Orange line next to anything I type now, cant seem to figure out how to turn it off.

PeterJones

Alternately to toggling the setting (which requires restarting Notepad++ to turn it back on), you could instead save the file, close it (File > Close or equivalent, defaults to Ctrl+W), and use File > Restore Recent Closed File (defaults to Ctrl+Shift+T) – when it comes back, since it’s fresh, it won’t have any changed or saved-since-changed lines, so there won’t be a margin color; when a freshly-loaded file is printed, there aren’t any background-color issues (for me). And since Ctrl+S, Ctrl+W, Ctrl+Shift+T is a pretty simple sequence, you could either use that directly, or record it as a macro.

Ahh, I tried recording the macro: unfortunately, Restore Recent Closed File appears to not be macro-recordable. Fortunately, it is macro-usable, so

        <Macro name="ResetHistory" Ctrl="yes" Alt="no" Shift="yes" Key="72">
            <Action type="2" message="0" wParam="41006" lParam="0" sParam="" />
            <Action type="2" message="0" wParam="41003" lParam="0" sParam="" />
            <Action type="2" message="0" wParam="41021" lParam="0" sParam="" />
        </Macro>

is the correct macro. Edit %AppData%\shortcuts.xml, add that macro to the list of macros, save, and restart Notepad++. After you do that, Ctrl+Shift+H will reset the history for the active file

Clint Ringgold

@PeterJones
LOL - no easy button…Aw man. Ok. Well, I did see that if I just close the app and open it again the files are there with no marks as well. Just kind of a pain. By all means, thank you for the response(s).

PeterJones

@Clint-Ringgold said in Orange line next to anything I type now, cant seem to figure out how to turn it off.:

no easy button

But it only takes editing shortcuts.xml once to give you the Easy Button™. I already described how, so I recommend you try it.

Alan Kilborn

@Clint-Ringgold said in Orange line next to anything I type now, cant seem to figure out how to turn it off.:

Just kind of a pain

Change History is a big new feature. With all such things, there will be some “growing pains” and unanticipated consequences. This is one. It will be corrected, but in the meantime, follow the advice of Peter and lessen your pain, but if your Notepad++ restarts quickly (mine doesn’t) then that is certainly workable as well.

Clint Ringgold

@PeterJones
I think I found it. I had to edit it just a little for me: %AppData%\Roaming\Notepad++\shortcuts.xml but it works like a champ! Thank you!

PeterJones

@Clint-Ringgold said in Orange line next to anything I type now, cant seem to figure out how to turn it off.:

%AppData%\Roaming\Notepad++\shortcuts.xml

No, I am quite certain that %AppData%\Notepad++\shortcuts.xml is the correct Windows variable substitution. If you ignore the percent signs, then yes, the path you went to was ...<something>...\AppData\Roaming\notepad++, but if you actually used the percent signs, you did not have to manually enter the Roaming.

Clint Ringgold

@PeterJones

Understood. Thank you again. It works great.

liztomey

@Terry-R you’re a gem! Thank you so much for this! <3

Jeremy Thornton

@Alan-Kilborn I wanted to switch this off because it’s a broken feature! (When I print, then lines with a green bar next to their line number the whole line’s background is printed green)

Alan Kilborn

@Jeremy-Thornton

Read the FAQ.

John Johnson 0

@Jeremy-Thornton Preferences / Margins/Border/Edge uncheck “Display Change History” and it’s back to printing properly.

Ultimaximus

@Alan-Kilborn said in Orange line next to anything I type now, cant seem to figure out how to turn it off.:

is there a “Change history” button which is currently ticked. if so, untick it and see if it goes away.

Perfect!! Phew! Thank you that resolved it.

OMG, you just turned off one of the best (new) reasons to use N++.
I’m glad you feel good about doing this.
Better would have been to wonder what possible new benefit N++ was giving you, but, well, I guess not…

Do you think that rude sarcasm is going to change their mind?

Alan Kilborn

@Ultimaximus said in Orange line next to anything I type now, cant seem to figure out how to turn it off.:

Do you think that rude sarcasm is going to change their mind?

Probably not, but not because of the “rude sarcasm”. A smart person, just an unknowing one, might get that kind of reply and think, “wow, if someone says that, maybe there really is something to it; I need to dig deeper…”. A non-smart person, well, we know what they’re going to do.

ErolB1

@Alan-Kilborn said in Orange line next to anything I type now, cant seem to figure out how to turn it off.:

Change History is a big new feature. With all such things, there will be some “growing pains” and unanticipated consequences.

And those “growing pains” are a good reason to have the new feature be turned off by default, at least initially, whatever the argument is for having the feature default to being turned on in later versions.

My own preference is for new features to default to “off.” If I want a feature, I can check to see if it’s already implemented and just needs to be turned on. If I don’t want a feature, then clumsy, unwanted attempts by the program to be “helpful” are a plague and a nuisance.

Neil Schipper

One way to reduce the freak-out factor of a new feature being on by default, especially when the feature impacts the experience of a typical user, is that after a version update, a pop-up appears with a very brief description of “what’s new”, a limited number of times. This sort of approach has been in use with s/w roll-outs for decades.

In the case of np++, the pop-up should not simply be the contents of change.log; people see a numbered list and may have good reason to not want to bother with it in the moment. Rather, it should be a friendly but terse description of just the most visible or important changes, and where users can find more info about them.

A plausible rule-set for when it appears could be: the first 5 or 10 times any of these events occur: open app, and, file open/save/close (but not if the open is part of a session open); a “views remaining” count could be shown.

I suppose it can get a bit complicated if for example a release doesn’t yet have all supported language translations up to date and such.

