Where is Notepad in Windows 10? (2015) • Hacker News Board

Re: Where is Notepad in Windows 10? (2015)

#191

Post by isostatic » Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 6:15 AM UTC

Filligree wrote: post #14

prepend wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I prefer txt files for config and notes. I don’t care about formatting so word or word pad are too much. I also use notepad as my goto “paste without formatting” as it’s typically faster to wash the clipboard through notepad than use whatever “paste special” ui an app has.

Notepad only supports CRLF, wordpad can read Unix-style files, which is a lot of files even on Windows. A great deal of software was written to unconditionally insert \n. Formatting isn't the only reason to use it. I never bother to try notepad.

Notepad was fixed years ago

Re: Where is Notepad in Windows 10? (2015)

#192

Post by nitrogen » Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 6:26 AM UTC

usrusr wrote: post #110

komali2 wrote: post #29

This is a pretty fun submission. I like peering into the lives of computer users that don't have the level of computer literacy I'm used to day to day. It's a good reminder. > This answer is not helpful. There is no start button. Because it's just a little windows icon now - easy to forget that that doesn't just make sense to some people. > Thank you, Brian- I would surely never have looked there, for anything, never…

"A while ago there was an article where a woman was trying to user testing in a mall and instead found an old guy who had literally never touched a computer." I believe that this approach to UX testing is to blame for some of the most infuriating UI changes: when you design UI experiments with actual users you do that because you want objectivity. And what could be more objective than selecting "perfect blanks" as yo…

"We have the numbers to prove it. We did science, you didn't. You are just a grumpy old power-user disrespecting the needs of the weak".

Well put. What's the counterargument? There has to be a way to solve this problem.

Re: Where is Notepad in Windows 10? (2015)

#193

Post by nitrogen » Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 6:42 AM UTC

wiseleo wrote: post #180

com2kid wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I still have to dig through well hidden “advanced” dialog boxes that were previously exposed in the UI to do things that I remember Office was capable of doing. The search button in Office apps is super useful. Type in a vague suggestion of what you want and it'll pop up a button for the appropriate feature! The ribbon is very nice for some things. It is meh for others. In Excel I'd argue it was a dramatic improvem…

Office can do many things that I wouldn't be able to even begin to describe as a search query. They are all well-hidden. Dig a little under the facade and look at the VBA methods. Most of that functionality is or was available somewhere in the UI.

Indeed. Search is no substitute for a solid, discoverable information architecture.

Re: Where is Notepad in Windows 10? (2015)

#194

Post by ygra » Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 6:52 AM UTC

connicpu wrote: post #172

whoopdedo wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never stumbled into that one. What I do remember from Windows 95b through 7 is if the keyboard focus was on the taskbar and you pressed Alt+F4, it brought up the Shutdown/Restart/Logoff dialog. That made it possible to cleanly shutdown the computer blindly from the keyboard. Win,Esc,Alt+F4,R,Enter

That's still a thing, the focus just needs to be on the desktop!

Both the Desktop and the taskbar belong to Explorer and trying to close that is what triggers that dialog. Both still work in Windows 10.

Re: Where is Notepad in Windows 10? (2015)

#195

Post by tomashubelbauer » Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 6:54 AM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #83

netsharc wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah "washing the clipboard", I guess that's the term for it. I turn on the address toolbar on the taskbar (underneath all the icons); it's great to navigate to files/directories by typing (especially with auto-complete, which wasn't there on Windows 9x!), and I also use it for "clipboard washing".

I call it "sanitizing clipboard", and I usually use either Win+R or browser address bar (Ctrl+L), whichever is quicker, for 95% cases, in which I have only one line of text to sanitize. In the remaining 5% cases, I go through Notepad. On Linux I don't have a Win+R equivalent, so I always use a browser or Emacs session, whichever quicker to switch to.

I used to use the browser address bar for this, too. Then browsers started sending the crap you paste in it to who knows where. I even used to paste passwords there to make sure they don't have leading or trailing characters unintentionally included. I'm sure at least some people do that to this day and Google and others have their logs full of passwords this way.

