Difference in display between Win11 Notepad and Notepad++

[bartrpe]

Just for clarity, I’ve searched and found some new topics with similar keywords, but none of them looked legit. Others come from before 2018 so Win11 wasn’t even a thing back then.

This is a file I have:

md_01
{
	playerModel	md_01
	weapon		WP_BOT_LASER
	reactions	3
	aim			1
	move		3
	aggression	3
	evasion		3
	intelligence	5
	playerTeam	TEAM_ENEMY
	enemyTeam	TEAM_PLAYER
	class		CLASS_REMOTE
	yawSpeed	120
	runSpeed	500
	walkSpeed	150
	height		32
	width		8
	hFOV		160
	vfov		45
	snd			remote
	moveType	"flyswim"
}

This is how it looks in Notepad on Windows 11:

This is how it looks in Notepad++, newest version, Windows 11 too - here everything looks perfect, and this is where file was created:

Where does this difference come from? As you can see, tabs on the line “aim” and “snd” are messed. How can I fix it? This happens to many other similar files. I want normal Windows Notepad to have tabs look normal. (my colleague uses just the normal Notepad, I use Notepad++).

[PeterJones]

@bartrpe

Microsoft’s Notepad treats tabs differently than Notepad++ does. That’s why it looks different. The number of tab characters in the file is the same.

In Notepad++, Settings > Preferences > Language contains the settings which influence how tabs are rendered. If your file is a .txt or other un-recognized file type (which it appears to be, since your screenshot shows no lexing), then use the [Default] entry for tab size. I am assuming Microsoft’s Notepad is just doing the old-fashioned 8-spaces-per-tab, whereas Notepad++ defaults to a Tab Size of 4. If you want Notepad++ to waste more screen space, then change that Tab Size to 8.

And if you want to see how many tab characters are there in Notepad++, use View > Show Symbol > Show Space and Tab =>

[bartrpe]

@PeterJones Oh, so it’s actually a super simple issue. Thank you!