WordPad
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WordPad | |
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 The Windows XP version of Wordpad features almost the same bare-bones interface the product has had since Windows 95. |
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| Developer: | Microsoft |
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| Latest release: | --- / --- |
| OS: | Windows |
| Use: | Word Processor |
| License: | Proprietary |
| Website: | www.microsoft.com |
WordPad is a simple word processor that is included with almost all versions of Microsoft Windows from Windows 95 upwards. It is more advanced than Notepad, but not as advanced as Microsoft Word. It originated in Windows 1.0x as Write.
It has facilities to format and print text, but lacks intermediate features such as a spell checker and thesaurus. As such, it is suitable for writing letters or short authorships, but underpowered for such tasks as long reports (which usually rely heavily on graphics) or large authorships, such as books or manuscripts.
WordPad supports Rich Text Format. This file format is the default format used by the editor to store and load files. It also supports "Word for Windows 6.0", which is forward compatible with Microsoft Word format.
WordPad was introduced for the first time in Windows 95, replacing the Windows Write application, which came bundled with all previous versions of Windows (version 3.1 and earlier). The source code to WordPad was also distributed by Microsoft as a Microsoft Foundation Classes example application with MFC 3.2 and later, shortly before the release of Windows 95. It is still available for download from the MSDN Web site today.
To date, WordPad is the only officially supported Microsoft application (apart from Microsoft Word) that can read (or import) the WRI files produced by Windows Write. However, it can only read Windows Write files; it cannot save files in the WRI format.
WordPad for Windows XP added multilingual text editing. It can open Word 6.0-2003 files although with incorrect formatting, however it cannot save files in the .DOC format (only TXT or RTF), unlike WordPad for earlier Windows versions. Windows XP Service Pack 2 disabled the legacy support for viewing WRI files for security reasons. The Windows Vista version of WordPad does not even open .DOC files. However, it supports speech recognition and the Text Services Framework. For viewing Microsoft Word documents, Microsoft has released the free Word Viewer.
