A long-awaited upgrade for one of Microsoft’s essential Windows 11 apps has been released. According to recent reports, the operating system’s main text editor, Notepad, is finally getting spellcheck and autocorrect features. Even though spellcheck is hardly new in 2024, it’s still a useful update that should be acknowledged.
Windows users have traditionally favored Notepad as their text editor due to its ease of use and versatility. It allows you to compose text without worrying about HTML or formatting effects. For a while, Notepad didn’t accomplish anything special, thus some Windows users switched to Notepad2 or Notepad++. That changed in 2018 when Microsoft added support for Mac and Unix. Since then, the program has been improved by adding line numbers, wrap-around searches, text zoom, and other features.
Microsoft is finally providing Notepad with two significant additions: autocorrection and spellcheck, which Apple’s TextEdit has had for some time.
According to Microsoft, the new features are being tested in Windows 11’s Canary and Dev channels. Windows Insiders have access to these channels, and it can take some time for the update to be sent to the full version of Windows 11.
According to the manufacturer, Notepad’s spellcheck will work just as you would anticipate: It will highlight misspelled words with red curvy lines and provide suggestions for fixing them.
According to Microsoft, log and source code files—likely to include non-standard words that might lead to numerous spellcheck errors—will immediately turn off the capability. You can relax if you’re worried that this might corrupt specific files.
There is no timeframe for when Notepad in the consumer version of Windows 11 will gain these new features, even though Windows Insiders can try them now in the most recent Canary and Developer versions.