User Interface

Tabs

  • The tab bar settings can be found at Settings > Preferences > General > Tab Bar, including the option to Hide the tab bar.

  • To switch between first and last tab, use Ctrl + Shift + MOUSEWHEEL on tabs. MOUSEWHEEL up will take to first tab while down will take to last tab. tabNavFirstLast

  • To switch and activate next/previous tab, there are multiple options:

    1. Use Ctrl + MOUSEWHEEL on tabs. MOUSEWHEEL up will take to previous tab while down will take next tab.
    2. Use Ctrl + Page Up for next tab and Ctrl + Page Down for previous tab.
    3. Use Ctrl + Tab for next tab and Ctrl + Shift + Tab for previous tab. Using use Ctrl + Tab or Ctrl + Shift + Tab while MRU is enabled provides great user experience. To enable MRU you can follow Settings->Preferences->MISC.->Document Switcher, then checkmark both Enable and Enable MRU Behavior. tabNavNextPrev

  • To move tab from one position to other position:

    1. Use Shift + MOUSEWHEEL on tabs. MOUSEWHEEL up will move currently selected tab to previous position while down will move to next position.
    2. Use Ctrl + Shift + Page Up for previous position and Ctrl + Shift + Page Down for next position. tabNavMoveRtLft

  • To move a tab from one View to the other, you can use the techniques described in the Editing > Dual View section or Views > Move / Clone section, including:

    1. Use the menus: View > Move/Clone Current Document > Move to Other View.
    2. Right Click on the tab’s title and select Move to Other View.
    3. Drag the tab’s title into the editing pane for that same tab and select Move to Other View.
    4. If the other View is already visible, drag the tab’s title into the editing pane of the other View, and it will move. move2view

  • To clone a tab from one View into the other, you can use the techniques described in the Editing > Clone Document or Views > Move / Clone section section, including:

    1. Use the menus: View > Move/Clone Current Document > Clone to Other View.
    2. Right Click on the tab’s title and select Clone to Other View.
    3. Drag the tab’s title into the editing pane for that same tab and select Clone to Other View. clonedDoc

  • To create a new file tab using the tab bar:

    1. If there is empty area to the right of the last tab in the tab bar, double click there and a new tab will be created. tabNavNewDoubleClick

  • To close a tab using the tab bar:

    1. If Settings > Preferences > General > Tab Bar > Show close button on each tab is checked, you can click the red ☒ on that tab to close that tab.
    2. If Settings > Preferences > General > Tab Bar > Double click to close document is checked, you can double-click the tab’s title to close that tab. tabNavCloseXDblClick

Tab Bar Right Click Menu

When you right click on the title for a tab, you get a context menu for manipulating that tab.

  • Close: Closes this file’s tab.
  • Close Multiple Tabs >:
    • Close All But This: Closes all files except this file.
    • Close All to the Left: Closes all files that are to the right of this file on the tab bar.
    • Close All to the Right: Closes all files that are to the left of this file on the tab bar.
    • Close All Unchanged: Closes all files that do not have unsaved changes (leaves only files that have unsaved changes).
  • Save: Saves the file (disabled/grayed out if there are no unsaved changes).
  • Save As: Allows you to save the current file under a new name.
  • Open Into >:
    • Open Containing Folder in Explorer: Opens this file’s folder in the Windows Explorer.
    • Open Containing Folder in cmd: Opens this file’s folder in the cmd command prompt.
    • Open Containing Folder as Workspace: Opens this file’s folder as a Folder as Workspace.
    • Open in Default Viewer: Opens this file in the default Windows, using the same rules as the File > Open in Default Viewer menu action.
  • Rename: Renames this file.
  • Move to Recycle Bin: Deletes the current file (placing it safely in Window’s Recycle Bin).
  • Reload: Reloads this file from disk.
  • Print: Prints this file.
  • Read-Only: Sets this file’s Notepad++-specific read-only flag (see more in the Edit menu description).
  • Clear Read-Only Flag: Clears this file’s read-only flag for the Windows OS (see more in the Edit menu description).
  • Copy to Clipboard >
    • Copy Full File Path: Copies the full file path (drive, directory, and filename) to the Windows Clipboard.
    • Copy Filename: Copies just the filename (no drive or directory) to the Windows Clipboard.
    • Copy Current Dir. Path: Copies the file’s directory (drive and directory, but not the filename) to the Windows Clipboard.
  • Move Document >
    • Move to Start: Moves the tab to be the first in the list of active tabs for the current view. (New to v8.6.1.)
    • Move to End: Moves the tab to be the last in the list of active tabs for the current view. (New to v8.6.1.)
    • Move to Other View: Moves the tab from one view to the other.
    • Clone to Other View: Makes a tab for the same file in the other view.
    • Move to New Instance: Moves the tab from this Notepad++ instance to a newly-created instance (only works on named files that have no unsaved changes).
    • Open in New Instance: Makes a tab in a new Notepad++ instance which contains the same file as this tab (only works on named files that have no unsaved changes).
  • Apply Color to Tab > (new to v8.4.6)
    • Apply Color #: Applies the indicated color to the highlight portion of the tab bar. (Applying a different color will change the color, not combine the colors together. Each tab can only have one color.)
    • Remove Color: Removes the color of the tab, returning to the default color scheme.

