Is this normal behavior for this program? How do I disable these features?
-
It seems whenever I’m typing a few words in version 8.5.8, there is a delay of several seconds between finishing typing and then seeing what I just typed on the screen while, at the same time, upon typing a word, I am given an unrequested drop down menu of words which start with the same letter or otherwise share some characteristic with the word I’m in the process of typing. Is this normal behavior for this program? How do I disable these features?
-
I am given an unrequested drop down menu of words which start with the same letter
So you’ve already asked a few questions that could be cleared up by looking at the Settings menu or by consulting the user manual…
But this is unusual:
there is a delay of several seconds between finishing typing and then seeing what I just typed on the screen
Typing should be instantaneous.
-
@Bill-Miller That delay is certainly not normal.
First, I would try:
From the main menu, open Settings | Preferences… | Auto-Completion and uncheck any boxes with check marks.
If that fixes it, good. If not, I think we need the information from ? | Debug Info… (mostly to see if a plugin could be affecting your experience) and to know what sort of file you are editing: does this happen with a new (empty) file? Does it happen all the time, or only with files over a certain size or with a certain extension?
Is this a brand new installation, or an upgrade? If it’s an upgrade, from what version, and is the problem for sure new after the upgrade?
-
@Bill-Miller ,
Besides what the others have said, the only time I’ve noticed a serious delay using Notepad++, is when Windows is downloading an update, or trying to download it. Otherwise, if you don’t want to use the autocompletion feature, especially if it’s a particularly large file, then do as the others have said, and turn it off, and you can find that information of how to affect settings by reading the online manual that @Alan-Kilborn has linked you to. -
@Coises Opening Settings | Preferences… | Auto-Completion from the main menu and unchecking the boxes with check marks was the fix Coises. Thanks again.
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++.
-
@Lycan-Thrope Thank you for your response Lycan Thrope. Opening Settings | Preferences… | Auto-Completion from the main menu and unchecking the boxes with check marks was the fix.
-
@Alan-Kilborn Thank you for your response Alan Kilborn. Opening Settings | Preferences… | Auto-Completion from the main menu and unchecking the boxes with check marks was the fix.
-
@Bill-Miller said in Is this normal behavior for this program? How do I disable these features?:
If these features were all unchecked by default, I wouldn’t have had to seek help 3 times so far since loading Notepad++.
That’s not a specific to Notepad++ issue. A developer has an idea what they believe would be a cool feature. They enable it by default as they don’t realize how badly it may impact some people.
As it’s a new feature there will be few web pages that talk about how to disable it meaning Google finds little that is of use other than others complaining about the feature interspersed with speculation on possible fixes.
Maybe we should set up a FAQ page on how to make Notepad++ a bit more minimalist.
A thought is if we wanted a truly minimalist editor that we could use plain old Microsoft Notepad. Of course, a developer a Microsoft thought of a cool feature which was to rewrite Notepad as an app and so now it’s part of yet another gigabyte of bloatware that gets re-downloaded to and chews up your machine for hours to update each month. As far as I can tell, Microsoft does not give you the option of switching back to the plain old 34 to 68 kilobyte application that worked imperfectly well for decades. (I know you can get and use a copy of the old Notepad.exe application that you may no longer have a valid license to.)
-
This post is deleted! -
@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.
-
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
notepad.exe. -
@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.
-
This post is deleted! -
This post is deleted! -
@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.
-
Maybe there needs to be a “Frequently Altered Preferences” (FAP) list, analogous to an FAQ.
-
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.
-
@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’. :-)
