Notepad has been synonymous with the Microsoft Windows operating system since its inception.

This integrated text editor is used to write programming code (HTML, PHP, ASP, etc.) for website development. There are other uses too. This article will highlight those features. Here is the list.

1. Windows Notepad can be used to store messages with date and time. Open the Notepad application. Write “.LOG” on the first line without quotation marks. Save the file. The next time you open the file, you will find that the notepad has added the time and date to it. Excellent way to create log / message files. This function can also be activated by pressing the F5 key before saving the file.

2. Notepad is useful when you want to copy content from web pages and paste it into Microsoft Excel or Word application. Normally, if you paste directly into Excel or Word, the result can be quite disastrous. The solution is Notepad.

Copy the content of a web page and paste it into Notepad. Now, copy the content from Notepad and paste it into Microsoft Excel or Word using the Unicode method.

3. This is not a tip or a help command. This is called a four three three five sequence (Notepad interprets this as unicode and not ANSI). Write the following text in Notepad without quotation marks “Sara hid the facts.” Save the file. Open and view the content. Surprised!

4. Matrix effect: open your notepad and write the following.

@echo off

color 02

: start

echo% random %% random %% random %% random %% random %% random %% random %% random %% random %% random%

go start

Save this as a .bat file. Open this file after saving. You should be able to see the matrix effect.

We have a more reflective note. Write Q33N in notepad. It was the flight number of one of the planes that hit the World Trade Center. Change the font to WINGDINGS. Look at the result. It seems our old notepad knew about the terrorist attack.

NOTE: All the functions mentioned above have been tested on Windows XP.