The New WordPad in Windows 7!
By John Campbell
In previous versions of Windows, right back to Windows 95,
the useful WordPad provided “Beginners to Computing” with a
simple easy-to-use word processor to create simple
documents.
It was unencumbered with the “bells and whistles” that
Microsoft Word had. Not only that, it came as a “freebie”
with Windows itself. Even in Windows 7, it is still
available.
So then, why rush out to buy Microsoft Office to get Word,
when there is a great little application available and
waiting. You will find it in the Accessories folder. For a
beginner, there is no better place to start learning word
processing than here, in WordPad.
The earlier version of WordPad and the new version in
Windows 7 are shown below. You will see there are some major
differences.
1. Comparing the two versions of WordPad
The New Look for WordPad
In Windows 7, WordPad has undergone a refit. Let’s take a
look at WordPad’s new interface.
2. New WordPad features
The WordPad Button
This button is located just above the Paste button in the
Clipboard section of the Ribbon Bar. Clicking it opens up a
conventional menu containing commonly used commands.
3. WordPad Button and its Menu
The Ribbon Bar
The new version of WordPad (Windows 7), now includes a
Ribbon Bar similar to the one in Word 2007. All commands on
the Ribbon Bar are grouped according to a common purpose.
So, all commands relating to Fonts are in the Font section
of the Ribbon Bar.
You can use the Ribbon Bar to access the Clipboard (cut,
copy and paste), Fonts (change Font, Font Size and Font
Color), Paragraph (change Indent, Spacing and Alignment) and
Insert Options (insert a Picture, access Paint and insert
Date & Time and an Objects).
4. The New Ribbon Bar
The Older Toolbars in WordPad
The earlier versions of WordPad contained two toolbars, the
Standard and the Formatting toolbars. Each toolbar had a set
of buttons for commonly used commands.
5. Menu Bar and Toolbars in old WordPad
In the earlier versions of WordPad, uncommon commands were
hidden away in the Menu system. If you wanted to insert the
“Date and Time” in a document, as there was no toolbar
button available, you had to search the Menu system for the
appropriate command.
It was hidden in the Insert menu. In
the new version of WordPad, this command is just a click
away as it has a button on the Ribbon bar.
6. Menus V’S Ribbon Bar
The Quick Access Toolbar
This is another new feature of WordPad. It is located at the
top of WordPad’s window. Its default setting displays three
tools – Save, Undo and Redo. However, you can customize it.
To do this, click the Customize Quick Access toolbar button.
This opens a menu where you can add or remove several
additional commands.
7. Customize Option Quick Access toolbar
When you compare the older version of WordPad and this new
version that comes with Windows 7, the difference is amazing
and the improvements are outstanding.
So give it a go!
