After Four Decades, Spellcheck Arrives in Microsoft Notepad

Microsoft has finally introduced spellcheck and autocorrect functionality to its Notepad application in Windows 11, more than 40 years after the text editor's initial launch in 1983. The company began testing these features in March and has now gradually enabled them for all Windows 11 users.

The spellcheck feature in Notepad operates similarly to the spellcheck in Word or Edge, highlighting misspelled words with a red underline. However, there is a slight difference; when you right-click on a misspelled word in Notepad, the spelling submenu does not automatically expand as it does in Word, requiring an additional click to view the list of suggested corrections.

It is curious that Microsoft has not fully aligned Notepad’s spellcheck functionality with that of Word, particularly since the beta phase demonstrated the ability to right-click and instantly select corrections. Microsoft Word first incorporated spellcheck in 1985, under its original name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix and MS-DOS systems. Notepad, initially known as Multi-Tool Notepad, was created in 1983 as a simplified version of Word.

Notepad’s new spellcheck and autocorrect features can be easily disabled. Users can enable or disable spellcheck on a per-file-type basis, allowing them to exclude specific file types such as .md, .srt, .lrc, or .lic from spellcheck. Autocorrect, which automatically corrects typos when spellcheck is enabled, can also be disabled in the settings.

Microsoft has been steadily enhancing the Notepad app in Windows 11, coinciding with the planned removal of the built-in WordPad app later this year. Notepad now includes a range of new features such as character count, dark mode, tabs, Copilot integration, and even a virtual fidget spinner.