NoteTab Pro vs. metapad

A long time ago, in the days when the basic Windows Notepad application was very limited, I looked for a replacement, and found a free app called metapad.

I liked it for several reasons, including the fact that it could handle files of any size, it has more functionality than Notepad while still retaining a very simple interface, and, most importantly, it could actually replace the system Notepad.exe program.

What that meant was that all files that used to be opened by Notepad would now be opened with metapad instead – i.e. no having to reassign default applications to a bunch of file types.

However, with the introduction of Windows XP (I think I first found metapad when I was running Windows 98), the increased system security (?) meant that getting metapad to replace the Notepad app was very difficult, and the last time I had to install metapad, after upgrading to a new XP laptop, I couldn’t get that part to work at all.

Which meant that one of my favourite metapad features was no longer a benefit.

And that, in turn, meant I was back on the hunt for a Notepad replacement that at least offered the ability to take the place of Notepad – and any other additional features would be just a benefit.

Following a recommendation from Derek Franklin, (creator of, for example, The Copywriter’s Brain), I took NoteTab Pro for a test drive, as they offer a free trial.

I liked what I saw – it has the ability to replace Notepad (it’s actually a menu option within the application), it has all of the main features of metapad, and it also supports the creation of what they call “outline” documents.

These are a special type of file that allows you to create structured notes within a single file, useful, for example, if you’re writing a book, where you can create one section per chapter, or if you’re maintaining an ideas file, where you can quickly create a new section (for the idea), and then add a few notes to remind you what that idea was all about.

There are many other features too, including the ability to have more than one file open at once, via its tabbed interface, a multi-line search and replace function, support for RegEx, a built-in calculator, and much, much more.

So far, I’ve been really happy with my decision to change to NoteTab Pro (they also do a free Light version and a Standard version, although their features are more limited) – it’s not free, but it is very reasonably-priced, and it offers more features than most people probably need.

Anyway, check it out – the free version is, well, free, while the Standard and Pro versions both offer 30-day free trials, which is more than long enough to decide it’s worth upgrading to the full product.

Tags: system security, windows 98, increased system, derek franklin, last time, long time, free version

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