How to achieve <bold>selection</bold>?

liuruiqi1993

I wish when I press Ctrl + Shift + B, what I select will change into <bold>selection</bold>.
And I have failed a hundred times. I really have no idea what to do now.
Here is what I wrote，a Frankenstein.

<Macro name=“<bold>” Ctrl=“yes” Alt=“no” Shift=“yes” Key=“66”>
<Action type=“1” message=“2287” wParam=“0” lParam=“0” sParam=“” />
<Action type=“1” message=“2190” wParam=“0” lParam=“0” sParam=“” />
<Action type=“3” message=“2001” wParam=“0” lParam=“0” sParam=“<bold>” />
</Macro>

All help is appreciated… Thanks!

Scott Sumner

@liuruiqi1993

So if you select the text Notepad++ and you invoke a macro you want that text to change into <bold>Notepad++</bold> ?

For that I would record a macro consisting of one step, a replace-all operation.

Details:

Select some text to act upon.
Invoke the Replace dialog (Ctrl+h).
Set Find-what zone to: (?s).+
Set Find-what zone to: <bold>$0</bold>
Tick In selection checkbox
Set Search mode to Regular Expression

Start macro recording.
Press the Replace All button.
Stop macro recording.
Save macro, assign keycombo.

Scott Sumner

@Scott-Sumner

Correction:

Set Find-what zone to: <bold>$0</bold>

should be:

Set Replace-with zone to: <bold>$0</bold>

liuruiqi1993

Thanks for you help.

“So if you select the text Notepad++ and you invoke a macro you want that text to change into <bold>Notepad++</bold> ?”
Yes, but “the text” may contain anything, letters, words, spaces, numbers, tags, symbols. I don’t think “(?s).+” is enough.

So, I need your further help if you don’t mind. [emoji (please)]

Scott Sumner

@liuruiqi1993

I can tell that you haven’t tried it.
HINT: Try it…or see the Clue below…
:-D

Clue : The regular expression (?s).+ means “one or more characters with any value”. The $0 means whatever matched in the Find-what part, which in this case is the any-valued characters.

liuruiqi1993

I tried, but it keep alert “0 occurrences were replaced.”, should I ignore it and check shortcuts.xml?

liuruiqi1993

And this is what I got in shortcut.xml
<Macro name=“test” Ctrl=“no” Alt=“no” Shift=“no” Key=“0”>
<Action type=“3” message=“1700” wParam=“0” lParam=“0” sParam=“” />
<Action type=“3” message=“1601” wParam=“0” lParam=“0” sParam=“(?s).+” />
<Action type=“3” message=“1625” wParam=“0” lParam=“2” sParam=“” />
<Action type=“3” message=“1602” wParam=“0” lParam=“0” sParam=“<bold>$0</bold>” />
<Action type=“3” message=“1702” wParam=“0” lParam=“640” sParam=“” />
<Action type=“3” message=“1701” wParam=“0” lParam=“1609” sParam=“” />
</Macro>

guy038

Hello @liuruiqi1993, @scott-sumner and All,

I’ve just build the Scott’s macro, on my portable N++ v7.5.1 version. and it’s working fine, indeed :-))

In my shortcuts.xml file, inside the Macro section, these lines are added :

        <Macro name="Test" Ctrl="no" Alt="no" Shift="no" Key="0">
            <Action type="3" message="1700" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
            <Action type="3" message="1601" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="(?s).+" />
            <Action type="3" message="1625" wParam="0" lParam="2" sParam="" />
            <Action type="3" message="1602" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="&lt;bold&gt;$0&lt;/bold&gt;" />
            <Action type="3" message="1702" wParam="0" lParam="640" sParam="" />
            <Action type="3" message="1701" wParam="0" lParam="1609" sParam="" />
        </Macro>

The unique difference,compared to your version, it that the line :

            <Action type="3" message="1602" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="<bold>$0</bold>" />

is written :

            <Action type="3" message="1602" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="&lt;bold&gt;$0&lt;/bold&gt;" />

I think that the later form should be the right one ! That is to say that the special characters < and >, should be coded as < and >, in an XML file !

BTW, note that, if you forget to select any range of characters, before running this macro, nothing changes, after execution. ( logical behaviour ) If it would, all the file contents would have been surrounded with the two tags <bold> and </bold> !

Cheers,

guy038

liuruiqi1993

@guy038 and @scott-sumner
npp.5.9.4. version, NO. Then I tried npp.7.5.3. version, Yes, it’s working now, awesome!!
Thank you two, you helped a lot. And merry Christmas.

guy038

Hello @liuruiqi1993 and All,

BTW, I advice you to downgrade to the v7.5.1 version of Notepad++, because there are some encoding issues with the last two N++ versions ! See below :

https://notepad-plus-plus.org/community/topic/14936/update-to-7-5-3-file-encode-wrong/2

Now, I understand why it did,'t work with your old 5.9.4 version. Just because, since the N++ v.6.0 version, a new search engine is implemented, with the Perl Common Regular Expressions feature, of the Boost C++ regex library ! This new search engine allows you to run complicated S/R, once you’re acquainted with Regular expressions language :-))

For newby people, about regular expressions concept and syntax, begin with that article, in N++ Wiki :

http://docs.notepad-plus-plus.org/index.php/Regular_Expressions

In addition, you’ll find good documentation, about the Boost C++ Regex library, v1.55.0 ( similar to the PERL Regular Common Expressions, v5.8 ), used by Notepad++, since its 6.0 version, at the TWO addresses below :

http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_55_0/libs/regex/doc/html/boost_regex/syntax/perl_syntax.html

http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_55_0/libs/regex/doc/html/boost_regex/format/boost_format_syntax.html

The FIRST link explains the syntax, of regular expressions, in the SEARCH part
The SECOND link explains the syntax, of regular expressions, in the REPLACEMENT part

You may, also, look for valuable informations, on the sites, below :

http://www.regular-expressions.info

http://www.rexegg.com

http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html

Be aware that, as any documentation, it may contain some errors ! Anyway, if you detected one, that’s good news : you’re improving ;-))