I’m not sure which is the first version that uses this kind of config, but I have used it for some time now.

• If you want tab-to-space:

  1. Macro > Start Recording
  2. Edit > Blank Operations > TAB to space
  3. File > Save
  4. Macro > Stop Recording
  5. Macro > Save Current Recorded Macro
     • Name: TabToSpaceSave
     • You can assign keyboard shortcut using the ☐ Ctrl ☐ Alt ☐ Shift boxes, using the dropdown to select which character.
       • If you want this to be your default Ctrl+S save, you can even replace that (though you’d also have to use the Settings > Shortcut Mapper to modify the normal Save’s keyboard shortcut. (I actually did that, so Trim Trailing Spaces and Save is my default Ctrl+S action)
     • OK

• If you want leading space to TAB:

  1. Macro > Start Recording
  2. Edit > Blank Operations > Space to TAB (leading)
  3. File > Save
  4. Macro > Stop Recording
  5. Macro > Save Current Recorded Macro
     • Name: LeadingSpaceToTabSave
     • Assign keyboard shortcut, if desired
     • OK

Or, you can manually add the XML that I got when I recorded those two macros, to your %appdata%\notepad++\shortcuts.xml. (note: because NPP overwrites shortcuts.xml on exit, you may have to gasp use a different text editor to insert these lines. I was able to make it work in NPP by closing all instances of NPP, open NPP, edit the shortcuts.xml file, save, and exit – without changing any NPP settings… but I don’t guarantee that it will work for you.)

    <Macro name="TabToSpaceSave" Ctrl="no" Alt="no" Shift="no" Key="0">
        <Action type="2" message="0" wParam="42046" lParam="0" sParam="" />
        <Action type="2" message="0" wParam="41006" lParam="0" sParam="" />
    </Macro>
    <Macro name="LeadingSpaceToTABSave" Ctrl="no" Alt="no" Shift="no" Key="0">
        <Action type="2" message="0" wParam="42053" lParam="0" sParam="" />
        <Action type="2" message="0" wParam="41006" lParam="0" sParam="" />
    </Macro>

Close shortcuts.xml. Exit and reload Notepad++. Now those macros should exist in your Macro menu. You can then use the Settings > Shortcut Mapper > Macros to edit the assigned keystrokes for each version.

Here are the source patches: https://github.com/gstavi/npp/tree/master/patch
Here are NPP binaries

On the other hand the base version I am using is still 6.7.8

I really want this this feature too.

I use visual stupid, and notepad++ to store visual studio data notes when I am debugging - namely things like call stacks…

These look like:

Function 1
Function 2
Function 3
etc

Now I’d like to go back to the margin after a blank space “^\n$” or whatever the silly windows newline is this week, but instead it starts off with a tab at the start, so when i next paste the call stack i get:

[unwanted tab] > Function A
Function B
Function C
etc.

I don’t want this, i want:

Function 1
Function 2
Function 3
etc

So that I don’t have to go back through every single tab that your editor inserted.

I love notepad++, but this is soo irritating because this comes up for me 20-30 times a day. I really think this would make your editor soo much less irritating to use.

Cheers!

An example.

My default settings are to keep tabs as tabs, but I have some file types (eg Perl scripts) set to replace tabs with spaces.

I often create new small file Perl script files. I just type the entire script into a new and empty buffer, then do a Save as with a .pl extension. As I type I enter spaces for indents. After hitting enter, the newline is indented with tabs. As I want spaces to indent these Perl files I have to use the Edit => Blank operations => Tab to spaces command on the whole file just before or just after the Save as.

It would be more convenient for me if the auto indent copied the leading white space of the previous line. The current behaviour is to use the default tab settings to produce an indent of the same size as the line above.

This behaviour is a minor inconvenience to me. I had not considered it worthy of a feature request, but you asked for why it may be useful.

Adrian

Cheers
Claudia

to prevent that tab instead space gets inserted goto
Settings -> Preferences -> Tab Settings and check Replace by Space

Cheers
Claudia