cant create a new wordpad document

[Dynentan]

if i right click my mouse, it shows that i can create a new folder in windows, but not a new wordpad document..?

 

[Bree]

What you are allowed to create as 'New' depends on where you are trying to create it. Some folders are restricted, such as the root of the C:\ drive, C:\Program Files, or C:\Windows. There you are only allowed to create a new folder. Others, such as your Desktop or your Documents folder will allow many types of new files to be created. Exactly what types of files depends on what software is installed, if you have MS Office then new Office documents are in the list.


Where exactly are you trying to create a new file?

 

[Dynentan]

the only thing i can create if i right click my desktop and select new, is a folder.. i dont have any of the things on your screengrab
i really just need the microsoft word document though, perhaps text document as well

 

[iko22]

:ar: New Context Menu - Remove & Restore Default Menu Items

or, option 4, Restore all default items batch file :ar: NEW Context Menu - Edit for Desktop

 

[Dynentan]

i was able to get new rtf document back plus new text doument
but i dont see the option to create a new word document as on brees screengrab

 

[bendipa]

Why not put links to the text/word-processing apps you have onto your Start menu, then all you need to do is click on the appropriate app to start a new document. Click on image.

 

[Dynentan]

i thought about that as well, but its just more convenient for me to right click and create a new word document i guess

 

[ToughDiamond]

:ar: New Context Menu - Remove & Restore Default Menu Items

or, option 4, Restore all default items batch file :ar: NEW Context Menu - Edit for Desktop

Couldn't get it to work. I also tried that program - ShellNewHandler - but still no dice. The entry for .rtf comes up checked in that one, as if it ought to work, but it's still not in the New menu. And somehow I've managed to create an annoying side effect - now, every time I try to open a .rtf file in Wordpad (the default program), I get that User Account Control thing getting in the way asking me if I really want to run "a program from an unknown publisher" Seems Microsoft don't know who wrote Wordpad any more. It's not the end of the world at all because I can restore the system from an image that will set everything back the way it was.



The situation is more complicated than it looks because I use the old version of Wordpad that I copied in from Windows XP. I was getting some bad compatibility issues from the Win7 version when I tried to edit my plethora of old .rtf documents, so I decided to stick to the XP version.


Anyway, my only real problem is that these fixes didn't work for me. So I'm wondering if there's anything else I can try. I've always wanted to be able to create a new .rtf document using the rightclick menu, just like I can create a .txt or .docx document, but I've never seen that option in the context menu, and don't understand why Windows doesn't just include it as standard.

 

[Dynentan]

i was able to get the text document to work
but still no microsoft word document

 

[Snick]

Add what you wish!

How to Manually Edit the Right Click Menu in Windows
or as you requested
Adding Notepad and WordPad to the right-click menu ...

 

[ToughDiamond]

Those all look useful, but as far as I can see they don't have anything for adding / removing items from the "New" part of the rightclick menu, which is what I'm specifically after. Have I overlooked something?

 

[ToughDiamond]

Looking around just now, I did notice that MultiCommander (Windows Explorer alternative) does have both Rich Text Format and Microsoft Word Document in its New menu. Use at your own risk of course. Sadly I also noticed that although it can create a new .rtf document, when I open that and save it the stupid thing will by default try to save as .txt, so it's still not really any more convenient to me than just having to drag and drop an existing .rtf document into the right place, because although it's a hassle to do that, at least I can have that document pre-configured to simply save as .rtf without any bother. Not the fault of the program really, more a problem with WordPad (and don't forget I'm using the old XP version, the newer one (which I don't like) might do better in that respect. And a new .rtf document contains a bit of text when I open it, don't know why that is.



MultiCommander might take some getting used to. Still, it does show the trick can be done.
Multi Commander |

 

[Dynentan]

the only thing i want back is probably wordpad, compressed zip folder and shortcuts.

 

[ToughDiamond]

the only thing i want back is probably wordpad document, compressed zip folder and shortcuts.

Multi Commander |
does all of those for me, and there's a standalone version. But to be honest I don't much like using it so far.



