Windows 11 has quietly added a new feature to your PC: AI-powered editing to the Windows 11 Notepad app, called Rewrite.
In November, Microsoft began testing the addition of AI rewrite capabilities in Notepad, and then developed it further as part of a February update. Now, Windows Latest has reported that the AI-powered Notepad appears to have rolled out to everyone. It has certainly shown up on my PCs, whether they’re running the stable version of Windows or one of its test Insider editions.
In the upper right-hand corner of Notepad, you should see a little “magic pen” icon. That’s the new Rewrite (preview) application. You may not see it if you don’t subscribe to Microsoft 365, as those AI capabilities appear to be part of Microsoft’s productivity subscription.
Rewrite, as the name suggests, won’t actually create text for you; that’s left to Microsoft Word. However, you can copy a block of text into Notepad, highlight it, and then ask Notepad to “rewrite” it in several ways. You have the choice of simple editing, or to make the text shorter or longer.
More importantly, you can change the style and format. You can ask Notepad to rewrite in a formal, casual, inspirational, or humorous tone; and you can also ask it to rewrite text as a list, a business memo, in an academic style, in marketing speak, or as a poem.
Microsoft
How does Notepad’s Rewrite feature work?
I don’t use AI as part of my daily workflow, save for some spellchecking and occasionally asking Copilot or ChatGPT to provide some alternative headlines. I don’t like Copilot that much, honestly, because I find its careful neutrality a bit annoying. But, admittedly, it’s designed for business, and usually does a good job of striking a formal, explanatory tone.
Still, a business tone is boring. So I asked Notepad’s Rewrite to make a poem out of one of the nerdiest stories of the moment — Nvidia’s inability to produce GPUs with the required number of GPU ROPS. Notepad will produce three results, one of which I’ve shown above.
Notepad has a small “gear” icon, too, which hides its Settings menu. Inside, you can turn off Rewrite. Windows Latest reports that rewriting will tap your limited number of AI credits, which are an unfortunate part of the new Microsoft 365 subscriptions, though I can’t see any visual indication that Notepad is doing so.
Microsoft
It’s worth noting that on a PC with an Insider build running on it, Notepad got confused and just did some cosmetic editing on the first few paragraphs of the Nvidia ROPs story. When I switched over to a PC running a stable version of Windows, Notepad did an excellent job of taking a complex article and turning it into doggerel.
Notepad has never really been a creative tool. It’s more of a utility. Microsoft clearly thinks of the same of AI. Combining these two utilities seems in keeping with Microsoft’s strategy.