How to Make a Program Using Notepad
This wikiHow teaches you how to use your Windows computer's Notepad app to create a program. To do this, you'll type a program's code line-by-line into Notepad and then save the Notepad file as the programming language's preferred format....
Part 1 of 6:
Observing Some General Tips
- Understand Notepad's limitations. You can technically write and run a program in Notepad using any coding language available, but you must save the program in the correct format for the program to run.
- All Notepad files save as text documents by default.
- Find and open Notepad. The easiest way to open Notepad is by clicking Start
- Determine your programming language. Notepad doesn't exclude any languages, but you'll need to use the same language throughout the document to remain consistent.
- If you don't know any programming languages, you can try one of the examples listed in this article.
- Press ↵ Enter after you complete a line of code. As with most code editors, you'll always need to place new lines of code on a new Notepad line.
- Close any open brackets and parentheses. Whenever you open a bracket or parenthesis (e.g.,
{
or[
), you must close it with the opposite-facing counterpart in order to complete a line of code. Failing to do so will result in errors. - Consider using a dedicated code-editing program. While you can certainly write entire programs in Notepad, it's definitely not the easiest way—Notepad doesn't contain any syntax highlighting or indentation options, making it difficult to use for writing larger pieces of code.
- Notepad++ is a great free option for coding.
Part 2 of 6:
Creating a Program
- Open Notepad. This is how you will create and save any program regardless of the programming language that you use.
- Enter your program's code. Make sure that the language you use is consistent throughout the document.
- Click File. It's in the top-left corner of the Notepad window. A drop-down menu will appear.
- Click Save As…. This option is near the top of the drop-down menu. Doing so opens the "Save" window.
- Select a save location. Click a folder (e.g., Desktop) on the left side of the "Save" window to select that folder as your program's destination.
- Click the "Save as type" box. You'll find it near the bottom of the "Save" window. This prompts a drop-down menu.
- Click All Files. It's in the drop-down menu. This option allows you to save the Notepad file as any type of program.
- Enter a name for your program. Click the "File name" text field and enter your preferred name for your program.
- Add the program's extension to the name. Regardless of the program's name, you'll need to place a period and the programming language's extension tag after the name in order for the program to be saved correctly. Common programming languages and their extensions include the following:
- Batch (BAT) - .bat
- HTML - .htm
- Python - .py
- C++ - .cpp
- For example: to save a batch file as "watermelons", you would type watermelons.bat into the "File name" field.
- Click Save. It's in the bottom-right corner of the window. Doing so saves your program in your selected format. You can run it by double-clicking it, though you may need to select a program in which to open it after doing so.
Part 3 of 6:
Creating a Basic BAT Program
- Open Notepad. You can create a program that opens another program on your computer using a batch (BAT) script.
- Enter the Command Prompt file's name. Type cmd.exe into Notepad.
- Save your program. Make sure that you use the .bat extension when saving.
- Double-click your BAT file. Doing so will open a new Command Prompt window.
Part 4 of 6:
Creating a Basic HTML Program
- Open Notepad. Especially if you're designing a webpage, HTML is a great language to use.
- Indicate that you'll be using HTML. Type
into Notepad and press ↵ Enter.
- Add the HTML tag. Type
into Notepad and press ↵ Enter.
- Set up the body text section. Type
into Notepad and press ↵ Enter. This line indicates that the following part of the document will contain a section of information (in this case, text).
- Add a page heading. Type
Text
into Notepad and press ↵ Enter, making sure to replace "Text" with whatever you want your page header to be.- For example: to create a page with the heading "Hello!", you would type
Hello!
into Notepad.
- For example: to create a page with the heading "Hello!", you would type
- Add text to your page. Type
text
into Notepad and press ↵ Enter. Make sure that you replace "text" with your preferred text.- For example, you would type
How are you today?
into Notepad to display the phrase "How are you today?" below the heading.
- For example, you would type
- Close the body section. Type
into Notepad, then press ↵ Enter.
- Indicate the end of the HTML coding. Type
into Notepad.
- Review your program's code. It should look something like this:
-
Hello!
-
How are you today?
- Save your program. Make sure that you use the .htm extension when saving.
- Double-click the HTML file. Doing so will usually open it in your default web browser, though you may have to select a program first. You should see your heading and its text displayed.
Part 5 of 6:
Creating a Basic Python Program
- Open Notepad. Using the "print" command in Python, you can display any text that you want to.
- Enter the "print" command. Type
print("
into Notepad. Make sure that there aren't any spaces when you do this. - Add text to display. Type Hello! into Notepad.
- Close the "print" command. Type
")
into Notepad to close the command. - Review your code. It should look something like this:
print("Hello!")
- Save your program. Make sure that you use the .py extension. You should now be able to open the program in your preferred Python editor.
Part 6 of 6:
Creating a Basic C++ Program
- Open Notepad. You'll be using Notepad to create a basic C++ program that displays "Hello World!" when run.
- Add a title to your program. Type in
//
followed by your program's title (e.g., "My first program"). Any text in a line that's typed after two slash marks will show up as plain text (e.g., not part of the program).- For example: to entitle your program "Program 1", you'd type
//Program 1
into Notepad.
- For example: to entitle your program "Program 1", you'd type
- Enter the preprocessor command. Type
#include
into Notepad, then press ↵ Enter. This command instructs C++ to run the following lines of code as a program. - Declare the program's function. Type
int main ()
into Notepad, then press ↵ Enter. - Add an open bracket. Type
{
into Notepad, then press ↵ Enter. Your program's main code will go between this open bracket and a closed bracket later. - Enter your program's execution code. Type
std::cout << "Hello World!";
into Notepad, then press ↵ Enter. - Add a closed bracket. Type
}
into Notepad. This closes the program's execution phase. - Review your program. It should look something like this:
//Program Title
#include
int main ()
{
std::cout << "Hello World!";
}
9
- Save your program. Make sure that you use the .cpp extension when doing so. Once you've saved the program, you should be able to run it in your preferred C++ compiler.
License: Fair Use (screenshot)
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Tips
- C++ and HTML are two of the most commonly used programming languages in existence.
- You can use virtually any programming language to create most programs, though some languages are better-suited to specific functions (e.g., HTML is ideal for creating webpages).
Warnings
- Always check your code before saving it. Saving a broken program can cause issues with your default program compiler.
- Use the Command Prompt and Write in Batch Language
- Build a Simple Computer Game Using Batch Script
- Create a Simple CSS Stylesheet Using Notepad
- Make a Simple Mod of a Game
- Build a Simple Calculator Using Batch Script
1. Open Notepad.
2. Enter your program's code.
3. Click File, then click Save As....
4. Click the "Save as type" drop-down box, then click All Files.
5. Type the program's extension (e.g., ".html") at the end of the name in the "File name" text box.
6. Click Save.
Update 05 March 2020
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