After doing the write-up for WinPad, it occurred to me that any NotePad replacement would not only have to be superior to NotePad, it would have to be superior to WordPad as well, while still remaining small and nimble, or why not just use a full-featured word processor? After all, WordPad isn’t a significant
improvement over NotePad, but just enough to keep the occasional “writes monthly letter to Grandma” user from being forced to purchase a $600usd Office suite. Bad PR and all that. Worse, it might let a competing software writer get a foothold in the gap between the two, eh?
That in mind, I looked for a NotePad alternate that seemed to be brimming with features not present in either MS default offering. I found NotePad++.
Acquisition and Installation
I picked up my copy of NP++ from SourceForge, but like WinPad, you can get it from a few other download sites as well. The package is just over a meg, and only takes up about 3 and a half megs when installed. This app is a mature open source project, so the source code is available on this page as well. The application can be downloaded as an executable (EXE) or in ZIP format. For the casual user, I recommend the EXE. This page is also where you can grab the plugins to expand NP++’s functionality, as well as an applet to permanently replace NotePad as your default TXT editor.
There are over a dozen languages available, but the License Agreement was obviously written with the assistance of lawyers. It’s about 15 pages long, and my eyes glazed over after 30 seconds. It’s got to be the longest, most complicated EULA I’ve ever seen on free software. Makes me a little nervous in these days of legal loopholes and double-speak.
The installer offers you some options, the only one not checked by default that I’d recommend is “As default HTML viewer” to have NP++ open when selecting ‘view source’ in your web browser. If you plan on using the applet to replace NotePad, this is a bit superfluous, however.
Features and Use
NP++ is largely geared towards the coder. It supports coding in a variety of programming languages including C, C++, Java, C#, Pascal, Perl and many others. If you’re a coder you should read here in detail.
While the Uber-geeks are off doing that, the rest of us will check out a few of the other features. While many of the things this obviously well-made app does are well over my head (I’m no coder), enough of the features are in my radar picture that I spent quite a bit of time playing with it. I actually ended up writing this article in NP++, only copying it to Windows Live Writer to format it to fit the blog. The zoom in/out is very clever, as are the dozens of text effects, such as reversing upper/lower case. As I’m only a couple rungs above the hunt-and-peck typist (tried for years, call it a mental block) this feature will come in very handy when I type an entire paragraph with the capslock on.
NotePad++ also has some very advanced search and replace functions, including the ability to search other files for strings of text without opening them all. NP++ supports multiple tabs, so you can work on several docs at once. I’ve had 3 or 4 NotePad windows open at once, I’ll be using this feature, that’s certain.
There’s a full-featured spell-checker, a wide variety of plugins I mentioned earlier, as well as macro support.
System Friendliness
As said above, NotePad++ take up only 3.5 megs on disk. With no text typed in, the memory footprint is about 10,000K, but this increases as you add text. With multiple large documents open, this could grow exponentially, of course.
Uninstaller left the program folder and 2.5 megs of files behind, including the main EXE that had to be manually deleted.
Pros: Feature-packed, yet still quick & nimble. Open-source, Free.
Cons: Non-power users may find it TOO feature-packed to be convenient, uninstaller needs work. Script to replace default NotePad should be built-in, rather than a separate download.
Nice review Bill. Good job.
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Gotta say that commenting experience was one of the worst ever. Don't like Disqus much.
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pB .. if so then please let the team know why http://disqus.disqus.com/c/95/ .. I know Daniel will appreciate the feedback especially from a “non-blogger” type of user.
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Nice review Bill. Good job.
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pB .. if so then please let the team know why http://disqus.disqus.com/c/95/ .. I know Daniel will appreciate the feedback especially from a “non-blogger” type of user.
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Sure, went there, but I have no intention of “creating an account” It seems these days I have to create an account for anything I want to do on the web, each with it's own unique user/pass combo, or else if I use the same combo as elsewhere I then have to trust some unknown 3rd party with those details. (would you use, say, your hotmail pw?).
The first comment I left had me staring at the macromedia 'waiting' animation for what seemed like an age, eventually it made it thru, and the second comment (the complaining one) went straight thru – call it Murphy's law.
I don't like the UI much, and right about now it appears I've run out of ranting room. The line I am typing now does not show on screen as I type, but it appears to be there, somehow, perhaps I've overstuffed some buffer? The fancy faded boxes don't make it clear that a user needs to overtype their nick and email addy, yet once that's filled in, the button still says “post anonymously”. I hardly think that my nick and a valid email address qualifies as anonymous. That's when I realised that I needed to go log in somewhere, and probably create an account somewhere, which when I'm reading blogs first thing, when I'm meant to be getting ready for work is just not gonna happen.
I can see how it has advantages from a blog author's POV, but as a casual reader and occasional commenter it all becomes a PITA, reinforcing my occasional cynical view that bloggers seem to exist in their own little sphere, slapping each other on the back with congratulations and link love, but totally oblivious to the real world. Nothing against you personally, Steven, I'm referring principally to the bunch of wankers that like to class themselves as “influencers”
Now there's no ability to preview this comment, and I'm guessin since I don't have an “account” there will be no way to edit if I read it online and realise i've made a huge mistake somewhere. Oh well.
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…and “1 point” WTF?
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Sorry, uncalled for. Been havin a bad week, and the comment frustration copped it. Thanks for letting me rant.
