How to

Notepad++ block select!! How to do this [Step-by-step]

April 11, 2020

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Notepad++ is a free open source text editor that supports moreover all languages. notepad++ is written and developed in C++. It is a very helpful and advanced text editor for the developers as well as for the programmers. It a quite similar to Notepad application but some extra advance features made it different from the other text editors. Lots of plugins available in the notepad++, which reduce the user effort and save user times. In this article you will know notepad++ block select, How Notepad++ differs from Notepad, what are the advantages of Notepad++.

Table of Contents

Notepad ++ Block select

Notepad++ lets you select your text using block which saves lots of user time. By the block selection you can work on different blocks together at the same time. You can use column mode or Multi editing to select block of your text.

Column Mode selection for notepad++ block select

By column mode selection you can modify your text into columns and then apply any operation if need.

Point your mouse cursor at the beginning of the text where you want to select the text.
Now from your keyboard press and hold Shift + alt keys together
Stay holding until you completed the selection process and press up or down key to select the zone for the edit the desired text.

Note: you can simply go to the Edit option from Ribbon and then select Column Mode.

Column mode by using TextFx plugin

Select (I) which separating the columns and copy it.
Now select all text.
Go to TextFx option and select TextFx Edit.
From the dropdown menu select Line up multiple lines by(clipboard character) or you can select as your requirements.

Multi Editing

Multi Editing is a great feature of Notepad++. By using Multi editing at the same time you can update, delete, insert text on multiple locations of the same file.

By default multi editing feature is disabled. To enable it :

Firstly, Go to Setting.
Then select preference.
From Editing menu enable multi editing settings.

Now press and hold ctrl and select multiple locations where you want to edit the text.

Now start typing you will see the selected location are changing together.

How Notepad++ differs from Notepad

Notepad is a normal text editor that stores files in .txt format on the other hand Notepad++ is an advanced text editor that lets you store the file based on file type as it supports moreover all scripting and programming language.
Syntax highlighting feature is available in the Notepad++ whereas you will not get this feature in generic Notepad.
Depending on the language you are using Notepad++ will highlight the keywords and function whereas
generic Notepad will not.
In Notepad++ More than 20+ plugins available and even many more advance features you can enjoy whereas generic Notepad is basic.
In Notepad++ let your switch between different files altogether whereas generic Notepad does not.

Advantages of Notepad++

Notepad++ is open source and free to use. Fast and light-weighted.
The interface of Notepad++ is fully customizable. You can change themes, background color foreground color, font style many more. You can change tab alignments.
Auto-completion, End braces highlighting, Word correction features are available.
By using Multi Editing mode you can at the same time you can update, delete, insert text on multiple locations of the same file
Lots of plugins save user time and effort.
By using Macros you don’t have to do the same task again and again if you record it for one time that will automatically repeat.
The best about Notepad++ is it has an auto-save feature so if you accidentally close the file your data will remain safe.
Searching for something within the document is easy as it has Find and Find in files features which highlights with a specific color for easy readability.

File in find feature

By using this feature you can search for a text in all files of a folder.

Run notepad ++.
You can go to the search option from the ribbon.
Then from the drop-down menu select find in files.
Now in the next window fill up in the Find what section write the text which you are looking for.
And in the directory section choose the folder path of those files.
You can choose to replace in files if you want to replace the text with new text.
Otherwise select find all.
Within a few seconds you will get the files and lines with the text you are looking for on your screen.

Drawbacks of Notepad++

It is only available for Windows users.
Sometimes it crashes or hangs while loading files.
GUI is basic as compared to other text editors like Atom, Sublime text editor.
Have lots of features that make the user very confusing.
It only works best for small files.
Have so many plugins Most of the plugins are useless or do not work properly.

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