@Martin:
A workaround I sometimes use that may help is to access the the “often changing files” over the network… npp only sees changes to files made locally!
@David:
I think the issue is that the “The file has been modified by another program” dialog pops up even if the modified file in question is not the active npp document - this certainly bugs the hell out of me :)
Typical scenario for me is having a log file and source file (that I am editing) open in npp…
I save my changes to the source in npp (so the source is my current active npp doc)
Switch (Alt-tab) to another app to test the changes
Switch back to npp… and BAM modal dialog “The file has been modified” and the log file is now the active doc - so I have to click OK and Ctrl-Tab back to source (which should have remained the active document).
I only want to be notified that the log file has been “modified by another program” when the log file is the active npp document (or next time I switch to the log file in npp).
I don’t use “Update silently” since it means the “Find results” links to lines in the silently updated files can get de-synced and point to the wrong place without any clue that the file is updated.
“Update silently” also does not really help in cases where I have edited the log file in npp (so the dialog again steals focus).
My suggestion:
I’m not sure a “per file follow” setting would be useful to me (and in fact care would be needed to manage which docs you were following and which not).
I think a 3rd “File Status Auto-Detection” preference would help:
☒ Enable
☒ Notify only when document is active
☒ Silent (notify only if document has been edited in npp)
Other related enhancements could be a visual indication that the file has been silently updated (perhaps ^ instead of the * you get for docs with unsaved changes). Similarly a per-line indication in the “Find results” windows for lines in the silently updated file.