Notepad++

I have a thing for editors it seems. Over the years I’ve used quite a variety of different ones. I’ve even written an editor of my own. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve recently taken to using jEdit for my day to day editing needs. However any editor as powerful as jEdit is also a bit heavy for some applications. It’s nice to have an editor on hand that installs easily, loads quickly, and yet is still powerful enough for “real” editing when necessary. One such editor is Notepad++.

Notepad++ has become a popular tool among students at Vermont Technical College where I teach. Students like it because it is easy to use and yet modern enough to be a comfortable editing environment for programming assignments, web pages, and most anything else. Indeed, Notepad++ is surprisingly feature rich for such a small download. It supports syntax highlighting for a wide collection of programming languages, macros, various Unicode encodings, and even a plug-in architecture with a significant number of plug-ins available on the Notepad++ site. The fact that it is open source is an added bonus.

I tend to use Notepad++ when I want to take a quick look at an arbitrary text file, treating the program as a kind of file viewer with editing features. It loads faster than jEdit so it is a good choice for quick and dirty editing when jEdit isn’t already running. Also since Notepad++ is installed on all the lab machines at Vermont Technical College I know I can use it anywhere in our labs without complication. Many of my students use Notepad++ for all their editing needs.

If you are looking for a small, light editor that is also worth using, consider Notepad++.