Microsoft has finally introduced spellcheck and autocorrect for itsNotepad appin Windows 11. It’s been more than 40 years since the tech giant brought Notepad to the world in 1983, and now the famouslightweight text editorcan correct your misspelled terms or question you about obscure tech names. The feature is turned on by default, so if you’re running the most updated version of Windows 11 you should already have it on in the background.
It’s nearly the same spellcheck feature that already exists withinMicrosoft Wordby highlighting misspelled words with a red underline, but you do have to click through two menus to access the spelling, unlike Word where it’s a simple one-click procedure. Read on to learn more about the update and how to turn it on.
After trying Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Flip 6, subtle upgrades are just fine by me
This year, the tech giant’s foldables feature incremental spec bumps and subtle design changes
Spellcheck arrives for the first time
Microsoft’s Notepad has been around in some capacity since 1983, when it was first developed to be a stripped down version of Microsoft’s Word app, which then was called Multi-Tool Word. In its first iteration, Notepad was a mouse-based text editor (this was before most people owned a computer mouse), and could be used to underline, bold, or italicize text.
I’ve been using Notepad since I was a young child messing around with my family’s Windows 95 machine. I’ve used it to write short stories, jot down notes, and I even learned Perl the hard way using the handy Notepad app. One thing I’ve always wished for on Notepad was a spellcheck feature.
For years, I’ve used Notepad to write first drafts, and then transferred the text over to Microsoft Word in order to take advantage of the spellcheck and grammar functions that have been a part of the app since the 1980s. Now, I can finally draft things in Notepad and don’t have to worry about copying and pasting the text over to Microsoft Word (or Google Docs) to use a spellcheck. It’s a minor feature, but it’s something that’s been long awaited by fans of the mighty-but-lightweight Notepad app.
OnePlus reveals Pad 2, Nord Buds 3 Pro, Watch 2R and more ahead of its summer launch event
OnePlus has revealed a new tablet, earbuds, and watch ahead of its Summer Launch event in Milan, Italy, this July.
Accessing Spellcheck in Notepad
Spellcheck and autocorrect are turned on by default
With Notepad open, you can click the gear icon in the right corner of the toolbar to access your settings. If you have the most recent Notepad update, spell check and autocorrect will both be turned on by default. There’s a dropdown menu by the side of ‘Spell check’ which allows you to turn off the spell check feature for certain text formats. It’s a great feature if you are writing a .SRT subtitle document and don’t want to be constantly asked to change the spelling of text. You can turn spellcheck off for .txt, .md, .srt/.ass, .lrc, and .lic formats.
There’s also a dictionary function within Notepad which is great news for any fellow tech writers out there. You can add names to the dictionary so they don’t pop up as misspelled by right-clicking the misspelled word, and selecting ‘Add to dictionary’.
There’s no other grammar functions yet in Notepad, so you will still need to make use of an app like Grammarly or transfer your text to another text editor if you want to perform a quick grammar check. Still, though, adding words, especially proper nouns, to the dictionary with Notepad cuts down on the time you will spend wading through spellchecks if you are writing articles with a lot of obscure names that aren’t recognized by default.
A recall for Recall: Microsoft delays release of controversial feature
The Recall feature will no longer be available from day one on new Copilot Plus PCs.
Spellcheck is nice, but MS Word does it better
Clicking through two menus for spellchecking isn’t ideal
Earlier in the intro I mentioned that the Notepad spellcheck isnearlyidentical to Words. I’m unsure as to why Microsoft didn’t just go with the spellcheck and autocorrect systems that are already present in Word. Notepad requires you to click through a misspelled selection twice, once to open the drop-down menu, and again to select your corrected spelling.
It’s not a dealbreaker, and I’ll continue to use Notepad to jot down quick notes on my desktop. I appreciate being able to correct my frequently misspelled words, but I do wish that Microsoft opted to use a system more similar to Microsoft Word’s spellcheck feature.
Spellcheck comes with Co-Pilot support, character count, and more.
Microsoft has been hard at work slowly adding new features to Microsoft Notepad as they are removing the WordPad app later this year. In addition to spellchecking, Notepad also now features a dark mode, a character counter, tabs for multiple notes at once, and, of course, Co-pilot integration. Spellcheck and autocorrect are the newest of these features, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw more features quietly added to Notepad before Microsoft kills off WordPad.
There’s no grammar checking function in Notepad yet, so you’ll need to use another text editor if you want to perform grammar checks, or download a third-party app like Grammarly.
Notepad will probably never have the same functionality that Microsoft Word has, but it’s also never been designed to be a fully fleshed out text editor. Notepad is there to be a lightweight, or “distraction-free” text editor since the beginning. It’s free, it’s lightweight, you can run it on any Windows-based laptop, and this is why it’s one of my favorite text editors. Spellcheck and autocorrect are welcome additions, and it doesn’t add much weight at all to Notepad.
As I mentioned earlier, there’s no grammar checking function in Notepad yet, so you’ll need to use another text editor if you want to perform grammar checks, or download a third-party app like Grammarly.
6 easy ways to take a screenshot on Windows laptops and PCs
All the different ways to take a screenshot on Windows, and when to use them.
