Microsoft has finally taken action after 30 years of faithfully providing WordPad. They will retire this app that allowed people to open.doc files without Word.
Why now and what does this mean for your business?
Microsoft recently made an unexpected and quiet announcement that they will no longer update WordPad, and eventually remove it from Windows altogether. No date for this transition was specified at the time.
But let's be honest...how often have you mistakenly opened a WordPad document when the original intention was Notepad?
Notepad is used to write plain text documents while WordPad serves as an editing program similar to a word processor; they're often confused.
Could WordPad's imminent demise be the result of this common oversight? Microsoft could be trying to persuade more people to pay for Microsoft Word as part of its 365 suite subscription service.
Microsoft suggests using Microsoft Word for producing rich text documents and Windows Notepad for plain text documents - these two applications should provide enough flexibility when creating documents with rich formatting features and plain text alike. So who is WordPad?
Let's not get too sentimental here - I admit to having long been an Windows user and often opening WordPad by accident. Even if it goes away completely, I won't worry much; Word is far from being the only word processor out there.
WordPad lovers don't despair: Microsoft wants your feedback via its Windows Feedback Hub application, and could reconsider by keeping WordPad alive as an optional app on Microsoft Store with occasional updates and modifications.
Reach out if we can assist in finding the appropriate app for your business, call us at (404) 932-5940 or shoot us an email info@nuwaveitc.com
