Notepad++

Notepad is default text editor available in Microsoft Windows Operating System. It helps you to create, modify text files. But it is a basic and primitive editor. Now, if you are looking for a free, fast, feature-rich editor then I would recommend Notepad++. You can even use it as a direct replacement for the Windows Notepad.

I am sure, you will love it for ease of use, speed and features like syntax highlighting, regex enabled search and replace and plugin support.

Notepad++ is a free, open-source source code editor. It is written in C++ and uses powerful editing component Scintilla, Windows 32 API call and STL which makes it Windows-only software. There is Snap package available for Linux OS. This snap works across Linux Distros like Ubuntu, Redhat, OpenSuse, CentOS, and Fedora.

Features,

Below are some of the prominent features of Notepad++,

Plugin Support – Plugins are add-ons which extends the base functionality of Notepad++. Some of the popular plugins are Compare, Combine, FTP, Plugin Manager. There more than 150+ plugins available. Check the complete list here.
Multi-Document (Tab interface) – It supports both horizontal as well as vertical tab. Each tab runs separately with the individual close button. How many tabs could Notepad++ open? I have tried somewhere around 200. I doubt anyone would need these many tabs table in the real world.
Syntax Highlighting and Syntax Folding – Syntax Highlighting and Syntax Folding is one of the most important features which I love. When you enable this, it highlights reserved words, comments in a different color. The code becomes easy to understand. Supporting language s include C, C++, SQL, Python, Perl, Shell and there are many. You can even define your own syntax highlighting.
Effective Search/Replace – Search and replace feature is also nice and works even for all opened files in different tabs. It supports PCRE (Perl Compatible Regular Expression) Search/Replace.
Auto-completion – Word completion, Function completion and Function parameters hint
Other feature includes – Zoom in and zoom out, Multi-Language environment supported, Macro recording and playback, Multi-View, WYSIWYG (Printing).

Refer to features article on official page and Wikipedia for the complete list.

Download Notepad++

Notepad++ is available for Windows 32 bit and 64 bit architecture. Depending on your operating system download the correct version. If you are not sure about the configuration of the OS, it is safe to use 32 bit installer. Version v7.7 is the latest at the time of writing/updating this article. See Enhancements & bug-fixes in this article.

Downloads Notepad++ from the official download page.

You can also download zip, 7zip or minimalistic package, GPG Public key, SHA-256 digests of binary packages to verify Integrity & Authenticity. Older versions are available here.

Install Notepad++

Now let’s go ahead and install Notepad++ on Windows.

Note: Installation steps are tested on Windows 8.1. These should work on Windows 7 and Windows 10 as well.

You should close all other application before starting setup. Double-click on the downloaded installer to start the installation. It is a wizard-driven installation.

Let’s start…….

Select language.

Setup welcome page. Click Next.

Read and Accept the License Agreement. Click I Agree button.

Next, choose the installation location. It defaults to program file as shown below. You can browse and select a diffent location if you want. But, let it be the default and click Next.

Choose which component you want to install.

Select create a shortcut on the desktop and click Install.

Setup completes within seconds and click the Finish button.

Below is the default user interface GUI of Notepad++.

Using Notepad++

As mentioned earlier, it is easy to use text editor. The interface is clean, light and well designed. Simply click on New to create a new file, use edit, search or language menu for highlighting.

Below are some of the article which you can refer to understand how to use on Notepad++.

Important links

Below are some of the important links you should bookmark.

Contribute

Notepad++ source code repository is available on GitHub Notepad++ page. You can pull the source code and modify it to add a new feature.

Online Help

You can refer below links if you need any help or support.

Summary

I am using notepad++ for the last 8 year and found it really helpful. I love it for its speed, syntax highlighting and some good plugins available.

Which text editor are you using? Do comment below and let me know.

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Reference and further reading

Notepad++ Official Website