ShadowPad

Windows wants to make it easy to start off in most domains of activities, because it contains a basic set of tools to cover up just about any computer task. There are a couple of text tools to use in this regard, but there are also advanced third-party alternatives to use. For instance, ShadowPad comes as a portable tool for quick editing of text files.

Just so you don’t run into any issues, it’s a good idea to first check whether or not your computer is fitted with Java Runtime Environment. This means it’s not really bound to the Windows operating system, and since there’s no setup involved, you can use it directly from a thumb drive, leaving no traces because registry entries are not modified.

The visual design isn’t really complicated, but you do have a hard time opening a file or reaching the location of interest, and this is because the built-in tree list of folders doesn’t show common locations, but only drives.

Apart from the navigation field, the rest of the space is where you perform all editing operations. Sadly, the selection of font characteristics leaves much to be desired, and this is because it doesn’t show text in plain format, and the big style can be quite disturbing. There’s no text wrapping option, so whatever you do, you might also need to scroll horizontally, and not just vertically.

File support is rather poor, and saving needs to be done under the same format as input. Actual text editing options are close to nonexistent, with no possibility to edit anything but removing and adding new characters.

All things considered, ShadowPad is a pretty poor choice when it comes to text editing, even though its core purpose is to provide a cross-platform, straightforward text editing tool. There are no character customization options, while the navigation is sure to become frustrating from the first few moments of use.