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I often call on WordPad to save the day.
 technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

T e c h n o f i l e
2 secret ways to run WordPad, and a tip that just might make your day


Sept. 25, 2005


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2005, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2005, The Post-Standard

   WordPad, the little word processor that comes with Windows, seems like a Microsoft Word wannabe. But Windows users who try WordPad usually find out that it's related to Microsoft Word the way my bicycle is related to a Corvette -- it's got wheels and it gets you from place to place, but that's about it.
   But if you think of WordPad more as what it is than what it might have been -- the way I think of my bike, maybe -- you'll probably find WordPad one of the most useful little programs in Windows.
   So I thought you might be interested in a few WordPad secrets.
   Some history first. WordPad made its debut in Windows 95, the first modern version of Windows, as a sort of fancy scratch pad. You could write notes with it or even do your homework on it, but that was about it.
   Or, rather, that was almost about it. Microsoft added another function to WordPad just before Windows 95 went out the door: When you double clicked a text file that was too big for Notepad to open, WordPad showed up and offered to open it instead. (Why Microsoft didn't fix Notepad instead has always been a mystery.)
   But the dumbest thing about WordPad, the discovery that disappoints countless Windows users every year, is that it hasn't got a clue about spell checking. Microsoft left that part out. Period. (Maybe it wanted you to buy Microsoft Word if you wanted to know whether "i" comes before "e" except after ... what was that rule again?)
   I used to complain about this omission, too, but I've come to realize that adding a spelling checker to WordPad wouldn't help much. If you need a spelling checker the way I do, you also need a grammar checker, a thesaurus and a big pot of coffee each time you sit down to write. And the way to do that is to get a real word processor.
   Microsoft Word is outstanding, and the best way to get it probably is to buy Microsoft Office. You can usually get a hefty discount on Office if you are a teacher, student or school administrator -- or if you live in the same household of any of those or run a business. (I'm not kidding. If you can't qualify, you're not trying hard enough.) Go to www.microsoft.com/office/editions/prodinfo/students/default.mspx for more information.
   But why pay anything? For a totally free word processor that has all the functions of Word, including an excellent spell checker, grammar aid and thesaurus, try OpenOffice. It's got a lot more than a word processor, too. Go to www.openoffice.org.
   Back to the lowly WordPad.
   Unless somebody forgot to install it, WordPad is on every Windows PC, so it's there waiting for your command all the time. And I mean "command" as in "type a command and you can get WordPad to run."
   Get to the command line by clicking the Start button and clicking the "Run" icon. Then type WORDPAD into the form and press the Enter key.
   If this isn't cool, I don't know what is. Or, come to think of it, I actually do know what else is cool. It's the second secret way to run WordPad. Press and hold the Windows key (the one with the Microsoft flag logo) and then press R. (In other words, think of this as "Win-R.") Then type WORDPAD and press the Enter key.
   I already have a couple of good word processors, so I don't fire up WordPad to write anything serious. But I'll share a secret about the way WordPad saves a lot of effort whenever I use Windows.
   I use WordPad as a surrogate "what-is-it?" program. In other words, whenever I encounter some kind of mystery-meat text file, something I can't figure out from looking at the filename or from the way someone describes the contents ("It's a boogaloo or something like that my Uncle Henry sent me," that kind of thing), I call on WordPad to save the day.
   I run WordPad and keep it off to the side of the screen. Then I click on the mystery file and drag it to the shoulder of WordPad. (The "shoulder" is the area to the right of the toolbar.) I drop it there, stand back, look for smoke rising from the back of my desk and see what shows up.
   Usually, what shows up is a file I can at least partially read. If the file is a text in some form or another, WordPad should be able to show a good part of it.
   And now for some trivia: You can drop something on WordPad's shoulder because of a neat feature in Windows that almost no one knows about. If you drop something inside WordPad's window, WordPad goofs off and thinks you want to embed the item. (Bad idea most of the time.) But if you drop it on the shoulder, WordPad dutifully tries its best to open the file.
   Cool indeed.