Remember Notepad – the Microsoft app?

By: John S. Pitts

I like to refer to myself as a proficient typer, but I by no means can keep up with my brain. Realistically, I would say that I am capable of typing 80 words per minute with about 85-90 percent accuracy. However, my brain works more rapidly than that. Over the years, one thing that I have found to be particularly frustrating is when typing letters, documents for seminars, or speeches, Microsoft Word can be incredibly cumbersome with all of its auto correcting, spell checking, formatting and paragraphing – it seems overly complicated. For those who have a relatively short attention span (like me) the feedback Microsoft Word gives can be distracting to one’s thought process.

A couple years ago, I started typing all documents in Notepad. The value of Notepad is incomparable to any other program, as it allows for thoughts to flow effortlessly. Notepad is a tremendously useful application and continues to be underutilized. For me, Notepad helps me from a performance perspective because I am able to spend less time worrying about formatting, punctuation and spelling and more time on content development. Once I’ve completed my thoughts, I select the entire Notepad document and paste it into Microsoft Word, to then use the functionality of Microsoft Word’s tools – such as spelling and grammar. Here are some of my best practices for using Notepad:

• To start: go to your ‘Accessories; ‘ if you have Windows 7 or Vista, type ‘Notepad’ in the search box and hit ‘enter.’
• To adjust font: go to ‘Format’ and select ‘Font.’
• To insert a time stamp: go to ‘Edit’ and select ‘Time and Date;’ you can also insert a time stamp by typing ‘Fn’ and ‘F5.’
• To select all: type ‘Ctrl’ and ‘A.’
• To find a word or phrase in Notepad: type ‘Ctrl’ and ‘F.’
• To paste: type ‘Ctrl’ and ‘V.’
• To copy: type ‘Ctrl’ and ‘C.’
• To undo: type ‘Ctrl’ and ‘Z.’

John S. Pitts is the founder and president of Tekcetera, Inc., a comprehensive and cost-effective hardware, software and support technology services company that delivers peace of mind that businesses’ technology will work, every time. To learn more, call John directly at (714) 922-4250 or visit www.tekcetera.com.

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