Make np++ work like text/word processor?
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Hi, new poster here. My setup/debugging is at the bottom. I’m very impressed by Notepad++ and have used it for several years and more than one versoin, but one problem is always there… I’m using the original settings and I just use it as a word processors to write text. And I can never tell where the insertion point will be. I press enter and it breaks a line in two, or it writes at the end of the line instead of the beginning. I would like my typing to work “normally”, like my email client, or like this very page does.
Much to NP++'s credit, it has loads of settings, for every purpose.
Is there a setting that does what I want? TIA.
Notepad++ v8.5.4 (64-bit)
Build time : Jun 17 2023 - 20:42:45
Path : C:\Programs\NotepadPP\notepad++.exe
Command Line :
Admin mode : OFF
Local Conf mode : ON
Cloud Config : OFF
OS Name : Windows 10 Home (64-bit)
OS Version : 22H2
OS Build : 19045.5247
Current ANSI codepage : 1252
Plugins :
mimeTools (2.9)
NppConverter (4.5)
NppExport (0.4) -
@Gordon-Gordonplex said in Make np++ work like text/word processor?:
And I can never tell where the insertion point will be
Hmm, just like a word processor, there’s what’s known as a “caret” which shows you where the insertion point is…
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Notepad++ is a text editor, not a word processor
However, I think that your problem is that you are not seeing the caret indicator (text insertion point). Notepad++, by default, shows that caret, so you must have changed your settings at some point.
Check Settings > Preferences > Editing 1 > Caret Settings
Maybe you had accidentally (or intentionally) set it to Width=0 instead of Width=1, or similar.
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@PeterJones said:
accidentally (or intentionally) set it to Width=0
I was not (consciously) aware that it could be set to 0.
Are there users that would intentionally do this?
I think if I were writing that functionality for Notepad++, I would have set the lower limit to “1”.I would also think that if someone accidentally set this to 0, they’d immediately see the error of their ways, and change it back to something non-zero, not suffer with it for a long period of time as it seems the OP has.
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Thanks for the reply, Peter. The thing is, I don’t want to have to look to see where the insertion point is. With my email program, with my Usenet client, and even here with this forum itself, I know where the ins. point is without looking because it follows the word processor rules, and I can touch-type, not just letters but formatting too. Surely with the enormous number of settings NP++ has, one will make it work like my email program. Yes? No? I know it’s a text editor, but while they were setting it up for so many computer languages, did they not include English too. :-)
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@Gordon-Gordonplex said in Make np++ work like text/word processor?:
Thanks for the reply, Peter. The thing is, I don’t want to have to look to see where the insertion point is.
You don’t have to, then. I never said you did.
With my email program, with my Usenet client, and even here with this forum itself, I know where the ins. point is without looking because it follows the word processor rules, and I can touch-type, not just letters but formatting too.
I can touch type in Notepad++, too. I have no idea what you’re complaining about at this point.
Surely with the enormous number of settings NP++ has, one will make it work like my email program. Yes? No? I know it’s a text editor, but while they were setting it up for so many computer languages, did they not include English too. :-)
Sorry, it does work like any usenet, email, word processor, etc, with regards to where the typing cursor is, as far as I can tell in my decades of using it (and all those other sorts of apps). Based on your exceedingly vague and detail-less problem statement, I assumed that you had just accidentally hidden your caret, so you just couldn’t see the caret as you were typing, so I explained how to check the settings to make sure you hadn’t hidden it.
I have no idea why you think it behaves any differently with respect to where it types compared to those, because for me, it works identically, and you have given no indication of what your exact actions are that make it behave unexpectedly. Without more details from you (ie, a way to replicate your problem), I cannot provide any more suggestions, other than to check your settings, and make sure that you are really doing the keystrokes you think you are.
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I don’t want to have to look to see where the insertion point is.
I can’t get my head around what this even means. :-)
One has to know where the insertion point is; one isn’t always at the end of text (where the insertion point is rather obvious); sometimes one has to edit existing text.
Shrug. -
@Gordon-Gordonplex said in Make np++ work like text/word processor?:
and I can touch-type, not just letters but formatting too
Is this the clue we are hunting for to help provide some guidance/a solution?
Formatting would imply using shortcuts with ctrl/alt and shift keys. Is OP hitting a key combo which is moving the caret, thus the insertion point?
Otherwise is there an external application assisting OP, maybe moving mouse to a different location in the text, and then selecting that position?
Terry
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@Gordon-Gordonplex said in Make np++ work like text/word processor?:
I would like my typing to work “normally”, like my email client, or like this very page does.
FAQ: “Notepad++ is a Text Editor, not a Word Processor”. With one exception, Notepad++ does not do typical “word processor” like things such as colors, fonts, margins, etc. The exception that comes to mind is that Notepad++ has settings related to indentation and it’s “auto-indent” part of the indentation settings. Notepad++'s indentation features are tailored creating and editing text in various computer languages that each have their own indentation rules and philosophy.
That said, people are still puzzled as to what you are asking for. You say you have used Notepad++ for years but there’s something about Notepad++ that does not align up with what you want or expect. However, you have not said exactly what it is out of alignment that’s specific to Notepad++.
As it’s a text editor, not a word processor, Notepad++ also does not do something that happens on this forum which is that I’m typing on the left side and to my right the text I type is also being displayed with forum specific markdown tags being processed. If I want bold I press the
* * b o l d * *keyboard keys in that order. On the left side I see “**bold**” and on the right side I see the word “bold” in a bold-style font. That’s a “word processor” style feature that Notepad++ does not do. In the Notepad++ world we only see “**bold**” and use other software that will processes the “**bold**” and display it as “bold”.
