Question

I just started using Notepad++ for simple scripting tasks. Notepad++ has a bunch of plug-ins to extend the core functionality. What are your favorite ones?

Answer 1

The FTP_Synchronise (listed on the sf page) is absolutely brilliant for any web work.

Answer 2

RegEx Helper is useful if you want to test regular expressions against open documents.

Answer 3

For writing scripts, NPPExec is unbelievably useful! It lets you press a button to run your scripts with any command line options you want to pass in. I use it to run Python scripts when I need to test them using this NPPExec command: python.exe "$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)"

Answer 4

The Compare plugin has seen tons of use from me. It's great if you have Dynamics packages exported and want to quickly see the differences.

Answer 5

More of a tip than a plugin, but I've found adding a couple of user defined commands ('Run' menu) and adding corresponding entries in contextMenu.xml can speed things up a little.

For example; an '[SVN] Commit' context menu entry (exact commands may not be correct, can't check atm).

Shortcuts.xml

<UserDefinedCommands>
    <..>
    <Command name="[SVN] Commit" Ctrl="no" Alt="no" Shift="no">tortoisesvn commit -i $(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)</Command>
    <..>
</UserDefinedCommands>

contextMenu.xml

<ScintillaContextMenu>
    <..>
    <Item MenuEntryName="Run" MenuItemName="[SVN] Commit"/>
    <..>
</ScintillaContextMenu>

Note: these .xml modifications need to be made while Notepad++ is not running.

Answer 6

I use the Function List plugin quite a lot; it's very useful in C/C++ projects.

Answer 7

The XML Tools plugin is awesome

Answer 8

Notepad++ actually makes a pretty good hex editor with the Hex Editor plugin. The plugin allows you to view the hex version of any file as well as add/remove/change the bytes in a binary file, all from your favorite text editor!

Answer 9

I like Hex Editor. Now, all I have to do is figure out how to change the default font.

Answer 10

Explorer, MultiClipboard, SVN, and WebEdit I even wrote up an article here: http://hokuten.net/2010/using-notepad-for-web-development/

Answer 11

I've found the 'Compare' and 'Compare against SVN' to be invaluable.

Answer 12

TextFX!

very useful one is: TextFX | TextFXViz | Hide/Show lines with (Clipboard) text

Answer 13

Plugin Manager should be first in the list because it does help a lot in installing, updating or removal of the plugins.

Answer 14

If you are on a mac and want to use something similar to Notepad++ use Textmate from macromates.

But Espresso http://macrabbit.com/espresso/ is getting more popular because its has an integrated ftp.

Answer 15

NppExec, well developed and seems pretty mature. The advanced options dialog has a bazillon options ;-)

Answer 16

It doesn't exist (yet?), but a plugin to edit et save files over ssh (scp or sftp) would be great!