@guy038 said in Search++: A work in progress:

This still one point that’s a bit unclear to me : what is the fundamental difference between all these options, when compared in pairs :

The principle (see the last bullet point under help for search scopes) is that commands which don’t specify a scope search in marked text if there is any; otherwise, in the current selection if it is not empty; otherwise, in the whole document. That’s subject to the Settings: if you unchecked both Automatically search within selections and Automatically search within marked text, then all the pairs of commands you listed would be identical; and there are the limits on when selections are considered “large enough” to trigger search within selection. (A selection that is the immediate result of a stepwise search never causes the same search to search within that selection no matter how large it is.)

There are two special cases, and a third questionable feature, also involved:

There are no Before or After commands with in Selection scope. (My logic is that something can’t be both in the selection and before or after it.) So search commands that include Before or After can only be in Marked Text or in Whole Document.

Mark commands that don’t specify a scope don’t automatically scope to in Marked Text even if Automatically search within marked text is enabled. What happens is that unless you’ve checked Always unmark all text before Mark command, default Mark commands add to existing marks. I know this is a different behavior from selections, but I think because selections are so volatile, and marks are not, it is natural to use them in different ways. Should this exception be an option in Settings? I’m inclined to add it as a default-checked sub-option of Automatically search within marked text.

Search commands that specify in Selection or in Marked Text search the whole document if there is no (non-empty) selection or marked text. I’m questioning the sense of that now. I’m thinking that if the user specifies “in selection” or ”in marked text,” and there is none, the search should fail with a message like “No marked text to search” rather than silently discarding the specified scope.

Thoughts about that logic, especially point 3 (which I am inclined to change in the next release) are welcome and encouraged.

I have tried to keep as much “symmetry” as I could, to make it all more comprehensible. I think it is possible that I have created some nonsense in practice.

Points 1 and 3 together mean that Before and After commands without a scope are either the same as Before/After in Marked Text if Automatically search within marked text is checked, or the same as Before/After in Whole Document if it isn’t. However, as I wrote, I’m questioning point 3; without that, when the relevant setting is checked, there would be a difference (the commands that don’t specify a scope would switch between in Marked Text and in Whole Document depending on whether there was any marked text in the document, whereas neither command that specified one scope would switch to the other).

So… looking at the full list you gave, group by group, assuming default settings… this is what is supposed to happen (full testing of every possible case has not been done):

Find vs Find in Whole Document Find Backward vs Find Backward in Whole Document

The two on the left will find the next match in marked text following or preceding the current position or selection if any text is marked; otherwise they will find the first or last match in the selected text if “enough” text is selected; otherwise they will find the next match following or preceding the current position or selection in the whole document. Those on the right will always find the next match following or preceding the current position or selection in the whole document regardless of whether any text is marked or selected.

Count vs Count in Whole Document

Count will count only matches in marked text if any text is marked; otherwise it will count only matches in selected text if “enough” text is selected; otherwise it will count all matches in the whole document. Count in Whole Document will always count all matches in the whole document regardless of whether any text is marked or selected.

Count Before vs Count Before in Whole Document Count After vs Count After in Whole Document

The two on the left will count only matches in marked text that are before or after the current position or selection if any text is marked; otherwise they will count matches before or after the current position or selection in the whole document. Those on the right will always count matches before or after the current position or selection in the whole document regardless of whether any text is marked.

Find All Before vs Find All Before in Whole Document Find All After vs Find All After in Whole Document

The two on the left will list only matches in marked text that are before or after the current position or selection if any text is marked; otherwise they will list all matches before or after the current position or selection in the whole document. Those on the right will always list all matches before or after the current position or selection in the whole document regardless of whether any text is marked.

Select Before vs Select Before in Whole Document Select After vs Select After in Whole Document

The two on the left will select only matches in marked text that are before or after the current position or selection if any text is marked; otherwise they will select all matches before or after the current position or selection in the whole document. Those on the right will always select all matches before or after the current position or selection in the whole document regardless of whether any text is marked.

Mark Before vs Mark Before in Whole Document Mark After vs Mark After in Whole Document

I’ll double-check my logic later, but I think these are identical, since (1 above) Before/After can’t be in selection, and (2 above) Mark doesn’t automatically scope to marked text. It’s unclear to me which ones to remove, since either choice breaks the symmetry and could be confusing to users, but having two commands that do the same thing is also confusing.

