Notepad++, Your Regular Text Editor on Steroids

One utility any Operating System can not be complete without is a text editor. To many people the first example that comes to mind is Notepad (In case of Windows). Some on the other hand, may shout “Microsoft Word”, I’d like to offer an explanation here – Word is NOT a text editor instead its a WORD PROCESSOR.

Power users, enthusiasts & programmers will agree on the fact that there are things which Notepad does better  Its a lovely piece of software that hasn’t changed much over the years. Its “Complete” in every sense of the term.

However, there are little improvements which can be made and simple addons like line numbers, syntax highlighting, indentation, spell check do make life a lot easier.

Notepad++ is as the name suggests an incremental version of Notepad, its a an Open Source application and has remarkable set of features.

It would be impossible for me to write about all of its features but here’s a screen shot to make things simple, as they say, A picture speaks louder than words :

notepad

I suggest Windows users must substitute the default Notepad for this Notepad++. It’ll be worth it. And yeah, did I mention its just 2MB and can even be added to the context menu – Open With Notepad++

You can download it here, Notepad++ can be supplemented with equally good plugins. Out of which my favorite is the FTP integration which allows you to edit and save files directly on the Server on the fly! Read about the FTP plugin here.


[Editor Note: This post is by guest blogger Vaibhav Kanwal. He blogs at Calling All Geeks about technology.

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7 Comments

Sarbartha Sau March 17, 2009

Yeah, this software really awesome. You can use this as an editor of any programming language from vhdl to ada etc. I have been using this for almost 1 year.

Bapun March 17, 2009

I was using Crimson Editor previously. Will give this a try 🙂

Mayur Somani March 17, 2009

Yes that’s right. I’ve been using it for some time. It comes very near to coda. I recommend it.

Pushpinder March 17, 2009

Have you tried TextPad… its the best ever…

Gautam March 17, 2009

I use Komodo (for coding).

Vaibhav Kanwal March 18, 2009

Hmmm, there are many Text Editors available out there but at a time I use only one. I’ve heard about Text Pad although I have not used it, I guess it may be a replacement of Notepad++

I haven’t felt the need for anything better than Notepad++, when I do. I’ll search for something better and post my experience with it.

p@r@noid March 19, 2009

I’m using it for long and must say it is one of the tool that I use that makes my work easier and handy…