Notepad, as supplied with the Windows operating system, has been around for seemingly aeons. It’s a great little app for using to jot down written notes in text-only format and save as a text file. It’s also useful for writing and editing batch-files; if anyone still codes in dos, (‘Shows age yet again.) and you can also edit html and php files in it, by converting the file extension from .htm or .html to .txt, editing the content, and then changing the file extension back again to .htm or .html.

That’s some of the benefits of it. – But there are also drawbacks too; especially when editing code. They say that a picture speaks a thousand words, so let two screenshots do the talking. The first screenshot is of the html code of the first part of this post as seen in Notepad supplied with Windows XP. The second screenshot, below it, is of the html code of the first part of this post as seen in Notepad++

‘Not a fantastic example, perhaps; – but imagine if you were working with a larger html file, perhaps even a page of php code, which editor would you find it easier to use? Notepad; without any clear indications to where sections or lines of code are on the page; or Notepad++, with clear indications as to where sections or lines of code are on the page, and I didn’t mention the colour text options yet either, or any other available features.

- And since this is an unscheduled extra post that I decided to write on the spur of the moment, I’m not going to go into detail either. – Instead, what I’ll do is suggest that you download and install Notepad++ and try it out for yourself. If you’re not happy with it then simply uninstall it. – Target neutralised.

That was short and sweet. There are other notepad substitutes out there besides this one. Which do you use, and why; or are you still using the original?