Re: Where is Notepad in Windows 10? (2015)

#196

Post by TeMPOraL » Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 7:32 AM UTC

tomashubelbauer wrote: post #195

TeMPOraL wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I call it "sanitizing clipboard", and I usually use either Win+R or browser address bar (Ctrl+L), whichever is quicker, for 95% cases, in which I have only one line of text to sanitize. In the remaining 5% cases, I go through Notepad. On Linux I don't have a Win+R equivalent, so I always use a browser or Emacs session, whichever quicker to switch to.

I used to use the browser address bar for this, too. Then browsers started sending the crap you paste in it to who knows where. I even used to paste passwords there to make sure they don't have leading or trailing characters unintentionally included. I'm sure at least some people do that to this day and Google and others have their logs full of passwords this way.

I did that thing with passwords too! Perhaps even when browsers were sending what you type in the address bar to some servers somewhere, but back before I knew about it.

Re: Where is Notepad in Windows 10? (2015)

#197

Post by Razengan » Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 7:45 AM UTC

komali2 wrote: post #29

This is a pretty fun submission. I like peering into the lives of computer users that don't have the level of computer literacy I'm used to day to day. It's a good reminder. > This answer is not helpful. There is no start button. Because it's just a little windows icon now - easy to forget that that doesn't just make sense to some people. > Thank you, Brian- I would surely never have looked there, for anything, never…

> Some people just haven't/won't learned the grammar and vocabulary of computer literacy.

Techie snobs scoff at the iPad but without its simplicity some of the older people in my family would have never used a computing device.

It wasn't something they ever needed – having done without computers for so long just fine – but it did bring them joy and entertainment and even helped them with some tasks, like notes and contacts.

And yes, abstracting away the file system played a big role in the iPad's accessibility.

Just vanishing the keyboard and mouse alone greatly lowers the intimidating barriers for some tech-averse people.

Re: Where is Notepad in Windows 10? (2015)

#198

Post by Doubl » Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 9:05 AM UTC

tigershark wrote: post #165

Doubl wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember being called by someone to whom we'd sent a trial installation CD, this was in the days before remote desktop software. They didn't know how to insert a CD and were defensive with it Why can't you make it easy for normal people?

Probably because they didn’t have a cd-rom unit and they were trying to push it in the 3 1/2” disk drive. If they had a real floppy disk drive (5 1/4”) they probably would have succeeded, but I seriously doubt that the installation would have gone through smoothly...

Lol!

Re: Where is Notepad in Windows 10? (2015)

#199

Post by usrusr » Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 9:19 AM UTC

jdofaz wrote: post #139

usrusr wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that outdated symbols won't be a problem for younger generations, but for different reasons. The "save" icon has long stopped being a floppy disk. It may still look like one (to those who know the object depicted), but it is identified as just "save" and nothing more. If people would identify it with portable media instead of the act of storing the current document, they would also try to use it for loading a…

I Love Lucy had fans over generations thanks to reruns. I've mentioned the show a few times in conversations with people in their early 20s and usually they have never heard of it.

I was starting to get uneasy about the problem that later gained prominence under the term "filter bubble" quite early. But the "now bubble" that is taking shape in this little discussion sidetrack? Totally did not see that one coming. We were not only wrong about mainstream news sources back in the 90ies, but also about mindless channel hoping: it can have horizon-widening qualities?

Anecdote time: I surely did not learn anything about the Korea war from MASH reruns other than "the time depicted is too recent for ww2 and too long ago for Vietnam, so apparently America had yet another war in Asia". But that was enough to create a gathering place inside my mind for all those tiny information scraps about this part of history that would otherwise new lost, surprisingly helpful.

Re: Where is Notepad in Windows 10? (2015)

#200

Post by Nition » Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 9:59 AM UTC

markmark wrote: post #177

Nition wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anyone hasn't really noticed this, a good example is try changing the mouse pointer speed (which is surely a pretty common thing to want to do!).

I'm on mac, but opened up my windows laptop to check this. I clicked the start menu, typed "mouse speed" and the first option was "Change the mouse pointer display or speed", I picked that and there I was.

The main issue is that a search for "mouse" or the like takes you to the new Settings panel for mouse instead, which has some options but not all. A small "Additional mouse options" link under a "Related settings" heading then takes you back to the old Control Panel mouse settings, where you can actually change the speed.

Your search was good, and got you straight to the old Control Panel version. But the fact that the settings are split over two not-fully-overlapping systems is a bit ridiculous, and confusing.