How could one sort the files in the "Recent Files" menu in "Files" by date / last closed or alphabet?

Cletos

How could one sort the files in the “Recent Files” menu in “Files” by date / last closed or alphabet?

dinkumoil

Sorting of the recent files list by “last closed” order would require changes to the Notepad++ code base, thus you should file a feature request in the issue tracker. Read this help desk entry to learn how to do that.
Sorting the list by file date would require scripting. Since this is not a scripting forum you should look for support at another website.
Alphabetical sorting of the recent files list can be done with the help of the following XSLT code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="Windows-1252"?>

<xsl:transform version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">

  <xsl:output
    method="xml"
    encoding="Windows-1252"
    indent="yes"
    omit-xml-declaration="no"
  />

  <xsl:template match="@*|node()">
    <xsl:copy>
      <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()"/>
    </xsl:copy>
  </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template match="/NotepadPlus/History">
    <xsl:copy>
      <xsl:copy-of select="@*"/>
      <xsl:apply-templates select="File">
        <xsl:sort select="@filename"/>
      </xsl:apply-templates>
    </xsl:copy>
  </xsl:template>

</xsl:transform>

To apply that code on the Notepad++ settings file you need msxsl.exe, a command line XSLT processor released by Microsoft. You can download it >>> here <<< or just google for msxsl.exe.

With the following commands executed from a console window you can sort the recent files list:

ren "%AppData%\Notepad++\config.xml" "config_backup.xml"
msxsl "%AppData%\Notepad++\config_backup.xml" "<Path-to-file-with-above-XSLT-code>" -o "%AppData%\Notepad++\config.xml"

Please note:

Run these commands only when there is no running instance of Notepad++.
The commands assume you use an installed version of Notepad++. If you use a portable version you have to adjust the path to the file config.xml.
The commands back up your original config.xml to a file named config_backup.xml in its original location, thus you won’t loose your original file.

Alan Kilborn

@dinkumoil said in How could one sort the files in the "Recent Files" menu in "Files" by date / last closed or alphabet?:

Sorting of the recent files list by “last closed” order would require changes to the Notepad++ code base,

Isn’t the list already in “last closed” order? Maybe I’m missing something, or I don’t understand the meaning of “last closed”.

dinkumoil

@Alan-Kilborn said in How could one sort the files in the "Recent Files" menu in "Files" by date / last closed or alphabet?:

Isn’t the list already in “last closed” order?

You are right, it is. The last closed file is the top one. Never noticed that as I normally work with so much different files that the “Recent Files” list is mostly useless for me.

Cletos

Many thanks, dinkumoil,

for the instructions, very easily done. Works great! Many thanks again!