Show Before vs Show Before in Whole Document Show After vs Show After in Whole Document

I grant that this would be a strange use of Show. In the circumstance where there are hidden lines both before and after the current position or selection, and there is some marked text in document, the ones on the left would search only marked text before or after the current position or selection for lines to unhide, while the ones on the right would search all text.

Replace and Find vs Replace And Find in Whole Document Replace and Find Backward vs Replace and Find Backward in Whole Document Find or Replace vs Find or Replace in Whole Document Find Backward or Replace vs Find Backward or Replace in Whole Document Replace All vs Replace All in Whole Document Replace All Before vs Replace All Before in Whole Document Replace All After vs Replace All After in Whole Document

These are like their Find and Find All counterparts. The ones on the left work like “in Marked Text” if any text is marked; otherwise, like “in Selection” if “enough” text is selected; otherwise like “in Whole Document” (like the ones on the right).

@PeterJones

Thank you many times!

@PeterJones said in Is There a Way to Prevent Pasted Text from Spreading Out with Rows of Spaces?:

Or, since you said,

there aren’t any unused ones available under Plugins > Customize Toolbar

- I assume this is the one where you say, "there aren't any unused ones available". I cannot imagine that you've _actually_ enabled another couple-dozen buttons from its list, so that there are no other "available toolbar buttons", as that toolbar would be so full as to be unusable. On the other hand, that's the only thing I imagine that you _could_ mean by such a sentence.

Yes, all of the Old Large Legacy Icons are in the Current toolbar buttons box. After checking them, I decided that I might use all of them in the future.

Well, with all of that said, thanks for being patient and hanging in there through all of this. I have everything working, including adding a new icon to the toolbar. And thanks for the updated scripts.

I hope this thread serves many others.

Hi, @jak and All,

Refer to this post :

https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/105114

BR

guy038

FYI:
I just updated RC4 binaries with the fix:
https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/commit/9b558895e744601842ffdaff4679467863b9722d

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Hi, @b, @peterjones, @coises and All,

Let’s consider the Spanish word comparación and its various forms below, pasted in a new tab :

comparación cömparÅciõn ＣömꝕarÅcⓘoñ ȻOℳₚA⒭ⱯℭᴵꝊᵰ ƆºᶆⱷǞℝȺꜿᵼᴓɲ ɕƢꟽⓟǻꝝⱭƆⅈᴗN

Note that I have deliberately exaggerated the shapes and modified the case of the possible characters !!

If you do any of the six N++ searches, below, against the six lines in the new tab, you’ll see that ONLY the two first regexes, which refer to standard equivalence clases, can find all the lines.

SEARCH (?=[[=c=]])\X(?=[[=o=]])\X(?=[[=m=]])\X(?=[[=p=]])\X(?=[[=a=]])\X(?=[[=r=]])\X(?=[[=a=]])\X(?=[[=c=]])\X(?=[[=i=]])\X(?=[[=ó=]])\X(?=[[=n=]])\X

SEARCH (?=[[=c=]])\X(?=[[=o=]])\X(?=[[=m=]])\X(?=[[=p=]])\X(?=[[=a=]])\X(?=[[=r=]])\X(?=[[=Å=]])\X(?=[[=c=]])\X(?=[[=i=]])\X(?=[[=õ=]])\X(?=[[=n=]])\X

SEARCH (?=[[=Ｃ=]])\X(?=[[=ö=]])\X(?=[[=m=]])\X(?=[[=ꝕ=]])\X(?=[[=a=]])\X(?=[[=r=]])\X(?=[[=A=]])\X(?=[[=c=]])\X(?=[[=ⓘ=]])\X(?=[[=o=]])\X(?=[[=ñ=]])\X

SEARCH (?=[[=Ȼ=]])\X(?=[[=O=]])\X(?=[[=ℳ=]])\X(?=[[=ₚ=]])\X(?=[[=A=]])\X(?=[[=⒭=]])\X(?=[[=Ɐ=]])\X(?=[[=ℭ=]])\X(?=[[=ᴵ=]])\X(?=[[=Ꝋ=]])\X(?=[[=ᵰ=]])\X

SEARCH (?=[[=Ɔ=]])\X(?=[[=º=]])\X(?=[[=ᶆ=]])\X(?=[[=ⱷ=]])\X(?=[[=Ǟ=]])\X(?=[[=ℝ=]])\X(?=[[=Ⱥ=]])\X(?=[[=ꜿ=]])\X(?=[[=ᵼ=]])\X(?=[[=ᴓ=]])\X(?=[[=ɲ=]])\X

SEARCH (?=[[=ɕ=]])\X(?=[[=Ƣ=]])\X(?=[[=ꟽ=]])\X(?=[[=ⓟ=]])\X(?=[[=ǻ=]])\X(?=[[=ꝝ=]])\X(?=[[=Ɑ=]])\X(?=[[=Ɔ=]])\X(?=[[=ⅈ=]])\X(?=[[=ᴗ=]])\X(?=[[=N=]])\X

In constrast to the last release of the Columns++ plugin, independant of Scintilla and doing true UTF-32 searches, which is able to match the six lines of our example, whatever the regex used among the six regexes above !

