Here's an odd little feature I never knew was in Notepad, Microsoft's otherwise featureless text editor: It can be used to make log files. Give it a shot: Open Notepad and type
.LOG on the first line, then save the file as whatever you want. Now every time you open the file the current date and time will be appended to it, which make it super-quick to create simple texty log files for whatever you want. Of course, every word processor and many text editors have shortcut keys for inserting the date, but simplicity does have its appeal. The
Microsoft knowledgebase says this feature only applies to Windows 98 and ME, but it seems to work fine in XP as well.
Tags: feature, log, notepad, windows
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Comments
13
Subscribe to commentsMonotoJul 7th 2006 5:42PM
Great tip. If you want to insert the date and time in Notepad non-automated-style, just hit F5. Works like a champ.
Oh, and you know you were asking for this when you put up that image. What Windows skin are you using? Me likey.
Jordan RunningJul 7th 2006 5:49PM
Monoto: I've posted a lot of screenshots, but surprisingly you're the first to ask me about my Windows theme. The theme is Thallos, and you can download it at deviantART. My one complaint about it is that the scrollbar is a bit low-contrast, so sometimes it's hard to locate the handle at a glance.
BorisJul 7th 2006 6:37PM
It's case sensitive. At first I tried ".log" and it didn't work. It seems to be like a diary for yourself
ChetanJul 7th 2006 10:32PM
Works in Metapad too.
JasonJul 7th 2006 11:38PM
Thanks Monoto, I was about to ask as well.
KenJul 8th 2006 12:38AM
Works as well with win32pad. More than likely it will work the majority of Notepad replacements. And then again I could be wrong.
schmodJul 8th 2006 2:19AM
ahh. great to see another metapad user around these parts!
it would be nice to see it updated someday, perhaps with support for opening more than one file at once via tabs.
but still, you can't beat the fact that it loads *instantly*, and in many instances ends up being *faster* than notepad, while fixing many/all of notepad's major shortcomings (without actually becoming a full-fledged editor). Opens UNIX text files, very large text files, highlights hyperlinks, and intelligently handles indenting.
For quickly viewing/editing a file, I have yet to find anything that comes close to replicating the handiness of metapad.
RisingSunofNihonJul 8th 2006 8:01AM
Well let me join the chorus and say that I never knew this feature existed either. I can definitely see it coming in handy, so thanks for the tip!
ramiJul 8th 2006 10:16AM
Great tip :)
Works great at work if you're required to write weekly status reports.
ramiJul 8th 2006 10:25AM
Here is another tip for you:1-Open Notepad2-Press
Ctrl+O3-Type a URL like http://www.downloadsquad.com in the file name
box.4-Notepad will open the HTML source code of that URL.
MichaelJul 8th 2006 4:37PM
Hey rami,
I couldn't get that one to work. CTRL 03???
ramiJul 8th 2006 5:01PM
Ment to say:
1-Open Notepad
2-Press "Ctrl+O", or Open in the file menu
3-Type a URL like http://www.downloadsquad.com in the file name box.
4-Notepad will open the HTML source code of that URL.
Adam MarasJul 8th 2006 11:04PM
You know, this has been around since Windows 3.1, possibly earlier.