If nothing else works for you, this article seems to show a different way of getting .rtf back again - at your own risk of course, and I've not yet tried it myself. I'd strongly recommend backing the system drive up first, or at least the registry, before trying it:
403 Forbidden
And I've no idea why it says "403 Forbidden" instead of a shortened version of the URL. It does go to the web page when I click it though.

Frankly I think the whole subject of controlling the New menu is fairly hit-and-miss. It's clear from a lot of comments on the Web that different users get different results. Zips and shortcuts should be there by default, but not being an expert in the registry keys that enable those things I don't know what to suggest to get them back.

 

[TechnoMage2016]

For years, before Windows, I used Wordpad, because it was FREE.

In Windows, I still use Wordpad a lot, and so much that I put a shortcut to the Wordpad.exe file, in my Quick-Launch toolbar (at the bottom of my desktop screen).
Just one mouse click runs the program, and then I can create a document and save it as any number of different file types. I sometimes use .rtf and sometimes just use .txt. It just depends on where the file will be used.

I'm constantly reminding myself, "KISS" (keep it simple, stupid!)

Cheers Mates!
TM

 

[ToughDiamond]

Well yes, it can be useful to be able to start WordPad quickly like that. Perhaps an even more convenient thing would be to create an empty document that's got the settings of your choice - in my case it's usually Times Roman 14 point, and I like the Tool Bar and the Format Bar to be there - and pin that (or a shortcut to it) to the task bar.

But here I'm after something slightly different. I do a lot of work in subfolders, and I often find I want to quickly create a new document right there in the subfolder I'm currently working in. Then I can double-click it, write or paste whatever I want, and when I close it, it will automatically get saved in that same folder, which is where I want it to be. If I started by just opening the program (Wordpad, Word or whatever), then when it comes to saving it, it'll always want to save to the "MyDocuments" folder on the system drive, which isn't where I want it to be at all, so I have to browse to the folder I'm working in on the data drive. That can be tedious if I'm working in a subfolder several layers down from the root folder, which is very often the case. I guess it was for people like me that Microsoft introduced the New > Text Document (etc.) feature into the rightclick menu in Explorer.

It works fine for .txt files, but I often want some formatting, which is where .rtf would be a nice addition to that menu. I have the file associations set up to open .rtf in WordPad by default, because otherwise they open in Word, which is rather slow to start and too "clever" for most of my needs.

The method I saw the other day

403 Forbidden

looks like it might do the trick quite well if it works at all. The article explains why .rtf can't be added by the usual method, and talks of adding an empty .rtf file to a system folder to help get it to work. It strikes me that if I set up the formatting and preferences of that document to my liking, they might still be present in the new documents I create with the rightclick menu. So I think that will be the next thing for me to try out.

 

[ToughDiamond]

Just tried that fix for getting .rtf into the rightclick New menu, and so far it's working just like it says on the tin.

Paraphrasing the instructions I linked to before, the method is:
1. Create a document called Document.rtf and put it into the folder %SystemRoot%\ShellNew (which seems to be the same thing as C:\Windows\SHELLNEW - I don't know what that name with the % stuff is about).
2. Create a plain text file containing this:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.rtf\Word.RTF.8\ShellNew]
"filename"="Document.rtf"

3. Save it as Newrtf.reg (or whatever name you want as long as it has the .reg extension).
4. Run it.
5. Reboot.

That's it. I was also able to set things so that the .rtf documents generated in this way already have my preferred WordPad settings (font size and type) simply by effecting those settings in Document.rtf during Step 1. I presume I'd be able to go back to that document and alter the settings any time I want to. Quite nice, because I don't know of any way of getting anything other than the standard default settings automatically like that - if I just open WordPad, any text I type is rather small. Naturally, if you want to try it yourself, please be sure to have appropriate backups just in case it goes wrong. I'm very pleased with the outcome here. I've been wanting this feature for years.

As for the other types of file (zips and shortcuts), they're supposed to be there by default except in certain system folders, and I don't understand why they're missing for Dynentan - probably needs somebody who understands the relevent registry keys for those to advise about that. I usually don't use them in the New menu, I just rightclick a file and choose Create Shortcut, or Send To > Compressed Zipped Folder.