This example clearly demonstrates that it’s possible to perform a search without considering case and/or accentuated characters with the v1.3.1 release of Columns++ plugin ;-))

Best Regards,

guy038

@dfs ,
We could go a step further and lament that it would be nice if the entire graphical environment of NP++ could be contained in one dialog setting, and then when we switched between Light or Dark, the environment would change all the UI references:

Settings->Preferences...->Dark Mode,
Settings->Style Configurator...->Style:, and the
Settings->Style Configurator...->Select theme:

…could be coordinated to make just switching between Dark Mode and Light Mode change them all, accordingly. As it is, I’m glad to have just found out that the Dark and Light language files can automatically change by setting that one switch in the dark mode file @PeterJones mentioned, and that automatically chooses the correct code coloring file for the environment (Dark/Light) chosen.

@Evelyn-Walker ,

I tested the behavior you described. In Notepad++ the Ctrl+L (Delete Line) command

That is wrong terminology, as already described above. Ctrl+L is Line Cut, not Line Delete. To use the wrong terms causes confusion for everyone. From the OP, it was acceptible, because they didn’t know better. But to post like you are an authority, but to use the incorrect terminology, is detrimental to yourself and anyone who reads the answers here.

internally performs a cut-like operation,

Of course it does. It’s literally Line Cut, so it definitionally affects the clipboard

which means the deleted line is temporarily placed into the clipboard.

It’s no more “temporarily” on the clipboard than any Ctrl+C or Ctrl+X is “temporarily” in the clipboard. It’s in the clipboard until something else replaces it, just like every other clipboard action.

Use Ctrl+Shift+L (if configured) or another plugin/command that deletes the line without copying it.

Did you come up with that alternative all on your own, or did you just reiterate what @guy038 and I had already said?

Alternatively, copy the text again after performing line deletions if you still need it in the clipboard.

That’s horrible advice.

If preserving clipboard content during line deletion is important, it could be considered as a feature request rather than a bug.

No it couldn’t, because the feature already exists. Line Delete already exists as Ctrl+Shift+L: use Line Delete if you don’t want to affect the clipboard, and Line Cut if you do want to affect the clipboard.

@Evelyn-Walker , make sure you are not using LLM or GPT or any other AI to write your posts for you: that’s expressly forbidden in this forum.

@snafu423

I installed PortableApps v30.3 with Notepad++ v8.9.3 into a virtual machine to test.

The directory path expected from your Debug Info path for the scripts would be:

C:\_shared_apps\PortableApps\Notepad++Portable\App\Notepad++64\plugins\Config\PythonScript\scripts

This is the output from running UserInfo.py from my testing:

# All paths listed in sys.path: C:\PortableApps\PortableApps\Notepad++Portable\App\Notepad++64\plugins\PythonScript\lib C:\PortableApps\PortableApps\Notepad++Portable\App\Notepad++64\plugins\Config\PythonScript\lib C:\PortableApps\PortableApps\Notepad++Portable\App\Notepad++64\plugins\PythonScript\scripts C:\PortableApps\PortableApps\Notepad++Portable\App\Notepad++64\plugins\Config\PythonScript\scripts C:\PortableApps\PortableApps\Notepad++Portable\App\Notepad++64\plugins\PythonScript\lib\lib-tk C:\PortableApps\PortableApps\Notepad++Portable\App\Notepad++64\plugins\PythonScript\python27.zip C:\PortableApps\PortableApps\Notepad++Portable\App\Notepad++64\DLLs C:\PortableApps\PortableApps\Notepad++Portable\App\Notepad++64\lib C:\PortableApps\PortableApps\Notepad++Portable\App\Notepad++64\lib\plat-win C:\PortableApps\PortableApps\Notepad++Portable\App\Notepad++64\lib\lib-tk C:\PortableApps\PortableApps\Notepad++Portable\App\Notepad++64 C:\PortableApps\PortableApps\Notepad++Portable\App\Notepad++64\plugins\PythonScript C:\PortableApps\PortableApps\Notepad++Portable\App\Notepad++64\plugins\PythonScript\lib\site-packages # Can make user dirs: C:\PortableApps\PortableApps\Notepad++Portable\App\Notepad++64\plugins\Config\PythonScript\lib # Can add user scripts to the path: C:\PortableApps\PortableApps\Notepad++Portable\App\Notepad++64\plugins\Config\PythonScript\scripts # Can add user startup.py with this path: C:\PortableApps\PortableApps\Notepad++Portable\App\Notepad++64\plugins\Config\PythonScript\scripts\startup.py # Startup method: Undefined # Can add user libraries for importing to the path: C:\PortableApps\PortableApps\Notepad++Portable\App\Notepad++64\plugins\Config\PythonScript\lib # Can view documentation in this path: C:\PortableApps\PortableApps\Notepad++Portable\App\Notepad++64\plugins\PythonScript\doc

