Is there anything I can do given that I’ve not yet closed Notepad++? Is it possible it still has the file saved somewhere in cache or working memory?

Sorry, I don’t quite understand what you are trying to do.

Basically, I try to make a special kind of log file more readable using the user defined language feature.

I want to utilize the folding feature as my log file contains some sessions I want to ‘group’. It the same as an

if { code here }

block in JavaScript.

Now, imagine “starting ‘foo!bar’, version” instead of “if” as starting mark. I added ! ’ " * # \ / _ - + : ; into my operators, but doesn’t work.

Or, to be more clear:
I want NPP to and handle every line as a stupid raw string, no matter what characters are in it.
(alternatively, a nice regex would be welcome, but NPP doesn’t support regex in keywords, I guess due to performance.)

@Wilux-D
Try adding the various types of brackets to the operators group.

Yeah Autosave 2 works, thank you very much, you are awesome saved me a lot of time.
Have a good day.

@Felipe-Martin

the scintilla control, the area in which you really type, provides 5, so called, margins.
Margins are the the area with the numbers displayed, the folding area or the area which
containing the bookmark signs.

Every margin can be configured independently if you use a plugin which exposes the scintilla features.
Plugins like Python script, lua script, nppexec … and notepad++ (although it doesn’t provide all features to be modified).

Lexers, like the one which can be selected from the language menu, do also modify the margins
to their benefit. So one lexer might show a folding margin whereas another doesn’t.

That makes it a little bit difficult to reconfigure the margins to your need because
it might get overwritten once you select a new/different language.

If you still want to try out how it works and if it can be modified to your needs and you have
already one of the mentioned plugins installed let me know.

Cheers
Claudia

Thanks Claudia, that worked perfectly.

Yes, the Ctrl+C shortcut does what I want
Many thanks for your reply!
Nuno

What version of Windows and Windows Notepad are you using? In my experience (and I just confirmed it), Windows 7 Professional Notepad (about notepad: MSWin 7 Pro, v6.1 (7601: SP1)) does not do what you describe:

If I select a portion of my text (as you showed in the screenshot) and select Format > Font > Bold Oblique, the whole document changes to Bold Oblique. Moreover, if I save then exit notepad, then open a new blank notepad document, and start typing, the new document is also in Bold Oblique. If I go to Format > Font > Normal, and open my saved document, the document I saved as Bold Oblique is no longer Bold Oblique. In other words, it behaves exactly as Notepad++'s Style Configurator > Global Styles > Default Style > font selection.

Notepad and Notepad++ are both, at the core, plain-text editors. NPP has the benefit (inherited from it’s core Scintilla) that it can run a syntax lexer, and apply formatting based on that lexing; you can also use other plugins for NPP that allow further highlighting or processing of the text file; these features make it exceedingly useful for coding, and other similar tasks. Plane old notepad can just edit the text – you can define the default presentation of the whole text inside notepad, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s a plain text file, and all will be rendered the same. (Note: I haven’t used Win8’s or Win10’s Notepad, so they may have added features, but it would surprise me if they saved on-the-fly formatting in the text file and still called themselves Notepad.)

If you want on-the-fly markup in Notepad++, you’ll need to pick one of NPP’s builtin Language syntax highlighters, or create a User Defined Language. I’ve got a simplistic UDL defintion for Markdown; I’ve also seen mention on the forum about TODO syntax highlighters (search the forum for TODO, I think). To copy my UDL definition, save the XML below as a file, then use Notepad++ and Language > Define Your Language > Import, and select the file, and restart NPP. If I then edit a file that ends in .md or .markdown, or if I manually select Language > Markdown, it does a simplistic inline-rendering of the markdown. If I want a more detailed rendering of the Markdown, I use PreviewHTML to render the Markdown into a new pane in NPP. See more details about markdown and the rendering at the following links:

Offical Markdown Syntax Quick Version of my PreviewHTML -> Markdown Long Version @nea’s plugin

(I haven’t tried @nea’s plugin, since my setup works okay for me… but NPP doesn’t play well with PreviewHTML – it moves it to the disabled plugins on every upgrade of NPP – so you might want to start with @nea’s plugin instead. I don’t know what all it does – you might not even need my UDL – but I remembered noting that the description sounded useful)

