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| Click Start, All Programs, Accessories , and then choose Notepad . | -
| To open a file in Notepad, click File , and then choose Open . | -
| An Open dialog box appears. Navigate to the folder containing the file you want to open. | INTRODUCTION The most common type of simple file is a text file, which has the extension .txt. They include instructions on how to install a program, beta notes, and other information. Some configuration files are also text files. To edit and work with this type of file, you can use Notepad, a simple text editor provided with Windows XP. | TIP NotePad Versus WordPad NotePad is similar to WordPad, in that both are text-editing programs. WordPad, however, supports more formatting options and other features whereas NotePad does not. | TIP Navigate the Open Dialog Box For help navigating the standard Windows Open dialog, refer to Task 6, "Opening a Document," in Part 2, "Working with Programs." | -
| When you find the file you want to read, double-click its entry in the Open dialog box. | -
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| To exit Notepad, click the Close button. | TIP Use Scrollbars Depending on the length of the document, you may need to use the scrollbars to the right of and below the document window. Simply drag the box in the scrollbar up or down depending on your needs. | TIP Save Text Files If you want to make changes to the file, do so. Save the changes by opening the File menu and choosing Save . | TIP WARNING! Be careful when making changes to any configuration text file. Be sure you know exactly what you are doing. | |