Installed PortableApps to C:\PortableApps so the name looks doubled.

It looks similar with the sub directory paths of the portable Notepad++ from Github.

@Murray-Sobol-1 said in Idea of a new installation routine:

@PeterJones said in Idea of a new installation routine:

No one should ever download a 32bit installer for modern OS. For any app. (Modern OS don’t come in 32-bit versions anymore, so I don’t understand why apps still bother distributing the 32-bit versions)

I agree with the above statement, however when I ask for an update by clicking Downloads I see this section:
Download 32-bit x86
Installer | GPG Signature
Portable (zip) | GPG Signature
Portable (7z) | GPG Signature
Mini-portable (7z) | GPG Signature

Why is this even being distributed anymore??

Because my statement was just my opinion, and not everyone agrees with it. Because there are some people who mistakenly think they need a 32-bit even though they have a 64-bit OS. And there are some people who have some unmaintained plugin that only comes in 32-bit (*). And because the developer has never decided to cut off those poor, unfortunate souls.

(*: aside: anytime I come across someone like that, I do a bit of research to help them find an alternative, or find someone who has done an unofficial recompile of the plugin for 64-bit. there are very few public plugins that have no 64-bit version and no alternative)

But that’s why we lobbied to put the 32-bit below the 64-bit, so the 64-bit gets the prominence it deserves – and why I rejoiced when it happened. Someone downloading N++ for the first time will see the 64-bit first, and will likely download that. Someone updating N++ should use the menu or auto-update, and never have to go back to the website.

@Fii-Ert ,

815
我之前的评论依然有效。你那些显而易见的人身攻击，暴露了你在辩论中缺乏诚信；而你那种以为对手除了你们党派灌输的那些教条之外便对外部世界一无所知的臆想，更是与事实相去甚远。你可以试着去蒙骗那些涉世未深的人，但请把你的那一套宣传留给你该留的地方——也就是你那充满倒退色彩、妄图称霸世界的“中国梦”里去吧。

如果你除了那些含糊其辞的陈词滥调和人身侮辱之外别无他物，那么中国人民当真是彻底迷失了方向，永远无法摆脱自我膨胀的桎梏，更无法拥有超越眼前狭隘视野的眼光。请你再消失个四年吧。我确信，贵国对外部网络的封锁或许是你这四年间音讯全无的部分原因，但这四年过去，你既没有变得更加清醒，也没有变得更加博学。好自为之吧，我们的对话到此为止。

@Claudia-Svenson said in How to set "UTF-8 WITH BOM" as default Encoding even for old but changed textfiles?:

This would be a great convenient enhancement feature.

Natively, there is no such feature (and it’s not likely to happen, IMO).

Using a plugin, it’s doable. For now, it requires using a not-yet-released version of the EditorConfig plugin, but they are supposedly eventually going to release a new version with all the features/fixes from the last 6 years.

EditorConfig plugin should be able to handle the charset attribute. But the version available in Plugins Admin is still 6 years old, and does not include that attribute. They merged the PR that implemented charset in 2023, but have not done a release since v0.4.0.0 in 2019. (In October 2025, they put in an Issue to encourage themselves to do a release, but there’s still apparently a showstopper preventing them from moving forward.)

I just forked their repo, and did a build based on their most recent codebase; I call that “0.4.0.1”, so that there’s something to distinguish it from the official version. For a couple of months from 2026-Mar-30, GitHub should have some artifacts of my v0.4.0.1 build.