Hmm, seems a problem maybe once the commenting section is opened up the rh column is too wide, shrinking the comment box down, but that could just be coz I'm on IE6.
Sorry again.
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no need to apologize pB .. I've known you for too many years to be easily ticked
hopefully Daniel might see the comments. If not I'll point them out to him as some of your point are more than vaild.
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I saw it, thanks.
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Hi pB, that's a lot of critical feedback for us to digest but we'll closely look at each concern. I'll respond here afterwards on my thoughts.
Thanks though – we need this sort of candid evaluation to survive.
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…and “1 point” WTF?
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I saw it, thanks.
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Hi pB, that's a lot of critical feedback for us to digest but we'll closely look at each concern. I'll respond here afterwards on my thoughts. <br><br>Thanks though – we need this sort of candid evaluation to survive.
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>> if I use the same combo as elsewhere I then have to trust some unknown 3rd party with those details. (would you use, say, your hotmail pw?).
We treat and secure your info with the same level of respect you'd expect from any established web service.
The first comment I left had me staring at the macromedia 'waiting' animation for what seemed like an age, eventually it made it thru, and the second comment (the complaining one) went straight thru – call it Murphy's law.
>> Posting a comment is quick, though afterwards we do reload the web page. The Winextra website is indeed fast, and I haven't had any issues myself, but we can't make any guarantees on the loading other web pages.
>> The line I am typing now does not show on screen as I type, but it appears to be there, somehow, perhaps I've overstuffed some buffer?
This must be an IE6 bug. I'll take a look.
>> yet once that's filled in, the button still says “post anonymously”. I hardly think that my nick and a valid email address qualifies as anonymous.
Perhaps anonymous is not the best word to use. We're still playing with this one.
>> That's when I realised that I needed to go log in somewhere, and probably create an account somewhere
Registering is not required.
>> Now there's no ability to preview this comment, and I'm guessin since I don't have an “account” there will be no way to edit if I read it online and realise i've made a huge mistake somewhere. Oh well.
We intentionally left out “previewing” to keep the experience simple and fast, like chatting. At the moment you can edit from the Disqus comment page (click “Options” at the top, select “Go to forum”), but we'll soon have this functionality accessible right from the blog.
pB, we're still under the guise of a work-in-progress beta, and we can make relevant changes quickly. We're not providing a service solely for people familiar with blogs. Anyone can read and comment on blogs, so Disqus has to work for the vast majority. Thanks again.
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>> if I use the same combo as elsewhere I then have to trust some unknown 3rd party with those details. (would you use, say, your hotmail pw?).<br><br>We treat and secure your info with the same level of respect you'd expect from any established web service.<br><br>The first comment I left had me staring at the macromedia 'waiting' animation for what seemed like an age, eventually it made it thru, and the second comment (the complaining one) went straight thru – call it Murphy's law.<br><br>>> Posting a comment is quick, though afterwards we do reload the web page. The Winextra website is indeed fast, and I haven't had any issues myself, but we can't make any guarantees on the loading other web pages.<br><br>>> The line I am typing now does not show on screen as I type, but it appears to be there, somehow, perhaps I've overstuffed some buffer? <br><br>This must be an IE6 bug. I'll take a look.<br><br>>> yet once that's filled in, the button still says "post anonymously". I hardly think that my nick and a valid email address qualifies as anonymous. <br><br>Perhaps anonymous is not the best word to use. We're still playing with this one.<br><br>>> That's when I realised that I needed to go log in somewhere, and probably create an account somewhere<br><br>Registering is not required.<br><br>>> Now there's no ability to preview this comment, and I'm guessin since I don't have an "account" there will be no way to edit if I read it online and realise i've made a huge mistake somewhere. Oh well.<br><br>We intentionally left out "previewing" to keep the experience simple and fast, like chatting. At the moment you can edit from the Disqus comment page (click "Options" at the top, select "Go to forum"), but we'll soon have this functionality accessible right from the blog.<br><br>pB, we're still under the guise of a work-in-progress beta, and we can make relevant changes quickly. We're not providing a service solely for people familiar with blogs. Anyone can read and comment on blogs, so Disqus has to work for the vast majority. Thanks again.
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[...] First we looked at WinPad, which seemed a little short on bling, then we gave NotePad++ a go-round, and bling it had goin’ on, but perhaps it had just a bit too much for some of us? Look no [...]
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The license is the GPL, the Free Software Foundation's “General Public License”. It's basically THE most common Free Software License on the planet. The only people who should be afraid of the GPL are those who want to take the code, make changes to it, use it as their own — but not release those changes to the public under the same terms under which they got the original code. See http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl.html
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The license is the GPL, the Free Software Foundation's "General Public License". It's basically THE most common Free Software License on the planet. The only people who should be afraid of the GPL are those who want to take the code, make changes to it, use it as their own — but not release those changes to the public under the same terms under which they got the original code. See <a href="http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl.html">http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl.html</a>
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I use for editing Notepad++ because is a very complex program and support languages like C; C++; Java; C#; XML; HTML; PHP; CSS; makefile ASCII art (.nfo); doxygen ini file and other. Olso you can edit several documents at the same time. I got it from here: Notepad++
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I use for editing Notepad++ because is a very complex program and support languages like C; C++; Java; C#; XML; HTML; PHP; CSS; makefile ASCII art (.nfo); doxygen ini file and other. Olso you can edit several documents at the same time. I got it from here: Notepad++
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