Where are search/replace expressions stored?

Rob Stow

There are a few search/replace operations I do almost every day and I get frustrated when Notepad++ removes those frequently used regular expressions from the “Find what” and “Replace With” drop-down lists. I have those expressions saved in a file so I can cut/paste them into the Search/Replace window but it would be much easier if I could just find a way to lock them permanently into those drop down lists.

My first step is to figure out where Notepad++ stores the contents of those drop down lists - it doesn’t seem to use xml files or any other text file in my %Appdata%\Notepad++ folder. I would try macros instead but Notepad++ was rumoured to store the macros in an XL file in that same folder … but the macros never get saved.

Claudia Frank

Hello Rob-Stow,

a good starting point is here.
Every configuration file is explained.
And the answer to the question would be shortcuts.xml and config.xml.
Where those files are located depends on how notepad++ was installed.
There are either in the APPDATA or in the notepad++ installation directory.

Cheers
Claudia

Rob Stow

Thanks, Claudia. Even though I had previously searched the registry, I was still hoping to hear that those were in the Windows registry - it would be so easy to make a little .reg file and have that reg file load before starting Notepad++. Too bad there’s not a way to just put a “lock” attribute on some of the things in config.xml so that NP++ will know to leave them alone.

I also tried putting my find/replace expressions in there own XML file but I can’t find a way to make NP++ load my XML file when it starts.

Claudia Frank

Hello Rob,
I have thought about it for a while now but didn’t find
a solution which would be better than recording a macro.
But, of course, this would mean, that you need to record
each of your regexes and save it with a meaningful name.
And it is always the same regex called, no variation allowed.
The closest other solution I can think of is to modify the

 	nbMaxFindHistoryFind ="10"

parameter to something like

 	nbMaxFindHistoryFind ="1000"

so it takes longer before it gets deleted but of course
it doesn’t make it more user friendly if you get a list of hundreds of regexes.

UPDATE: now that I have posted this - I think of something different - I will check and come back on this again.

Cheers
Claudia