Exit Notepad++ Go to https://github.com/pryrt/npp-editorconfig-plugin/actions/runs/23767310769#artifacts and download the right artifact for your machine (most likely the one ending in --x64). Unzip, and copy the DLL to c:\Program Files\Notepad++\Plugins\NppEditorConfig\NppEditorConfig.dll create .editorconfig file at the top of your document structure (like c:\users\username\.editorconfig), populate it with:root = true [*.bat] charset = utf-8 [*.py] charset = utf-8 [*.txt] charset = utf-8-bom [*.ps1] charset = utf-8-bom The next time you save a file with one of those extensions (as long as it’s in the same folder as the .editorconfig file, or a subdirectory of that folder), it will use the charset indicated when you save the file in Notepad++

(GitHub will remove those artifacts sometime in the next few months. If EditorConfig hasn’t done an official release since then, and the files are gone, feel free to ping me here, and I can trigger a new build to GitHub)

@mapsonx said in Toolbar button names:

Settings > Preferences > Backup > ☑ Enable session snapshot and periodic backup

That setting kinda represents the journey of discovery for me, who, is certainly a novice, and has been reminded regularly of my level of ignorance when it comes to an impressive tool like Notepad++. Obviously, the way manifested itself didn’t make sense to me, never seeing that effect before elsewhere.

That setting has nothing to do with toolbar buttons. If you just brought this up as an example of things that you didn’t understand but are learning the utility of, fine.

If you think that this affected your toolbar buttons in any way, shape, or form, you will need to explain what you think changed, and prove to yourself that it does change it by doing screenshots before and after toggling that option (and paste them here if you think it does prove your point).

since some other text editors do have such a feature.

What text editors do you think have this feature that you want? What setting in that other text editor do you change to get things to go from “normal” to “what you want”? If you give us that, (including “before” and “after” screenshots) we might be able to figure out what feature it is you really want, and be able to better answer you as to whether or not it can be done in Notepad++.

(I mentioned screenshots a couple of times. If you use Alt+PrintScreen or the modern Win11 Snipping Tool equivalent, you can just paste the image directly into your reply here, making it simply a matter of Ctrl+V to embed the image. But screenshots showing what it is you want would be really helpful for us to understand you.)

@W-Pong said in Columns++, I'd like to *retain* commas when converting to elastic tabs/spaces:

Is there a way to retain the commas?

I made a new release of Columns++ with an option to do that — an additional checkbox in the Conversion settings dialog: Keep separator character when converting to tabbed.

The new release is Columns++ version 1.3.2.

I have not marked the release stable, but I believe that there is very little chance this change will have any unanticipated negative effects. It should be safe to install.

@PeterJones

I will try with v8.9.3-RC and v8.9.1,

regarding my last question it’s with v8.9.2,

“create new” works fine with old name, it’s the “save as” function which shows that behavior : “can’t use a name preivously used” (i wasn’t enough precised in my question, sorry).
Note : if i well understand the way notepad++ works at closing : “save as” should not be used,

I will have a try with the portable version of v8.9.3-RC,

Again thanks for the help,

@Phil-Shearer said in Download Status Page Out of Date:

I’ll just ignore the report for now and hopefully it will all be good again in a week or two.

… or you could go to the official download site at https://notepad-plus-plus.org/downloads/v8.9.3/, and get the v8.9.3 installer manually, rather than waiting for it to be triggered for auto-update. But it’s up to you.

@Yan-Serenade

https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/issues/16719#issuecomment-4132203721

@Dervars14 Just checked and unfortunately the undo, ^Z, does not work. This used to be a more common occurance in the old days, Prior to Windows 7 and back in the DOS days, there was no checking to see if wanted to keep a file, it just got overwritten even if a totally different file, but just had the same name. The way we used to get around this is with a recovery program. The good thing is for a long time, whenever you save a file, it actually saves it to a different area of the dirve, precisely for this kind of incedent.

First important thing is don’t do any work on that drive, if the data is still there, it is not protected, the more you use the computer, the more likelihood those clusters of the drive will get overwritten.

I don’t think Windows has any internal programs, other than the Recycle bin, which is no use here, as overwritten files aren’t placed there. There is a free program called Recuva, from Piriform, the same people that do CCleaner. If possible, try and download this on another computer to a USB drive, as I said, the more work you do on the drive, the chance of losing the data.

The other good thing with using another machine, is you quickly play around with recuva, it is very basic program, the results are in table form, so easy to rearrange. You can save any detected files to the USB drive as well. If you get the file back, then just replace the current one. And this is the way to all learn to do backups more regularly, which reminds me.