Even Microsoft’s Notepad now gets AI text editing

Microsoft is adding AI-powered text editing to Notepad, originally a simplified word processor introduced in 1983. Function, called Rewriteis in preview for Windows Insiders and will enable the exploit of artificial intelligence to “rephrase sentences, adjust tone, and modify content length,” according to Windows Insiders’ blog.

If you’re a Windows Insider and have early access to this feature, you can try it out by selecting the text you want to customize in Notepad, right-clicking it, and selecting Prescribe. Notepad will display a dialog box where you can decide how you want to change the text – for example, whether to make it longer or shorter. Rewrite will then offer three rewritten versions with which you can replace your work.

It’s worth noting that you’ll need to be signed in to your Microsoft account to exploit Rewrite, as it’s “powered by a cloud service that requires authentication and authorization.” Microsoft is making this feature available in preview on Windows 11 in the US, France, UK, Canada, Italy and Germany. In July, Microsoft finally updated Notepad with spell checking and autocorrect.

With the introduction of Rewrite to Notepad, Microsoft will allow Insiders to start testing the up-to-date AI image editing tools in Paint, which were previewed last month. Generative Fill allows you to fill an image based on a prompt, while Generative Erase allows you to remove part of the image and blend in with the empty space left.

Generative fill will be available “initially” to Copilot Plus desktop testers, but generative wipe will be available to all Insiders on Windows 11.