Hi, @coises and All,

Regarding selection, I’m thinking about these new options in the Settings dialog :

- Selections ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- □ Fill the Find box from single selection in current document when opening the search++ dialog □ Fill the Find box from single selection in current document when re-activating the search++ dialog □ Fill the Find box from single selection in current document when clicking on the search++ dialog title □ Only if the selection has no more than : 79 characters and 2 lines □ Fill with the word containing the caret if nothing is selected

And, by default, the first and two last options would be checked

Do you think that make sense ? May be, would you prefer to merge the first 3 options in this single one :

□ Fill the Find box from single selection in current document each time the search++ dialog is invoked

Now, I tested the multi-lines text, below, pasted in a new tab :

Bla blah This is a test to verify if everything works correctly foo bar

Then, the search of the 5 consecutive lines, below

This is a test to verify if everything works correctly

Would select the 5 lines above, with search in Plain mode

Now, the search of the 5 consecutive lines, below

This is a test to verify if everything works correctly

OR

SEARCH This is\Ra test\Rto verify\Rif everything\Rworks correctly\R

OR

SEARCH This is\r\na test\r\nto verify\r\nif everything\r\nworks correctly\r\n

Would select the 5 lines above, with search in Regex or ICU mode

Now using this regex :

(?x) This[ ]is \R | a[ ]test \R | to[ ]verify \R | if[ ]everything \R | works[ ]correctly \R

It would match each entire line, from 2 to 6, of the new tab, with search in Regex mode

And using this regex :

(?x) This\ is \R | a\ test \R | to\ verify \R | if\ everything \R | works\ correctly \R

It would match each entire line, from 2 to 6, of the new tab, with search in Regex or in ICU mode.

Seemingly, brackets to enclose the space character [ ] do not work with the ICU regex engine, when using the Free-Spacing mode !?

So, all is fine, so far !!

BR

guy038

@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.

@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.

@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,

@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.

@Võ-Văn-Hiếu said:

It seems that when I select all the text (which should exceed that default number), the box stays checked even after I stop selecting.

I’m not quite sure what your meaning is here, but…

…and I presume that when you say “default number”, you mean 1024…

The In selection checkbox isn’t truly dynamic; it isn’t going to change while you are selecting text. It only changes when you invoke search, and here are some examples of that:

input focus in the editing area and you press Ctrl+f input focus in the editing area with Find window also visible, and you use the mouse to activate the Find window

@Freon-Sandoz said in Unexpected match when searching files for an end-quote character (non-ASCII):

I can reproduce the file contents and the unexpected behavior

I was able to do that, too… and now I see what is happening. The character you are calling an end quote is not the Right Double Quotation Mark, U+201D but the Double Prime, U+2033.

Windows-1252 (and Windows-1254) contains the right double quotation mark at 0x94. However, it does not contain the double prime. The entry boxes on the file dialog are always in Unicode. (That’s how it works pretty much everywhere in modern Windows.) But if the file is in ANSI, the file search is done in ANSI, so Notepad++ asks Windows to translate the string you gave it into ANSI. Seeing that there is no double prime character in your current code page, Windows “helpfully” translates it to something that looks a lot like it… the ASCII double quote.

Further confusing the issue is that Notepad++ never loads a file in any code page other than your system code page (which you said is 1252) or Unicode. So when you open the file in Windows-1254, Notepad++ is actually converting it from 1254 to UTF-8 and editing that way. That’s why the search behaved as expected in 1254: it wasn’t really 1254 in, it was in UTF-8.

Bottom line… this behavior actually is “expected”… but not by any normal human being. About the only thing you can do about it is to work in Unicode wherever possible when you are using non-ASCII characters.

It might be possible for Notepad++ to change its search so that it warned you when you tried to search an ANSI document for characters that aren’t possible in that document. I haven’t looked into it in depth; I would guess there must be a call to WideCharToMultiByte somewhere, and it could be passed the WC_NO_BEST_FIT_CHARS flag and the lpUsedDefaultChar output pointer to detect such shenanigans so the program could tell the user about it instead of potentially claiming to find something that isn’t there.

@PeterJones
hello and Thank You…
I think I had read all of the references you posted, and must have misunderstood everything.
(sigh) I’m feeling so old (LoL)
just used your example and it worked perfectly
…
well, except I next will want to enter an exception for cases of a period before the first carriage return.
I think I know how to get that working, now that you’ve given me a great direction.
Again, Thank You!

Hi Harmandeep,

Welcome to the community.

Yes, there is a good chance you may still be able to recover your unsaved work. Notepad++ has a built-in backup and session snapshot feature that often restores files after a crash.

First, try reopening Notepad++. If the session snapshot feature was enabled, the file may reopen automatically with the content you were working on before the crash.

You can also check the backup folder manually. Go to:
C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Roaming\Notepad++\backup
Sometimes Notepad++ stores temporary backup files there, which may contain the unsaved content.

To reduce the risk of losing data in the future, it’s a good idea to enable a few settings:

Open Settings → Preferences → Backup. Enable Session snapshot and periodic backup. Choose Remember current session for next launch. Set a backup interval such as every 7 or 10 seconds.

With these options enabled, Notepad++ will automatically save temporary snapshots of your work and restore them if the program closes unexpectedly.

Hopefully your file is still in the backup folder. Let us know if you need help locating it.

Regards.