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Notepad Obsolete?Try a Notepad alternative |
By Ionut Ilascu, Editor, Software Reviews
21st of May 2007, 14:50 GMT
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I can't imagine a computer user that does not make use of Notepad. Not on a daily basis, but at least once in a while. I see it as an electronic way to scribble all sort of information, very similar to the myriad of notes you have your desk and pockets filled with. The application launches fast and all you need for this is going to Run and typing "notepad".
Windows Notepad is a text editor that can be employed in various situations like when you temporarily write down a link to a website, make a short note on something, write code lines, etc. It asks nothing of you, as the resource footprint is almost invisible. Not to mention that the minimum options it is equipped with pose absolutely no problem even to an ultimate beginner.
Well, despite the fact that many users still use it and would not give up on it yet, Notepad has its share of disadvantages. From where I stand one of the mischiefs translates in its inability to start a new row without pressing Enter key. I found TXTs having no more than four or five lines of text, but boy, those were some long lines.
Replacements for Windows Notepad were created a long time ago and developers continue to create text editors that would take its place and provide more useful options besides the basic ones.
ShadyTXT is one of these replacement tools. Following the Notepad tradition ShadyTXT is not trying to unravel new text editing possibilities and is purely created for functional reasons. The application is absolutely free and its role is to attempt to dethrone the Windows application that was available in the Microsoft's OSes since the beginning (Notepad has been present in Windows since 1985, in Windows 1.0).
Not targeted at programmers, ShadyTXT is just a simple Notepad replacement with a few extra features that you may find useful. The 152KB executable is proof enough of the simplicity of the application. And if you take into consideration that there are
no useless options, you may want to give this alternative a thought.
After the installation is complete two options will pop up on you. First it enables you to choose ShadyTXT over Notepad and making it the default text editor and the second allows you to put ShadyTXT's "Edit with ShadyTXT" menu in Windows context menu. Now I would not hurry to choose the first one before testing the application. But if you decide on this, simply reinstall the application. I know it sucks not having these two options somewhere in the menus, but the developer kept it as simple as possible.
The interface is plain and simple and as soon as you launch the application you will see the difference. The background and text colors are reverted from what you are used to in Notepad. That means that you will be writing white on black. However, if you do not agree with these colors feel free to change them at any time you want.
Looking at the options available in the menus you realize from the beginning that the most basic functionality is embedded in the software. Its innate ability to highlight URLs and opening the links in the default web browser has to be appreciated though. Also, the background and text color changing is an innovation you've been waiting for a long time. At least I have, as the white was too white for my eyes and it hurt them. When reading a longer text in Notepad I generally had to adjust the monitor so that my eyes felt comfortable.
With ShadyTXT is just a matter of adjusting the colors and the program will remember your choice next time you open it. The colors are just the basic Windows palette and you can adjust them to different hues by simply dragging the mouse in the corresponding window.
The font can also be adjusted in terms of size, style and type. The default is Lucida Console, but you can change it to one of the 100 font types available. The usual effects you can pick from are also present (underline and strikeout).
Time and datestamps can be inserted by simply using the keyboard shortcuts (F5 and F6). Though you may feel that this information is not too important for the notes you make assisted by ShadyTXT, I am sure that it happened more than once to need such choices. These are available in Notepad as well, although not too many users are aware of them.
When first testing the application I subjected it to all the Notepad shortcuts and I was amazed to see that ShadyTXT did not respond to Ctrl H (replace option). Well, the replace option is compressed in Find options and can be activated at pressing Ctrl F.
The Good
ShadyTXT is extremely stable and represents a very good alternative to Notepad. The plus of options available here includes changing the color of the background and of the text as well as making the web links dynamic.
The software will automatically start a new row when it reaches the end of the application screen, so there will be no horizontal scrolling.
The Bad
Giving the user the option of making the software the default text editor before having tried and not including it in one of the menus is definitely not an advantage.
Also, some users may want to know the number of lines in the document. ShadyTXT misses this option. I also would have liked to be able to align the text to justify formatting.
URL highlighting has only one color (blue) so it is a bit difficult to distinguish it while setting the background color to blue.
The Truth
Unlike Notepad (which makes the text vanish at pressing the corresponding keyboard shortcuts) ShadyTXT is non responsive.
The software comes with a bunch of new options, which are definitely an asset to the users, but the resource footprint is quite upped. However, I guess you can live with a minus of 6MB of RAM while running ShadyTXT, especially considering that 512MB memory tends to be too little for the contemporary applications on the market.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
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