Notepad++ (Notepad Plus Plus) is one of the best text editors available in the market today. It is free, open-source, feature-rich, and supports 3rd party plugins to extend the functionality. Plugins are actually add-ons to the main software which extend and enhance the working of the base software.
There are a good number of plugins available for Notepad++ like Combine, Compare, NppFTP, and many more. Refer to the notepad++ plugins list for a complete list of plugins.
So let’s see how to install Plugins in Notepad++.
Adding Plugins in Notepad++
There are two methods available to install a plugin. One uses a plugin manager/Admin and another uses a manual method. Both methods are very easy.
Let’s see both methods one by one.
1. Install Plugins in Notepad++ using Plugin Manager
Notepad++ has a separate menu Plugins to manage the plugins repository. It lists all the active and installed plugins. You can install, update, and uninstall plugins using the Plugin Manager. The plugin manager is a plugin itself. We are going to use Combine and Compare plugin to demonstrate installation.
Launch Notepad++ and Navigate to Plugins->Plugin Manager->Show Plugin Manager. You can also use the Keyword shortcut Alt+P to open the menu.
This opens a plugin manager that shows all Available, Updates, and Installed plugins for your Notepadd++ installation.
- Available – List of all available plugins.
- Updates – Plugins for which updates are available.
- Installed – List of all Installed plugins.
In the available list tab, search for the combine plugin and select it and click the Install button.
Plugin Manager shows information like Plugin Name, Category, Available Version, and Stability. When you select the plugin you can see additional information like Author, Source, Homepage, etc
The plugin manager downloads the plugin from the respective online repository and installs it. Post-installation you get the message “Notepad++ needs to be restarted for changes to take effect. Would you like to do this now?” Click on Yes to restart the Notepad++ to see the installed plugin under the Plugins menu.
This is the most preferred and used method until the time Plugin Manager is Removed from the repository by the developer. If that is the case with you, you can use below manual method. As the Plugin Manager is also a plugin, you can use the same method to install it as well.
Some useful links for reference.
- Installer doesn’t install plugins manager #3634
- No plugin manager
- 64 bit version is without “Plugin Manager” (and NppExport) #2459
2. Manual Plugin Installation in Notepad++
There may not be the Plugin Manager available or sometimes, installation does not work using it. The plugin may not be available in this list. In that case, use the Manual Installation method.
Just to explain, I tried installing a compare plugin, but it failed with the Installation of Compare Failed message.
Manual is also a straightforward method. Just copy the respective plugin .dll file to the plugin’s directory.
There is a central plugin directory that maintains the list of all Plugins. These links are not up to date as those are pointing to SourceForge Compare Plugin Repository while some of the latest code is present in GitHub. So I would suggest it is better to use the description given in the plugin manager or just Google it to get the latest code.
You can download a compare plugin from this link.
Under the releases tab, the latest dll and source code is available. Depending on the windows platform download ComparePlugin_v2.0.0_X64.zip or ComparePlugin_v2.0.0_x86.zip bit file.
Extract the downloaded folder in C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\plugins folder. This is the folder where notepadd++ is installed. Copy extracted ComparePlugin folder and ComparePlugin.dll as shown below.
That’s it…!!!
Open Notepad ++ and check installed the plugin. You can see it is available under the list.
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Summary
Plugins are great as they enhance the functionality of the main software. A novice user can use the Plugin Manager/Admin to install it. But sometimes, these repositories contain the older version. In that case, it is best to manually install the plugin.
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