Windows 11 could liven up Notepad by adding tabs to the mix, at least when you factor in a leaked test build of the app, though not everyone is happy with that idea (we'll come back to this).
Windows Central - opens in a new tab - detected a tweet from a Microsoft staff member mentioning the arrival of tabs in Notepad and showing a screenshot of the app preview showing the tabs in action .
This screenshot came with a clear warning not to discuss new features or take screenshots. So, as you can imagine, when Twitter discovered the leak, the tweet was quickly removed.
It's not a big surprise to see the presence of tabs expanded even more in Windows 11, given that they recently made their way to File Explorer. For those who could use a quick refresher on tabs and how they work, the tabs in File Explorer, or even Notepad, are the same as the ones in your web browser.
They allow you to open multiple web pages in the same browser window, and similarly, in File Explorer, they allow many folders to be opened in the same window. With Notepad, you can open multiple documents in a single instance of the app.
Analysis: Fear the bloated monster
While we've noted above that it's not really surprising to see tabs coming to a different place in Windows 11, given Microsoft's clear ambition to use them more outside of the browser, it's certainly somewhat surprising that they ended up in Notepad. It's not exactly the most powerful app after all, and in fact its core philosophy is to keep things very simple when it comes to annotating and editing text.
However, Notepad has received a lot of attention in Windows 11 as users of the app will certainly appreciate it. This includes a more modern look (rounded corners), font changes, and a dark mode, so in that sense, more redesign isn't all that surprising.
As for whether Notepad really needs tabs, that depends on who you're talking to. Some users are happy to see the feature coming (they claim it's in other similar text editors and should have been in Notepad by now), while others, well, aren't so excited. This latter camp fears that Microsoft will bloat the app with this change, and possibly more in the pipeline, given the way things have gone. What these people fear is that Notepad is no longer just a quick app to launch, that it will take longer to load, for example.
However, we must remember that this change is still in the testing phase. Cynics might even argue that this leak was leaked to gauge reaction to the change, but just because a feature is undergoing internal testing doesn't mean it will see the light of day in the final version of the app anyway. It's apparently a possibility for the future though, that's for sure.
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