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How to Open and Use Notepad in Windows 10

Isabella Shinn
Isabella Shinn

Updated:

Notepad is a basic plain text editor that you can use to create simple documents. The resulting files typically saved with the .txt extension. This article describes several ways to open Notepad and customize its text in Windows 10. This makes Notepad better to use for viewing or editing text (.txt) files.


How to Open Notepad in Windows 10

There are several ways to launch a Notepad and create a new text document.

Way 1: Open Notepad via Run

Press Win+R to open Run box. Input notepad and hit Enter.

A new blank and untitled notepad will be automatically launched on your computer.

Open Notepad via Run

Way 2: Open Notepad from Start Menu

Go to the Start Menu and click All apps, you can find it under Windows Accessories folder.

Open Notepad from Start Menu

Way 3: Open Notepad via Context Menu

Right-click on a blank area in Desktop or File Explorer, select New > Text Document.

Open Notepad via Context menu

Way 4: Open Notepad using Cortana Search

Step 1: Go to the Start menu.

Step 2: Type notepad into the Search box, and press Enter.

Open Sticky Notes using Contana Search

If you need to use Notepad app frequently, you can pin it to the Start or Taskbar. So that you can quickly create a new text document from Start Menu or Taskbar.

Pin Notepad to Start

How to Enable Word Wrap in Notepad

If you enable Word Wrap, it'll wrap the text in your text document so it doesn't scroll across the entire.

To do: Click the Format tab and select Word Wrap.

The scroll bar at the bottom of the Notepad window will disappear. A check will appear next to the Word Wrap option on the Format menu.

Enable Word Wrap

How to Format Text in Notepad

With these steps below, you can customize the default font, font style, and font size in Notepad.

To do: Click on Format menu, select Font.

Font Settings

It offers you a list of all your installed fonts, and the option to use bold, italic, and so on. You can select the desired formatting. When done, click OK. The change of font immediately affects the entire document.

Format text in Text Document

How to Enable Status Bar via Registry Editor

The status bar can't be enabled when Word Wrap is enabled. Here's how to make the status bar visible in Notepad when Word Wrap has enabled.

Step 1: Press Win+R open Run, type regedit, and hit Enter.

Open Registry Editor

Step 2: In Registry Editor, navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Notepad

On the right pane of Notepad, double-click the StatusBar key.

Enable Status Bar

Step 3: Change the value from 0 to 1. Click OK to save this Settings.

Display Status Bar in Notepad

Press F5 to refresh Registry Editor. Open the Notepad, the Status bar will appear at the bottom of notepad application software. It shows the message for the number of lines and column location in the status window.

Status Bar appears in Notepad