@PeterJones, thanks! It was indeed a fair amount of work. To your question: database IDEs like DataGrip, DBeaver, SSMS or MySQL Workbench do offer visual help, but mostly in a different direction. They show execution plans (how the database runs a query) or let you build queries visually, and they usually need a live database connection. My motivation came from my own work in data warehouse projects. It’s not unusual there to inherit SQL statements spanning several pages, undocumented and unformatted. My first step was always to format them, which already helps a lot to understand what’s going on. The Navigator is the next step: a visual map of the structure, especially for those “monster SQL statements”, right inside the editor, with no database connection needed. “Premier SQL development tool” is a bit much :-) but for reading and understanding large SQL in Notepad++ it should help a lot. @Lycan-Thrope, good description, that’s exactly the idea: understanding and documenting an existing statement rather than generating one. And no, it isn’t limited to Standard SQL. The Navigator visualizes the result of the formatter, so it works with every dialect the formatter supports (30+, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server, DB2, Snowflake and more). For now it shows SQL statements and DDL. If you run into a statement it doesn’t break down correctly, I’d be glad to get a sample.

@MarkusBodensee said: press circled arrow or via F5 key --> website switch to light mode Okay, when I try that in the VM firefox, then it does switch to light mode, and the value in Local Storage changes from darkTheme=screen to darkTheme=none. At first blush, since Firefox is behaving weirdly (remembering it when you exit FF and reload the page, but forgetting it on F5/refresh-button), I would call that a bug in Firefox. But it might be that whatever javascript library the main Notepad++ website is using to set the Local Storage value has been optimized for Chrome syntax, and is doing something to confuse FF on F5/refresh. I don’t know enough about Local Storage, or the library that is used on the main website, to say more. @lycan-thrope , I thought he was talking about Notepad++ forums. He did say “on the main website”, which I took to mean the main product website, not this forum; but honestly, like you, on first blush, I thought he might be asking about the forum, which is why I explicitly referenced the main site’s URL in my reply, so there was no ambiguity which site I was talking about, and if I wasn’t talking about the right one, I was hoping @shocked-gamer would reply with clarification. But, despite logging in a day after our initial pair of replies, @shocked-gamer has never replied, nor logged into the forum again after, so we might never know, or be able to help them. There is no need, in the forums, to have a Firefox account or be signed in. That is what I’m talking about, when I say Firefox must be signed into the forums, for the dark mode of the forums to switch for me, upon signing in. Regarding the forum: the forum colors are based on per-user preferences, so of course if you aren’t signed into the forum, it won’t use your forum-user’s settings. (anonymous users cannot change forum display settings.)

@T.I-Digital-Solutions , These super-generic “what’s your workflow?” posts come up every once in a while. Maybe you should try to search up the older ones – they follow almost exactly your wording, so they shouldn’t be hard to find. I don’t seem to remember the original poster coming back and learning anything from them, or even interacting again in most cases, so I don’t know that there’s really much point to them. But since you ask, UDL and built-in syntax highlighting are non-negotiables, and I like the regex-based s+r (though I don’t need the complicated expressions that so many people ask us to make for them). As far as plugins go – for automating stuff for myself, PythonScript and NppExec and QuickText (I set up most of my workflow stuff ages ago, such that I don’t do anything new with those plugins, really… they just sit in the background making my life easier without me thinking about them anymore.) But really, context-less questions like this are meaningless. What features, plugins, etc, would help you depend completely on what you do in Notepad++. If you never touch HTML, then someone saying all their favorite XML/HTML plugins would not help you one whit.

Hi @Karen3D — one more angle worth checking, specific to the Windows 11 update scenario: session.xml is only written when Notepad++ exits cleanly. Windows updates are notorious for restarting the machine and killing running apps before they can save, so the session file can end up out of date or empty even with “Remember current session for next launch” ticked. A couple of quick checks that fit an IT-managed work laptop: Close Notepad++ yourself before restarting or shutting down, and confirm in Task Manager that no notepad++.exe process is left hanging around. A leftover process can hold on to the old session. Open a couple of files, close Notepad++ normally, then check the timestamp on session.xml in %AppData%\Notepad++. If it has not been updated, the write itself is being blocked — roaming profiles or redirected folders on corporate machines are a classic cause. If your files live on network drives, make sure the drive mappings are unchanged after the update. Notepad++ quietly skips files it cannot find at start-up. Worth ruling these out before going any deeper.

I think keeping discussions focused on the original topic helps everyone get more useful answers. At the same time, related side discussions can be valuable when they add context or share practical experience. A clear distinction between the main topic and tangential advice makes the community easier to follow.

Hi everyone, I owe the community an apology. My reply in this thread linked to my own website — that was self-promotional and inappropriate for this forum. The question deserved a straight answer without any link attached. I’m sorry, and it won’t happen again. Thank you to the moderators for keeping this place clean.