<NotepadPlus> <UserLang name="Markdown" ext="md markdown" udlVersion="2.1"> <Settings> <Global caseIgnored="yes" allowFoldOfComments="no" foldCompact="no" forcePureLC="0" decimalSeparator="0" /> <Prefix Keywords1="yes" Keywords2="yes" Keywords3="yes" Keywords4="yes" Keywords5="yes" Keywords6="no" Keywords7="no" Keywords8="no" /> </Settings> <KeywordLists> <Keywords name="Comments">00# 01 02 03&lt;!-- 04--&gt;</Keywords> <Keywords name="Numbers, prefix1"></Keywords> <Keywords name="Numbers, prefix2">#</Keywords> <Keywords name="Numbers, extras1">A B C D E F a b c d e f</Keywords> <Keywords name="Numbers, extras2"></Keywords> <Keywords name="Numbers, suffix1"></Keywords> <Keywords name="Numbers, suffix2"></Keywords> <Keywords name="Numbers, range"></Keywords> <Keywords name="Operators1"></Keywords> <Keywords name="Operators2">* - + &gt;</Keywords> <Keywords name="Folders in code1, open"></Keywords> <Keywords name="Folders in code1, middle"></Keywords> <Keywords name="Folders in code1, close"></Keywords> <Keywords name="Folders in code2, open"></Keywords> <Keywords name="Folders in code2, middle"></Keywords> <Keywords name="Folders in code2, close"></Keywords> <Keywords name="Folders in comment, open"></Keywords> <Keywords name="Folders in comment, middle"></Keywords> <Keywords name="Folders in comment, close"></Keywords> <Keywords name="Keywords1">http:// (http:// https:// (https:// (/ / file:// (file://</Keywords> <Keywords name="Keywords2">==== ----</Keywords> <Keywords name="Keywords3">*** ___</Keywords> <Keywords name="Keywords4">** __</Keywords> <Keywords name="Keywords5">* _</Keywords> <Keywords name="Keywords6"></Keywords> <Keywords name="Keywords7"></Keywords> <Keywords name="Keywords8"></Keywords> <Keywords name="Delimiters">00[ 01 02] 03` 04 05` 06&lt; 07 08&gt; 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23</Keywords> </KeywordLists> <Styles> <WordsStyle name="DEFAULT" fgColor="333333" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" /> <WordsStyle name="COMMENTS" fgColor="008000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" /> <WordsStyle name="LINE COMMENTS" fgColor="FF8040" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="1" nesting="67108864" /> <WordsStyle name="NUMBERS" fgColor="0000FF" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" /> <WordsStyle name="KEYWORDS1" fgColor="408080" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="4" nesting="0" /> <WordsStyle name="KEYWORDS2" fgColor="FF8080" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="1" nesting="0" /> <WordsStyle name="KEYWORDS3" fgColor="000080" bgColor="FFFFA0" fontName="" fontStyle="3" nesting="0" /> <WordsStyle name="KEYWORDS4" fgColor="400080" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="1" nesting="0" /> <WordsStyle name="KEYWORDS5" fgColor="000080" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="2" nesting="0" /> <WordsStyle name="KEYWORDS6" fgColor="000000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" /> <WordsStyle name="KEYWORDS7" fgColor="000000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" /> <WordsStyle name="KEYWORDS8" fgColor="000000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" /> <WordsStyle name="OPERATORS" fgColor="0000FF" bgColor="FFFF00" fontName="" fontStyle="1" nesting="0" /> <WordsStyle name="FOLDER IN CODE1" fgColor="000000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" /> <WordsStyle name="FOLDER IN CODE2" fgColor="000000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" /> <WordsStyle name="FOLDER IN COMMENT" fgColor="000000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" /> <WordsStyle name="DELIMITERS1" fgColor="408080" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="1" nesting="0" /> <WordsStyle name="DELIMITERS2" fgColor="000000" bgColor="CCFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" /> <WordsStyle name="DELIMITERS3" fgColor="008000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="1" nesting="0" /> <WordsStyle name="DELIMITERS4" fgColor="FF8000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" /> <WordsStyle name="DELIMITERS5" fgColor="000000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" /> <WordsStyle name="DELIMITERS6" fgColor="000000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" /> <WordsStyle name="DELIMITERS7" fgColor="000000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" /> <WordsStyle name="DELIMITERS8" fgColor="000000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" /> </Styles> </UserLang> </NotepadPlus>