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Notepad++ is a free (as in "free speech" and also as in "free beer") source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages.
Running in the MS Windows environment, its use is governed by GPL License.

Based on a powerful editing component Scintilla, Notepad++ is written in C++ and uses pure Win32 API and STL which ensures a higher execution speed and smaller program size. By optimizing as many routines as possible without losing user friendliness, Notepad++ is trying to reduce the world carbon dioxide emissions. When using less CPU power, the PC can throttle down and reduce power consumption, resulting in a greener environment.

This project is mature. However, there may be still some bugs and missing features that are being worked on.

I hope you enjoy Notepad++ as much as I enjoy coding it.


Here are the features of Notepad++ :


Syntax Highlighting and Syntax Folding 

Supported languages:
 	
C
C++
Java
C#
XML
HTML
PHP
CSS
makefile
ASCII art (.nfo)
doxygen
ini file
batch file
Javascript
ASP
VB/VBS
SQL
Objective-C
RC resource file
Pascal
Perl
Python
Lua
TeX
TCL
Assembler
Ruby
Lisp
Scheme
Properties
Diff
Smalltalk
Postscript
VHDL
Ada
Caml
AutoIt
KiXtart
Matlab
Verilog
Haskell
InnoSetup
CMake
YAML


WYSIWYG 

If you have a colour printer, print your source code (or whatever you want) in colour.


User Defined Syntax Highlighting 

It allows user to define his own language : not only the syntax highlighting keywords, but also the syntax folding keywords, comment keywords and the operators.


Auto-completion 

For most supported languages, user can make his/her own API list.
Once the api file is ready, type Ctrl+Space to launch this action.


Multi-Document 

You can edit several documents at the same time.


Multi-View 

You have two views at same time. That means you can visualize (edit) 2 different documents at the same time. You can visualize (edit) in the 2 views one document at 2 different positions as well. The modification of document in one view will carry out in another view (i.e. you modify the SAME document when you are in clone mode). 


Regular Expression Search/Replace supported 

You can search and replace one string in the document by using the regular expression.


Full Drag ‘N' Drop supported 

You can open a document by drag & drop.
You can also move your document from a position (or even a view) to another by drag & drop. 


Dynamic position of Views 

The user can set the position of the views dynamically (only in 2 views mode : the splitter can be set in horizontal or in vertical). 


File Status Auto-detection 

If you modify or delete a file which opened in Notepad++, you will be notified to update your document (reload the file or remove the file). 


Zoom in and zoom out 

That's another fantastic function of Scintilla component.


Multi-Language environment supported 

The Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic and Hebrew Windows environments are supported.


Bookmark 

User can just click on the bookmark margin (located right side of line number margin) or type Ctrl+F2 to toggle a book mark.
To reach the bookmark, type just F2 (Next bookmark) or Shift+F2 (Previous bookmark). To clear all bookmarks, click the Menu Search->Clear All bookmarks.


Brace and Indent guideline Highlighting 

When the caret stay beside of one of those symbol { } [ ] ( ) , the symbol beside of caret and its symmetric opposite symbol will be highlighted, as well as the indent guideline (if any) in order to locate the block more easily.


Macro recording and playback 

You can save several macros and edit their keyboard shorcuts for the next use.


Changelog:


Notepad++ v5.4.4 fixed bugs (from v5.4.3) :


Upgrade Scintilla from 1.77 to 1.78.

Fix XML syntax highlighting bug while presence of the tag "" (Yes, finally).

Fix Find in files/Find in all open files bug in non western languages (ie. Russian, Chinese, Hebrew...).

Fix the find in files crash issue if find what field contains 0x0A or 0xD.

Fix Window7 SetWindowsHookEx() failed issue for the dockable windows. (by recognizing windows7 environment)

Fix no tool bar bug under w2k. 

Fix Incremental search bug while clicking on text zone after some searches.

Fix Matlab script making Notepad++ crash under Chinese windows issue.

Make NpWiki++ link available as on line help. 

Add lines count on status bar.

Fix "In selection" bug in Find Replace features.

Fix the clickable link issue for some links (add '~' in RegExp).

Fix the bug that Notepad++ does not show on while it is minimized and its file is modified from outside.


Notepad++ v5.4.3 fixed bugs (from v5.4.2) :


Fix clickable link styling bug.

Fix document tab click launching a new instance bug.


Notepad++ v5.4.2 fixed bugs (from v5.4.1) :


Fix the localization switcher bug while w/o doLocalConf.xml.

Fix only one document "Move to other view" close Notepad++ instance issue.

Fix plugin menu boolean check box bug.


Notepad++ v5.4.1 new features and fixed bugs (from v5.4) :


Add ChangeMarkers plugin in installer. 

Add theme description in installer.

Make installer update contextMenu.xml (backup the old one then override it with the new one).

Fix lastRecentFileList localization issue.

Add readonly change status notification for plugin system.

Fix Styler Configurator user extension handler.


Notepad++ v5.4 new features and fixed bugs (from v5.3.1) :


Add theme selector to switch styles.xml on the fly, change styles.xml on one click.

Add google chrome drag and derop tab feature : drag out tab to create a new instance, transfer documents among several instances by drag and drop.

Add Mark all extension : user can mark any occurrence with 5 different colours.

Add new feature : column selection allows to insertion a string by typing characters in sequence (w/o column mode editor).

Detect UTF16 encoding (BE and LE) w/o BOM.

Fix crash bug : Double click a file associated with an older version of Notepad++ while a newer version of Notepad++ instance is running.

lmprove main menu structure (more compact).
Language Menu can be compacted as well (optional, in Preference dialog).

Fine numbers margin width is changed dynamically according to the needed space (but keeping at least 3 digits).

File history list (under the File menu) is limited to 100 characters per item. Longer file names are fitted to 100 characters by replacing path components with ellipses.

Update Scintilla from v1.75 to v1.77.

Indent guideline can be shown w/o whitespace or tab symbol.

Fixed two bugs when calculating the width of the TaskList (document list when pressing ctrl+tab or right-click + mouse wheel.

Add an (hidden) option to make the "Filters" and "Directory" fields follow the current opened document in "Find in files" dialog.
The new parameters are located in config.xml and are called: "fifFilterFollowsDoc" and "fifFolderFollowsDoc" (set to "yes"/"no")

Add new command parameters : -c (column) -x et -y (startup position).

Remove change line marker which does not work correctly.
Include ChangeMarkers plugin instead.

Fix bug "Switch to found results window" command now switches back to the current edit view if the focus is already on the found results.

Fix the search result inaccurate colorization bug.

Fix the Mark all in selection bug (while Find Replace Dialog loosing the focus).

Add 2 plugins messages : NPPN_FILEBEFORELOAD and NPPN_FILELOADFAILED.

Fix New document not be switched while double clicking in Find in files result panel.

Fix conversion min to Maj and Maj to min (or vice et versa) in column selection bug.

Fix bug when the find dialog was closed the translucaent shadow remained in Windows 7.

Fix crash bug of find in files feature.

Add "follow current doc" checkbox in Find in file dialog.

Add the ability of tag match feature to not highlight comment zone in html/xml.

Fix TCL language highlighting bug.