Is this normal behavior for this program? How do I disable these features?
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@Bill-Miller said in Is this normal behavior for this program? How do I disable these features?:
I just wonder why the check marks are not unchecked by default. Just as was the case with needing to Uncheck Display under Settings | Preferences… | Margins/Border/Edge | Line Number to remove the line number column down the left side of the page and needing to from the main menu bar under View | Word wrap untoggle (click to check if unchecked, click to uncheck if checked) in order to fix the run on sentences.
If these features were all unchecked by default, I wouldn’t have had to seek help 3 times so far since loading Notepad++.
The best reason I can give you @Bill-Miller , is that most people coming to Notepad++, are developers/programmers of some caliber. Because of this, certain features are inherent in Programming Text Editors that are on by default, and as such, so are Notepad++'s…which is usually listed/promoted as a Notepad replacement that handles syntax highlighting, autocompletion…etc…which are all programmer specific features that are expected to be on by default. That, I’m guessing, is why the developer originally named it Notepad++, because the programming text editor features are the ++ in the name.
The problems come in when people want to use Notepad++ for things other than what it was designed to be, a programming text editor capable Notepad.exe replacement. Some think it can be used as a WYSIWIG HTML Editor or as a Word Processor which is not what it is, and because of the variety of languages, and it’s plugin capabilities, it really is more of a swiss army knife text editor, rather than a plain text editor like the original notepad.exe was…which as someone else mentioned, was ruined by Microsoft rewriting it and giving it more Word Processor like capabilties, which then widened the gap between what Notepad.exe was, and what Notepad++.exe is.
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If these features were all unchecked by default, I wouldn’t have had to seek help 3 times so far
You didn’t have to seek help; you could have looked in the Settings or checked the user manual (as I previously pointed out).
If these features were all unchecked by default
I think “fancy” features should be on by default in Notepad++. If they are not, then the vast majority of users will never know they exist.
If users don’t like something the program is doing, it might be time well spent to (a) research what it is (it might be something they never knew they needed) and (b) how to turn it off if it is really undesired.
If users don’t want to do this (bah, takes time), then maybe they really should be using Windows’ own
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@Alan-Kilborn said in Is this normal behavior for this program? How do I disable these features?:
If users don’t want to do this (bah, takes time), then maybe they really should be using Windows’ own notepad.exe.
Even notepad.exe has word wrap off by default.
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@Coises said in Is this normal behavior for this program? How do I disable these features?:
Even notepad.exe has word wrap off by default.
Ha, I had a couple of errant posts where I discussed Wrap around, before noticing you said “word wrap”… :-) Perhaps this is the fault of the really stupid name it has; it should be called “line wrap”.
For Notepad++, I don’t consider “word wrap” a fancy feature, and thus I don’t think it should be defaulted on. It isn’t a fancy feature because Notepad++ is (still) considered a programmer’s editor, and you don’t program with “word wrap” turned on.
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Maybe there needs to be a “Frequently Altered Preferences” (FAP) list, analogous to an FAQ.
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I get the idea, but thinking it through I doubt it would help.
For one, it just adds to the clutter that no-one reads when wanting an answer. If you look at a lot of the answers to posts, it’s just read the online manual, or here’s the answer at this reference in the online manual.
I think most posters just want a quick answer, they don’t care beyond their immediate needs and they don’t want to waste time reading the manual. Unfortunately that’s the wrong way to go about it (I think).
This is a great application, but it takes time to know the settings that will provide the environment each user needs, and we aren’t all the same. To me it seems obvious that with all the settings available that there will be a need to read up on some of them. And others I’ve found by reading posts in this forum, and then go looking and testing it for myself.
Terry
PS I should add that my choice of the word “clutter” was in no way derogatory. In fact I think the regulars (and moderators in particular) choose very carefully which FAQ type posts might be worthy of inclusion. “Less is More” springs to mind.
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@ErolB1 said in Is this normal behavior for this program? How do I disable these features?:
Maybe there needs to be a “Frequently Altered Preferences” (FAP) list, analogous to an FAQ.
There already is…it’s called the online manual. :-) However, just like the manual most people don’t read the FAQ’s either, rather they post here for instant answers. It’s the Google generation. If there was a world wide power outage tomorrow, only the old “dinosaurs” would know how to actually research answers, while the rest would be twiddling their thumbs not knowing how to find information that wasn’t available prior to the web. It’s called, ‘hard copy’. :-)