As for this “Display Change History” feature, “default on” seems like the right choice: the number of people who stand to benefit from it but wouldn’t know to turn it on vastly outnumbers those who will consciously prefer it off.

Still, this conversation would benefit from “default on” proponents understanding that when a sophisticated user sees a colored line show up unexpectedly with freshly edited lines, especially right after a version update, they might justifiably wonder if they’re seeing the artifact of a bug: “What the… Oh no! A wonky pointer is clobbering data in an output buffer… the app can crash at any moment! Maybe I should I downgrade. Maybe I should switch editors!” Someone working a mission critical task could get pretty nervous.

I think this is somewhat what I experienced for a short time, and later became glad about the feature.

Now that I’ve been seeing the feature for some weeks, I find the line is far too loud, ie, thick. Take a look at the screen shot in the first post above. Compare the line thickness to that of the vertical section of the ‘5’ in the line number. I see no reason for the former to be any wider than the latter. The change indication, much like line numbers, is only occasionally of interest, usually ignored. Both should be visually quiet making them easy to ignore, but not hard to see when you purposefully look.

Alan Kilborn

@Neil-Schipper

after a version update, a pop-up appears with a very brief description of “what’s new”, a limited number of times

I don’t disagree with this. But maybe it is simpler than you describe: I’d say have the popup, but only on each startup of N++. Don’t have a countdown. Have buttons: “Thanks, don’t show me this again” and “Remind me about this stuff next time”. A user that doesn’t care at all can click “Thanks…” while a user in a hurry this run can click “Remind…”.

As for this “Display Change History” feature, “default on” seems like the right choice: the number of people who stand to benefit from it but wouldn’t know to turn it on vastly outnumbers those who will consciously prefer it off.

VERY well said.

a sophisticated user sees a colored line show up unexpectedly with freshly edited lines, especially right after a version update, they might justifiably wonder if they’re seeing the artifact of a bug

Maybe…but you said “sophisticated user”, and to me this type of user is a “smart” user, and wouldn’t be likely to think that such an obvious “bug” slipped passed the devs in the release process. It must be some cool new feature that will increase productivity, that just needs to be learned about.

Maybe I should I downgrade. Maybe I should switch editors!”

Now we’ve moved away from talking about a sophisticated/smart user.

Someone working a mission critical task could get pretty nervous.

Someone doing this isn’t upgrading ANY software, until they move out of their “mission critical” phase.

Now that I’ve been seeing the feature for some weeks, I find the line is far too loud, ie, thick.

To each his own, but I find it “just about right” in thickness:

In fact, I’ve written a script which adds right-click functionality to that margin, and I find trying to hit the default-width margin with a right-click a bit difficult – so I’ve changed the script to widen the margin and now use it at–gasp!–twice its default width! Oh, the horror! :-)

If you use PythonScript, here’s a snippet of code which you can run that will set your margin to whatever width you’d like (9 is the default):

editor.setMarginWidthN(2, 9)

Also easy to do with the NppExec plugin:

sci_sendmsg 2242 2 9

Neil Schipper

@Alan-Kilborn said in Orange line next to anything I type now, cant seem to figure out how to turn it off.:

“Thanks, don’t show me this again”

Would be ok but gives too much freedom for the impulsive, overconfident types who tend to get into trouble.

wouldn’t be likely to think that such an obvious “bug” slipped passed the devs in the release process

Wasn’t there an issue some months back that totally discombobulated screen drawing but only when (I think) Slack was running? Yeah, bugs are like that, and sometimes only express themselves in very particular circumstances (combos of version of O/S, hardware, preference settings, plugins…), and can evade even the highest powered testing strategies, as you well know.

here’s a snippet of code which you can run that will set your margin to whatever width you’d like

That’s really lovely, thanks so much! Not having walked the code in any serious way, I’m always surprised how much innards are exposed by Scintilla/NP++.

(But I betcha, unless that right-click thingy you came up with is super useful, if you tried width 4 or 5 for a few days you’d prefer it.)

Speaking of the code, I think I read that it’s a Visual Studio project, and I’m wondering if it’s buildable with a free version of VS (or maybe a non-VS command line VC++? … That might be a dumb question but I’m really out of touch regarding this family of tools).

Alan Kilborn

@Neil-Schipper said in Orange line next to anything I type now, cant seem to figure out how to turn it off.:

“Thanks, don’t show me this again”

Would be ok but gives too much freedom for the impulsive, overconfident types who tend to get into trouble.

People can only be “babied” so much.

Wasn’t there an issue some months back that totally discombobulated screen drawing but only when (I think) Slack was running?

Not a great example (for making your original point) because the Slack thing was not a Notepad++ problem. At least, I don’t recall ANY changes being made by Notepad++ devs to deal with that situation.

unless that right-click thingy you came up with is super useful

It is, at least until the following type of thing gets implemented natively:

if you tried width 4 or 5 for a few days you’d prefer it.

Considering visuals alone, I’m sure you’re right.

Alan Kilborn

@Neil-Schipper said in Orange line next to anything I type now, cant seem to figure out how to turn it off.:

Speaking of the code, I think I read that it’s a Visual Studio project, and I’m wondering if it’s buildable with a free version of VS (or maybe a non-VS command line VC++? … That might be a dumb question but I’m really out of touch regarding this family of tools).

Yes, it IS a Visual Studio project.

I believe the developers currently use Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition, which is free.

I use Visual Studio 2022 Professional for work, so when I’m taking a look around the Notepad++ code I use that.

But really if you’re just browsing around the code, an editor such as Notepad++ itself is fine.

Neil Schipper

@Alan-Kilborn

Thanks!

I actually found it kind of grueling to get to this point…