Notepad++

Notepad++ is a freely available text editor which I have used for over ten years and is the software which I am currently writing this review on actually. I like it much better than NotePad for most of my writing. In fact, overall I am currently writing about fifty to sixty pages per week overall for a three projects. I would guess eighty to ninety percent of this writing is done using Notepad++ because it works and it's free. The latest version allows you to close the software and reopen it whether your latest items have been saved or not which is cool. As they open right up again when you do open up the software so you may continue right where you left off. I like the horizontal tab based menu too. It serves me well with enough enabling me to have multiple documents simultaneously which I always do. This is great for grouping several documents within a single project which helps you keep content organized. You can setup macros is you're savvy which can help a lot by enabling you to accomplish two or more actions automatically. It's a great time saving tool. As are the keyboard shortcuts which I use extensively. This is the single fastest way to learn a new software in my opinion. If you Google 'Notepad++ keyboard shortcuts' and look in the images you can find all of them on a single graphic. That way you can learn the overall functionality and features of the software with hands on direct experience which helps you to learn it the fastest way. I often use several features in the Edit and Search columns. Indent, convert case, line operations and blank operations all have very helpful ways to manipulate your text. This in addition to the 'Ctrl F' which is a global search function allow you to find anything quickly. These are the features I use the most. You can get more advanced text editors such as Sublime Text and Atom which allow you to select multiple separate columns of text and much more but as someone who doesn't code entire projects Notepad++ works fine when I need to edit a Wordpress theme or make HTML/CSS changes otherwise. I will supplement Notepad++ by using TextMechanic.com when there are other sorting or filtering items which need getting done. Notepad++ does have programming language built in which you can setup to help speed up your workflow to note though. You can enable many different plugins which are helpful. In fact, what I've just learned makes my negative comments irrelevant. As I have just installed a plugin I had not realized was available which allows you to select up to ten different items to your clipboard. Which is all I was looking to do. I have thought about this at least ten times recently so I am happy to have just discovered this and look forward to diving into the plugins to see what else available which can help you be faster and better.

I wish this software was able to select multiple columns like advanced text editors can. I did not realize this was possible in the past and there have many instances when going through a large piece of writing which I have completed in the past when I would have like to select multiple items while I was reading it in one go. Rather than copy and paste various paragraphs over to OneNote which I currently use for story world building. If Notepad++ also had a vertical column menu pages available within each horizontal menu main page across the top this would be awesome and much more inline with OneNote in terms of facilitating creativity.

It's a solid text editor with more features and functions than Notepad which comes built into your operating system. Using it in combination with TextMechanic.com allows me to get everything I need to done in terms of formatting, sorting and filtering. This combination is easier than Sublime Text and Atom if you are a non-coder. And there is a lot more functionality available beyond the scope of my review. And it's free so what can you truly complain about. Not much in my opinion.