The menu bar of Notepad++ has a variety of menus, including File (for generic file operations like open and close), Edit, Search, and View, Encoding (which affects how the bytes of the file are interpreted as text – whether ANSI or UTF-8 or similar), Language (for syntax highlighting), Settings, Tools (with a couple of built-in utilities), Macro, Run (for running external commands), Plugins, and the Window menu (for accessing open files already open in Notepad++).

It also contains the ? menu, which is a Help-style menu, including actions that list the command line arguments; actions that take you to the Notepad++ home page, the project page, this user manual, and the Community Forum; actions for the updater and proxy; the Debug Info (which is critical information when asking for help at the Community Forum or when creating a feature request or bug report at the project page) and About.

At the far right of the menu bar there are also icons + (to create a New file), ▼ (to choose from the open files), and X (which closes the active tab). (Before v8.4.3, only the X existed in that area of the menu bar. Starting in v8.4.5, these can be made hidden using Settings > Preferences > General > Menu.)

Toolbar

There is a toolbar which has icons for various common tasks, which each run a specific menu action. If you hover your mouse over that icon, it will show its name. The toolbar actions include:

Plugins can put additional buttons on the toolbar, to perform actions provided by those plugins.

The toolbar settings can be found at Settings > Preferences > General > Toolbar, including the option to Hide the toolbar. And you can customize the icons used for those buttons, as described in Toolbar Icon Customization.

Tools Menu

This menu contains commands related to running cryptographic hash functions , including MD5, SHA-1, and the SHA-256 and SHA-512 algorithms from SHA-2. (SHA-1 and SHA-512 were added in v8.5.5.) These are useful for comparing the hashes for downloaded files to officially-published hashes, and for generating those hashes for files that you are publishing.

For each function, there are 3 commands:

  • Generate - You can enter text in the upper field, and it will give you the hash output in the other field. You can copy those results to the Clipboard through the button. You can optionally checkmark ☑ Treat each line as a separate string to get N different hashes for N different strings at the same time, rather than a single hash that covers the entire input text.
  • Generate from Files - Will calculate the hashes for one or more selected files.
  • Generate from Selection into Clipboard - Will use the text that is currently selected, calculate the hash, and put the hash results in the Clipboard.

Document Switcher

The Document Switcher feature (which can be enabled or disabled using the Settings > Preferences > MISC > Document Switcher settings) can be used to quickly switch between all the open files.

When you hold the Ctrl key and then press and release the Tab key, the Document Switcher appears as a popup with a yellow background, showing the current list of tabs (or a partial list, if there are too many tabs); the popup will remain until you release the Ctrl key. One tab in the list will be shown in bold, indicating which tab will be made activate when all keys have been released. With the Document Switcher on screen, repeated press and release of the Tab key will move the bold indicator downward on the screen, to the next tab name in the list. When the desired tab is bold, release all keys to activate that tab.

The first tab to be shown in bold when you start the Document Switcher depends on the Settings > Preferences > MISC > Document Switcher > Enable MRU behavior checkbox: When not checkmarked, the first tab name in bold will be the tab to the right of the currently-active tab (or the first tab in the tab bar, if the currently-active tab is the last in the tab bar; or the first tab in the other View, if the currently-active tab is the last in the active View); in this mode, the order of the tabs in the Document Switcher is the same as the order of the tabs in the tab bar, with the files from the active View above those from the alternate View when both Views are active. When that setting is checkmarked, the first tab name in bold will be the tab that was active just before the current tab was activated (the “most recently used” tab); in this mode, the order of the tabs in the Document Switcher is the “most recently used” order, with the most recent at the top of the list, and the least recent at the bottom, with the tabs from both Views mixed together in usage order regardless of which View they are from.

When cycling through the tabs in the Document Switcher, if the bottom entry in the list is reached and you again press and release Tab, the bold indicator will move to the top of the list; or, if the list was too long to entirely be displayed, the Tab will scroll the Document Switcher, so the bold indicator will move to next entry down, and the entry that was previous at the top of the list will scroll out of the visible popup.

If you hold down Shift (while still holding the Ctrl key to keep you in Document Switcher mode), and then press and release the Tab, it will cause the bold indicator to move to the previous entry in the tab list, rather than the next.

The Document Switcher functionality can also be achieved using just the mouse (if you have a scroll wheel): Right-click in the editing area for a tab and hold the right mouse button, then begin scrolling the mouse wheel (in either direction) to display the Document Switcher popup; further scrolling of the scroll wheel will change which tab is shown in bold in the list. Releasing the right mouse button will cause the tab that is currently bold to be activated. An alternate way to activate a tab using the mouse, while the right mouse button is still held and the Document Switcher is displayed, is to left-click on one of the tab names from the list, which will immediately make that entry bold, activate the tab, and close the popup (even though you haven’t let go of the right mouse button yet).

Some users have wondered about a “yellow flash” they have seen when using Notepad++: If you Ctrl+Tab and then promptly release both keys, it will immediately switch to the tab that is first made bold and will leave Document Switcher mode (since you released the Ctrl key). Depending on how promptly you release, this may just briefly flash the yellow-background popup, not giving you a chance to read the popup’s list of tabs.