Hi, @alan-kilborn and All,

Of course, I could use your method to achieve my goal but that is just the reason why I wanted this enhancement which should avoid any further operation !!

BTW, this idea occured to me while I was writing this other post :

https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/topic/27511/surprising-regular-expression

In the meanwhile, I’ve found out a nice work-around to realize that goal ! Let’s imagine that you want to do a list of 743 empty lines exactly ( I chose that number as it’s a prime number ). Then :

Open a new tab Within N++

Hit the Enter key just once

Open the Replace dialog ( Ctrl + H )

Uncheck all box options

Check the Wrap around option ONLY

Select the Regular expression search mode

FIND \R

REPLACE $0$0

Click 10 times on the Replace All button

=> You should get a total of 1,025 lines ( Note that, after each replacement N, the number of lines increases to the value 2 × N + 1 )

The trick is to repeat the process up to the first number which is greater than 743 !

Now, open the Search > Go to... option ( Ctrl + G )

Search for the line 744 ( so 743 + 1 )

Then, select to the very end of file with the Ctrl + Shift + End shortcut

And finally, hit the Delete key

=> It should remain the expected 743 lines !

I readily admit that all the different tasks of my work-around do not take long. However, I still think that a new field Total insertion number, in the Column Editor dialog, filled with the value 743, would have been more elegant and straightforward !

Best Regards,

guy038

Hi, @coises,

I re-tested the supposed bug and I simplified the procedure which is necessary to trigger that bug !

If opened, close the Search++ plugin by clicking on the cross, at the far right

A Re-open Search++ with the Plugins > Search++ > Search... option

B Try to close the Search++ panel by clicking on the cross, at the far right => Nothing happens !?

C After some trys, if you move slightly the mouse, you should be able to close the Search++ panel

Sometimes, you’ll need to repeat the actions A ato C, up to 5 times consecutively, to trigger that bug. but this event may also occur at the first try !

I also noted that, when the bug occurs, any subsequent left click on the cross does nothing until I move very slightly the mouse, without any clicking, that is enough, then, to close the search++ panel by clicking againg onto the cross icon. Very strange, indeed !?

As I suspected that the problem could be an hardware issue with my bluethooth mouse, I disabled it and installed a classical USB mouse, instead. But, unfortunately, results were identical as well as the uncertainty regarding the manifestation of the bug !

I have different portable versions of Notepad++, but the one which is concerned is the v8.9 release where I installed, both, your Columns++ and Search++ plugins

Here is my Debug info :

Notepad++ v8.9 (64-bit) Build time: Jan 10 2026 - 02:25:19 Scintilla/Lexilla included: 5.5.8/5.4.6 Boost Regex included: 1_90 pugixml included: 1.15 nlohmann JSON included: 3.12.0 Path: D:\890_x64\Notepad++.exe Command Line: Admin mode: OFF Local Conf mode: ON Cloud Config: OFF Periodic Backup: OFF Placeholders: OFF Scintilla Rendering Mode: SC_TECHNOLOGY_DIRECTWRITE (1) Multi-instance Mode: monoInst asNotepad: OFF File Status Auto-Detection: cdEnabledNew (for current file/tab only) Dark Mode: OFF Display Info: primary monitor: 1920x1080, scaling 125% visible monitors count: 1 installed Display Class adapters: 0001: Description - Intel(R) Iris(R) Xe Graphics 0001: DriverVersion - 32.0.101.7084 OS Name: Windows 11 Pro (64-bit) OS Version: 25H2 OS Build: 26200.7462 Current ANSI codepage: 1252 Plugins: mimeTools (3.1) NppConverter (4.7) NppExport (0.4) ComparePlus (2.2) ColumnsPlusPlus (1.3.1) NppUISpy (1.2) MultiReplace (4.6.0.33) Marginalize (1) Search++ (0.5.5)

Finally, note that this portable version of N++ is installed on an USB drive

Best Regards,

guy038