Admin’s Arsenal: Notepad++
Ok, so anyone that knows me (or has dealt with me for anything technical that involves a text file of any kind) knows that I loathe Windows Notepad. If you are just going to write a quick couple lines of notes it’s ok, but anything beyond that, it’s just the wrong tool for the job. That’s where Notepad++ comes in.
Notepad++ is an open source text editor extraordinaire, making short work of even the most convoluted of text files with the greatest of ease. Here is just a partial list of the features of Notepad++:
- Syntax Highlighting and Syntax Folding
- WYSIWYG editor (if you have color source code, print it in color)
- Auto Completion
- Multi-Document (tabbed view)
- Multi-View (view multiple documents at the same time)
- Regular Expression Search/Replace supported
- Full Drag & Drop support
- Zoom in and Zoom out
- Bookmark
- Line numbering
- Macro recording and playback
- FTP support
And that’s not even all of the features!
However for me the best features are the syntax highlighting and the line numbering. Do you have any idea how easy it is to explain a (printed out) script to someone when you can just tell them, “and starting on line 324…”? It’s GREAT!!!
For this feature alone it’s worth the download, but it gets even better. There is a portable version! You don’t even have to install it, you can run it right from your USB drive (as I’ve mentioned before I am a big fan of having all the software I use on a daily basis on a USB drive)!
Anyone that has to regularly deal with text files will greatly benefit from the robust features of Notepad++.
Notepad++ can be downloaded from here.
Notepad++ Portable can be downloaded from here.
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about 3 years ago
Yep, great editor. Bit unstable at times. :) But it’s excellent for power users. Maybe not that much for regular users – my own post on it gets constant google traffic from people trying to figure out using plugins. :)
By the way it’s natively portable. According to docs it must have “doLocalConf.xml” in same directory for portable mode. My install has it and I never added it manually. PortableApps version only adds compatibility with their Suite (launcher).
about 3 years ago
Thanks Rarst I have personally been hooked on it for years. It was my HTML editor of choice when everyone was loving Front Page. I hated all the garbage it added to my code…
I like pretty code…
What? :)
about 3 years ago
Pretty code?.. I don’t think I met that… :)
about 3 years ago
Ha! You sound like most of the admin/coders around here… By pretty I mean the code is readable and understandable by people other than ME!
about 3 years ago
Yeah I try to keep mine that way. I tend to comment my code like someone else wrote it, because in six months when I revisit it, I won’t remember it anyway.