Very complicated, no help available, confusing
Written: Nov 14 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: single-tasking, simple user interface, free!
Cons: little help available, almost no support, little information given for novice users
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| prostoalex's Full Review: Microsoft Notepad |
First I got to see the Microsoft Notepad when I had my first computer. At that time the program interface looked too complicated and incomprehensible, and the amount of books and reference materials available on this topic is just so tiny that it is pathetic how a large software company could release such software without almost any support.
I started off with "Notepad for Dummies" but after getting to the Chapter 6 "Searching by pressing F3" I threw the book away, the authors did not explain many things and the boom was targeted originally for experienced Notepad users.
"Teach Yourself Notepad in 21 days" seemed to be a little be more on the subject and the tasks they had at the end of the book really aroused my interest, although too bad the book doesn't have the answer key. I like the authors' style and general assumption that you have never used Notepad, and thus it is difficult and straining to learn it.
"Notepad: Complete Reference" shocked me with the 1,200 pages dedicated to all the operations you could do with Notepad. The authors discussed possibility of writing HTML with this program, which even decreased my learning abilities - I was all up and ready to start learning about the new text editor, that is used throughout the world, but then it turned out that Notepad could also be used for HTML, that just is so confusing, I mean, how do you know, when you open a program, whether the stuff is HTML or whether it's a text file, I don't want the text that I typed as letter to my Siamese twin brother to appear as HTML and then some hacker steal it and post it on the Internet.
"Microsoft Notepad Developer Toolkit" was even more complicated, although it introduced nifty new features like "Select All", "Copy" and other advanced text editing stuff.
I like the stuff that Notepad is distributed for free, and has the simplicity and ease of learning as any other Microsoft product, Occasionally, though, Notepad comes up with a message saying "The programs has performed illegal operation", thus I think some things should be simplified and made more understandable for the general users.
The help file for the Notepad in Windows 2000 is also the vast amount of resources and information on the latest Notepad updates and solutions to numerous problems that Notepad users around the world have experienced. Also be sure to visit Notepad on the Web to read what the users say about Notepad, and check out Notepad Knowledge Base, where you get to ask experts about specific features of this software program.
I also like that Notepad doesn't accept multitasking, so those nerds who are talking about the distributed systems, multiple processes and CPUs operating with the queue and so on, can forget it - Notepad allows you to work on one specific problem, which also fosters such trait as responsibility - don't go to the next task until you're done with the one you're working on right now.
The thing I don't like about their Notepad Technical support line is the outrageous rates they charge people who have problems with the program, but maybe future releases of that software would be able to contain richer and more informative help files.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
prostoalex
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Location: Mountain View, CA
Reviews written: 72
Trusted by: 27 members
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