Microsoft is giving Notepad its biggest upgrade in years by introducing text formatting features to the classic Windows app.
The update, now available for Windows 11 testers in the Canary and Dev Channels, adds support for bold, italic, hyperlinks, lists, headings, and even Markdown formatting.
With this update, Notepad now includes a new formatting toolbar located at the top of the app, alongside the traditional File, Edit, and View menus. This toolbar allows users to easily apply rich text formatting or insert hyperlinks, and for those who prefer code-friendly syntax, Markdown style input and file support are now built-in.
“You can switch between formatted Markdown and Markdown syntax views in the view menu or by selecting the toggle button in the status bar,” said Dave Grochocki, Principal Product Manager Lead for Windows inbox apps at Microsoft.
Despite these enhancements, Notepad remains friendly to plain text users. You can clear all formatting from the toolbar or Edit menu, or even completely disable formatting support via the app settings.
This update follows closely on the heels of another major feature: Notepad’s new AI-powered “Write” tool, which can generate text from user prompts. With these changes, Notepad is evolving into a lightweight alternative to Word, especially as Microsoft phases out WordPad after nearly 30 years.
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