Microsoft has introduced an AI feature in Notepad that can help you retype text. Say hello to Rewrite, let's dive deeper into it.
Windows 11's Notepad now has AI
AI-powered features are available to Windows Insiders. Per AnnouncementRewrite in Windows Notepad is powered by an AI model called GPT. It is able to rewrite sentences, adjust the tone, or modify the length of the content based on certain preferences. Microsoft says Rewrite uses an online Azure service to process and generate the text, after which the generated text is sent back to your PC. To protect the privacy and security of users, the online service does not store the text or generated content after processing.
Rewriting in Notepad is available in preview for all users in the following countries: United States, France, UK, Canada, Italy, and Germany. So, the supported languages are English, French, Italian and German. AI-powered functions are also available to users with a Microsoft 365 personal or family subscription, or a CoPilot Pro subscription in the following regions: Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan.
AI features are available in Notepad version 11.2410.15.0 and above. You don't need to be on Windows 11 beta or dev channel to test AI features. I was able to access the rewrite in Notepad in the stable channel, here's how you can do it.
How to Enable Rewrite in Notepad
1. Change the language of your device to US English (or one of the languages mentioned above).
2. Set the Region (Settings > Time & Language) to United States. (or one of the countries mentioned above).
3. Install Notepad 11.2410.16.0. You can download the latest version of the app from https://store.rg-adguard.net/. The URL of Notepad is https://apps.Microsoft.com/detail/9msmlrh6lzf3. Set the Channel Ring to Fast and click the Checkbox button. Download the .msixbundle of the latest version of Notepad and install it manually.
4. Phantomforth says users can try out Notepad's Rewrite AI by enabling an ID using Vivetool. Execute the following command in PowerShell.
.vivetool /enabled /id:47961746
Note: The current stable version of Notepad (without AI features) is 11.2409.9.0, in case you want to save a backup of it. To download the stable version you need to set the ring to “Retail” in the RG-AdGuard website.
Search for rewrite in notepad
Once you've followed those steps, open Notepad, and you'll see a new button in the menu bar. This is the rewrite button. Clicking on it brings up a pop-down menu with various options.
The first option is Rewrite, which can be triggered with the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl + I. This is an odd choice for a shortcut, as it is commonly used to format text in italics in most text editors, including Microsoft Word. Either way, rewriting can shorten the text for you, or make the content longer.
Clicking the Change Tone menu brings up other options like Default, Formal, Casual, Inspirational, and Humor. You can also change the format to one of the following styles: Default, Paragraph, List, Business, Academic, Marketing, and Poetry. I think the options are fairly self-explanatory, anyone who has used ChatGPT, Copilot, Cloud or Gemini or one of the many AI models should know how these things work. Rewriting in Notepad is also available via the right-click context menu.
So how does it work. Select a specific sentence or paragraph in your document, or leave the content unchecked to rewrite the entire document. Choose one of the options, and Rewrite will start processing the data. This takes a few seconds, after which you are presented with three variations that you can choose from.
There are various buttons in the UI, the Replace button at the bottom allows you to replace the text with the rewritten version. You can choose to adjust the rewriting method (short/long), change the tone and format from this screen. There are shortcuts for copying text to the clipboard, retrying (rewriting), and dismissing the pop-up. You can also delete the text by clicking anywhere outside the pop-up to return to the original text.
Limitations in Rewriting for Notepad
Rewrite in Notepad is a freemium feature, meaning it's limited by credits. More specifically, you get 50 credits to start. And, you need to be signed in to your Microsoft account to use this feature. The Account icon can be clicked on Notepad's toolbar to view your account information and check your AI Credit balance. Each use costs one credit, and yes, clicking the retry option also costs one credit.
Free users start at 50 credits. I don't know if it has been reset or not. which I can read and tell supporting documentsIt does not reset. The page mentions that users will be notified when credits are low (5 or below). More importantly, it also says that “Microsoft 365 subscribers' credits are automatically replenished at the beginning of each month.” The wording makes it appear that free accounts will not receive additional credits. The document states that users who have a Microsoft 365 personal or family subscription get 60 AI credits every month. 60 per month seems quite low, so I think customers may also be bothered by these limits. Users can purchase additional AI credits by subscribing to Copilot Pro.
one more support page Microsoft's website states that “Users of free apps like Designer receive 15 credits per month.” The name of Notepad is not mentioned in it, so I am skeptical about it. I would like to point out that Notepad is one of the apps mentioned in the next line that talks about subscriptions.
In my opinion this is terrible. It's basically Notepad with in-app purchases. You could argue that it was put in place to prevent the credit system from being abused. Well, this wouldn't be a problem if it were an offline feature, processing data on the device. Will this happen? Since this requires a network connection to sign in to your Microsoft account, this is a poor implementation. As far as why this offline feature isn't there, isn't that obvious? To sell Microsoft 365 subscriptions.
How to disable rewrite in Notepad?
Rewriting in Notepad can be disabled from the Settings menu.
I had to manually enable the flag in ViveTool, so I can't say for sure whether it was enabled by default or not. But, I think it's possible that the setting is turned on automatically. Why? How else is Microsoft going to promote this feature?
I like Notepad, especially the tabs, spell check, and auto-save features. It's disappointing to see the inevitable AI reduction in basic apps.
Rewriting in Notepad may be useful to some people, but the fact that it's limited by credits, and said credits cost money, makes it nothing more than another advertisement for a Microsoft subscription. Is. I want to point out that using Apple Intelligence is completely free (except Siri with ChatGPT, but it is optional). And, Apple's AI uses on-device machine learning, and processes data locally. On the other hand, rumors suggest that Microsoft may rebrand Copilot to Windows Intelligence.
Users who are looking for an alternative to Notepad may want to check out this notepad++, cudatextIf you don't mind using the Electron app, take a look at this obsidian (not open source), standard notesOr JoplinAll three apps are available on major platforms.
What do you think about the rewrite?
Thanks for reading..
