Search and replace, which does what it says on the tin (and does it quite well, too).Edit > Line Operations, which does things like splitting and joining lines, removing empty lines, and sorting lines.Edit > Convert Case to, which changes the case of text you highlight - for example, to all caps, mixed case, or title case.To be honest, I don’t use even a quarter of those functions. There are also quite a few more under the editor’s menus. There are a lot of those, as can see from the toolbar: You can change the highlighting by selecting one of the many options from the Language menu. Here’s an example of an HTML file, with syntax highlighting applied: When you save the file, Notepad++ applies syntax highlighting to it based on the extension you give the file. You get a blank canvas on which to work, and you can have multiple text files open in their own tabs.Īs with any text editor, you can either open an existing file or create one. Notepad++ is like a lot of editors out there, regardless of the operating system on which they run. When it’s done, the installation process adds an icon to the Start menu and (optionally) to your desktop. On Windows, installation is point and click. If use Linux and want to give the editor a try, you can install a version from the Snap store. You can either download an installer from the Notepad++ website or get an unofficial fork of the editor from the Microsoft Store within Windows. This article looks at Notepad++ from the perspective of how someone like me might use it. Note: In the next several hundred words, I won’t be looking at all of the features of the editor or its features for coders. Let’s take a quick look at working with Notepad++. I do, mainly using it to take notes, to write drafts, to maintain my weekly timesheet, to plan my work, and as a scratchpad. While billed as a source code editor, even non techies will find Notepad++ useful. It’s a powerful, flexible open source editor, that’s kind of like Windows Notepad on all sorts of digital performance enhancers. Which, for as long as I can remember, has been Notepad++. That includes my text editor of choice on Windows. In that situation, I try to use as much open source software as I can, even on closed platforms. Windows and MacOS don’t factor into my civilian life in any way.īut at several of the Day Job TMs I’ve held over the decades, I’ve had to use Windows on company-issued computers. I’m a Linux user, and have been since late 1999/early 2000. Working in Plain Text with Notepad++ The Plain Text Project

Notepad++ operating system