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    Bringing back the old (pre-8.4.6) filetab right-click context menu

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    • Alan KilbornA
      Alan Kilborn
      last edited by Alan Kilborn

      Notepad++ 8.4.6 introduced a filetab right-click context menu that has submenus:

      c0bd8748-2c13-4034-966c-8e1eee38b759-image.png

      Version 8.4.5 (and earlier) had no submenus:

      4c13b2c4-6372-4f38-b743-7ad3ad02a2da-image.png

      Several times I’ve seen requests to “bring back the old context menu” from users that don’t like the default new one because the submenus slow down their workflow.

      According to ITEM 4 of the Notepad++ 8.4.8 change.log, the filetab right-click context menu is now user-controllable – hurrah!

      So now users that desire it CAN bring back the old context menu with no submenus.
      Here’s how:

      • Obtain tabContextMenu_8.4.5_and_earlier.TXT from HERE

      • Rename it to tabContextMenu.xml

      • Put it in the folder where notepad++.exe lives (remember: You have to be using 8.4.8 or later)

      • Restart Notepad++

      • Right-click a filetab to hopefully see the “old” context menu appear


      Actually, this recreation isn’t 100% faithful to the pre-8.4.6 context menu – I’ve added in one submenu’d command at the bottom:

      72348516-6343-4897-9494-4da7f3063acd-image.png

      As this didn’t exist in the old context menu, no one can complain that it annoys them as a submenu’d item! :-)

      Note that the tab coloring items were what drove the context menu to a submenu’d version in the first place (with 6 new entries, the context menu was getting terribly long – so long that it was unwieldy).


      BTW, Notepad++ 8.4.8 ships with an example file for customizing the filetab right click menu (tabContextMenu_example.xml) – but all the sample does (if you rename it to tabContextMenu.xml and restart) is recreate the default 8.4.8 context menu. That isn’t very useful, and, if you don’t make a change to it, you can’t even tell that it did anything.

      Wouldn’t it have been better to include as a sample, something like my file from above, where the sample actually does something useful? And, for those that want the old menu back, the file would be already there, no download needed, just rename the file and restart, boom, done…

      PeterJonesP MarioVolarevicM 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 5
      • PeterJonesP
        PeterJones @Alan Kilborn
        last edited by PeterJones

        @Alan-Kilborn said in Bringing back the old (pre-8.4.6) filetab right-click context menu:

        recreate the default 8.4.8 context menu. That isn’t very useful

        But it also contains (commented out) essentially the contents of the file you linked, so you just have to uncomment/delete, so the information is there (and that’s what the user manual will describe in order to get back the older context menu). So the example might not do much as is, but it contains more than just a duplicate of the existing menu.

        It even says what to change in the comments of the included example.

        Wouldn’t it have been better to include as a sample, something like my file from above, where the sample actually does something useful? And, for those that want the old menu back, the file would be already there, no download needed, just rename the file and restart, boom, done…

        Instead of “just rename and restart”, it’s “rename, delete some lines, and restart”, which isn’t that much more difficult.

        Alan KilbornA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • Alan KilbornA
          Alan Kilborn @PeterJones
          last edited by

          @PeterJones said in Bringing back the old (pre-8.4.6) filetab right-click context menu:

          But it also contains (commented out) essentially the contents of the file you linked, so you just have to uncomment/delete, so the information is there (and that’s what the user manual will describe in order to get back the older context menu).

          Hmm, right you are Peter.
          I think I made a note to create this posting while that file was still evolving during development, and I didn’t realize that the section you mention was added.
          I guess I did a bunch of extra work composing the above, when it really wasn’t needed. :-(

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
          • PeterJonesP PeterJones referenced this topic on
          • Robert RodriguezR
            Robert Rodriguez
            last edited by

            Nice blog, I will keep visiting this blog very often.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote -1
            • MarioVolarevicM
              MarioVolarevic @Alan Kilborn
              last edited by

              @Alan-Kilborn
              yay, thank you so much
              I just created a comment to add a note to the part of the instructions where you say “to put it where Notepad++.exe lives”, as it might not work for everyone.
              In my case I had to put it in folder :

              %appdata%\Notepad++
              
              MapleM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • MapleM
                Maple @MarioVolarevic
                last edited by

                @MarioVolarevic said in Bringing back the old (pre-8.4.6) filetab right-click context menu:

                @Alan-Kilborn
                yay, thank you so much
                I just created a comment to add a note to the part of the instructions where you say “to put it where Notepad++.exe lives”, as it might not work for everyone.
                In my case I had to put it in folder :

                %appdata%\Notepad++
                
                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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