Can't make a keyboard macro for a shortcut in Notepad++ v6.9.2

decrepit-old-geekoid

I’m an old user, but I have not posted here in a long time. I’m trying to get a particular macro to work via keystrokes. I use the date and time short format from the TextFX menu a lot. I would like to use a keyboard macro to run it, but I’m running into problems. I record the mouse clicks and save what was recorded, but when I try to set it to run with ctrl-shift-t that does not work. I hope someone can help me despite the ancient version of the software that I’m using. Thanks. The debug info is below.

Notepad++ v6.9.2
Build time : May 18 2016 - 00:34:05
Path : C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\notepad++.exe
Admin mode : OFF
Local Conf mode : OFF
OS : Windows 10
Plugins : PluginManager.dll docMonitor.dll DSpellCheck.dll mimeTools.dll NppConverter.dll NppExport.dll NppNetNote.dll NppTextFX.dll SpellChecker.dll

PeterJones

@decrepit-old-geekoid said:

Notepad++ v6.9.2
Build time : May 18 2016 - 00:34:05

Wow! That’s ancient. You do know that there’s been a decade of improvements to the software since then? Including a lot of security fixes?

I use the date and time short format from the TextFX menu a lot. I would like to use a keyboard macro to run it, but I’m running into problems.

It’s been a long time since I’ve used that version, but in modern Notepad++, you cannot macro-record plugin commands. We have a FAQ: Automating Notepad++, which has a section on how to “cheat” the macro system (manually edit the macro to include something like a plugin command), but I don’t know if the NppUISpy plugin works on a Notepad++ that old, so I don’t know if you can have the easy way to find out the command ID that gets assigned to the TextFX

If you choose to update, and I recommend that you do, some notes:

you could install the 64-bit version instead of the 32-bit version, which would allow editing bigger files
there is no more “PluginManager”: that was abandoned somewhere around 2018 (v7.6) because the PluginManager started trying to show ads inside Notepad++, which was anathema to the Notpead++ owner. Since v7.6.3, Notepad++ has had a stable “Plugins Admin” tool built into Notepad++
NppTextFX doesn’t exist in its old form, since the original plugin’s author had long-abandoned that plugin. But in modern Notepad++, someone has forked it to NppTextFX2 (currently, v2.0.3), which you can install from the Plugins Admin interface
DSpell check and NppNetNote plugins are still around, so you can install those from Plugins Admin
I don’t see docMonitor in Plugins Admin, so I’m not sure what that is. It may be that modern Notepad++ has the features you need built in (it’s got a “tail -f mode” and the “File Status Auto-detection” settings, but I don’t know if that covers everything you wanted from the docMonitor plugin)

PeterJones

I unzipped the v6.9.2, and looked a bit:

docMonitor was one of Don’s old plugins that he didn’t bother continuing development on when he moved Notepad++ from sourceforge to GitHub, because the feature of updating files every few seconds is already built into Notepad++, even in the old v6.9.2.
DSpellCheck.dll and SpellChecker.dll are two different spell-checker plugins. There’s no reason to have both. DSpellCheck allows either the Hunspell dictionary, or the Aspell dictionary (which is what ShellChecker.dll uses), or Windows’ built in spell-checking files (which is what Word and similar use). There’s no reason to have both, even in the old v6.9.2.
It is possible to add a keyboard shortcut to any of NppTextFX commands – use the Settings > Shortcut Mapper, go to Plugin Commands, and look for the TextFX command (like Convert quotes to "), and you can Modify those to have a keystroke for that single command
I verified that even the most-recent NppUISpy here has the 32-bit version (..._UNI.zip) which, if you unzip the DLL into your plugins directory, will allow you to use UISpy even on your old Notepad++. And I confirmed that the macro syntax was enough the same that the FAQ’s section on manually editing the macro will allow you to embed
- for example, for my portable v6.9.2, with the plugins I installed, UISpy told me TextFX > TextFX Characters > Convert quotes to ’ was at 22030 (it will almost certainly be at a different ID for you, because I didn’t grab all the same plugins that you had). But for me, I could then have a macro that would do the Select All then Convert quotes to ’ with the following macro source:
```
<Macro name="AllSingleQuote" Ctrl="no" Alt="no" Shift="no" Key="0">
    <Action type="0" message="2013" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
    <Action type="2" message="0" wParam="22030" lParam="0" sParam="" />
</Macro>
```
  so after saving that, and restarting Notepad++, I had a new macro which would correctly run the NppTextFX command.

So it’s possible to do what you want in Notepad++ v6.9.2. But I still highly recommend uninstalling the outdated, insecure version, grab the most recent 64-bit version, and bring yourself into the 2020s.

guy038

Hello, @decrepit-old-geekoid, @peterjones and All,

It just so happens that I still have the docMonitor.2.2.zip archive on my old Win XP computer. So, on the last XP version of N++ ( v7.9.2 ), within a plugin directory named docMonitor, I installed the docMonitor.unicode.dll that I renamed docMonitor.dll

Notepad++ opened normally and the plugin was here with the single option Plugins > Document Monitor > Start to monitor.

Before activating this plugin, I ran, in a CMD command prompt window, the command :

notepad++ -nosession Test.txt

Then, the DOS command :

echo ABCDE >> test.txt

I verified that I got, within N++, the usual dialog :

This file has been modified by an other program.

Do you want to reload it?

Clicking on the Yes button, it added, as expected, the line ABCDE to the empty Test.txt file => OK

As soon as I choosed the option Plugins > Document Monitor > Start to monitor, any subsequent echo command uodated silently the Test.txt file, as well => OK

Then I ran the option Plugins > Document Monitor > Stop monitoring. I thought that it would again show the dialog to reload the file, but subsequent echo commands still updated silently the file !?

I said to myself : May be it’s worth to stop/start the computer again. However, the problem remained identical, afterwards ??

Then, I desintalled the DocMonitor plugin completely, including the docMonitor.ini file under config and restarted my Win XP computer. But, again, any echo command still updated the Test.txt file silently !!??

At that point, I didn’t understand at all ! Thus, I decided to pull out the stops and reinstall a clean version of a portable N++ v.7.9.2 in a separate directory !

By default, this new version correctly showed the dialog This file has been modified by an other program. after a command :

echo bla bla blah >> test.txt

Then, I had the idea to compare all the N++ preferences between my normal intallation and this new version and…, surprise : there were some differences in the MISC. preferences :

The file status Auto-detection section shows the Enable for all opened files option and the Update silently and Scroll to the last line after update options were checked, in my normal intallation
The file status Auto-detection section shows the Enable option and the Update silently and Scroll to the last line after update versions were unchecked, in the new N++ version

So, in the new version, I re-installed the Doc Monitor plugin and even after running the Plugins > Document Monitor > Start to monitor option, the MISC. preferences for file status were still the default ones !

Howewer, if you close and re-start N++ immediately, you see, this time, the Enable for all opened files option and the two box options checked, in the MISC. preferences !

So, apparently, at least , with this 2.2.0.0 version, Don simply activates, with his plugin, these specific N++ options which updates silently any opened file !

Best Regards,

guy038