the Microsoft Store.
The spellcheck feature underlines the words in red if they are “misspelled”. Users can left-click the words to see a list of suggestions. They can also right-click the words to see suggestions under a separate “spelling” menu item. Autocorrect automatically fixes minor and obvious misspelled words. Users have the option to undo the change manually.
The application’s users can disable either of these features within Notepad’s settings. The spellchecker can also be switched on and off for a few file extensions if users want to see spelling suggestions for .txt files and not .lic or .md files. That said, spellchecking is turned off by default for log files and a few file types associated with coding.
As Microsoft usually gradually rolls out new application updates, some users may not yet see the new features. That said, the features seem available in Notepad version 11.2405.13.0 running on an updated Windows 11 23H2 PC.
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Why This Is Important
The update is important for two reasons. The first one is that while the application has received several updates throughout the years, it has received what can be considered major updates during the Windows 11 era. Some recent features include dark mode support and other theme options, autosave, character count, a tabbed interface that supports automatically reopening files when relaunching the application, and Copilot integration.
Secondly, the updates come as the company prepares to stop shipping WordPad with Windows 11. WordPad received very few significant updates since Windows 7 was released. While the application is still available in Windows 11 22H2 and 23H2, it is no longer a part of the current versions of the upcoming Windows 11 24H2 update. After the application is gone, users looking for basic word processing will need to look for a more capable Notepad or an alternative like LibreOffice.