Notepad++

Image: https://notepad-plus-plus.org

In Korea, most people write documents using the Hangul program (hwp).
Reports or plans that need to follow specific formats and contain various data should be created in Hangul or Word.
But do you really need to use paid programs even for simple text documents like diaries or to-do lists?
Notepad++ is a great program to use in such cases.
The reason people already use it so much isn’t simply because it’s free.
Give it a try - think of it as an experiment.
For general use, it’s an extremely powerful text editor!

Basic Usage

What You Need

  • Download the version that matches your computer environment.
  • Most users can install the installer under the Download Notepad++ x64 section.

Installation

  • Double-click the downloaded file to install.
  • Choose your preferred installation language, either English or Korean.
  • Use default settings for the rest of the installation.

Setup

  • After launching, change the settings below first.
  • For everything else, just use it as is and you’re done!
  • Auto-save is enabled by default, so even if you don’t manually save, your content will remain when you close and reopen.
  • I recommend setting new documents to be created in UTF-8.
    • Menu bar > Settings > Preferences > New Document > Check UTF-8 and Apply to opened ANSI files in Encoding.
  • Choose your preferred font, font size, and editor style.
    • You need to check Use global font and Use global font size for them to take effect.
    • I use Global Styles, Obsidian, Hamchorom Batang, 14 point.

Encoding Settings

Encoding Settings

Style Settings

Style Settings

Useful Features

Associating txt Files

  • It’s convenient to set txt files or md (markdown) files to open with Notepad++ when clicked.
  • Right-click on the file > Open with > Choose another app > Set to Notepad++ (Always).

Whitespace Management

  • Text documents often have spaces at the beginning or invisible spaces at the end.
  • You can remove leading and trailing spaces separately or all at once.
  • Menu bar > Edit > Blank Operations > Trim Leading and Trailing Space

Line Operations (Remove Empty Lines)

  • Just like whitespace, this is perfect when you have many empty lines and it’s tedious to remove them one by one.
  • You can remove completely empty lines only, or even lines that contain only whitespace (including tabs).
  • Menu bar > Edit > Line Operations > Remove Empty Lines (Containing Blank characters)

Line Operations (Remove Duplicate Lines)

  • When organizing data, you sometimes need to remove duplicate lines.
  • It removes all but one of the completely identical lines, including empty lines and whitespace.
  • Menu bar > Edit > Line Operations > Remove Duplicate Lines

Line Operations (Sort)

  • After removing duplicate lines, or simply when organizing in alphabetical order, use the sort function.
  • Great for quick and easy sorting when needed.
  • Menu bar > Edit > Line Operations > Sort Lines Lexicographically Ascending

Using Regular Expressions

  • Most text editors have the advantage of being able to use regular expression search and replace (find and replace).
  • Anyone working with text can dramatically increase their speed just by learning regular expressions.
  • Simply put, regular expressions are similar to patterns. It’s a syntax that lets you find or replace texts like Korea-a2, corea-D19, Korea_A002 all at once with a regular expression like [Kc]orea[-_][A-Za-z][0-9]{1,3}.
  • Learning regular expressions allows you to find or transform text quickly and accurately in many fields such as research, analysis, publishing, and translation.
  • You can quickly learn commonly used regular expressions. I’ll organize and post them separately soon!

Precautions

  • There’s a bug where strange codes get mixed into the middle of data when doing find-and-replace in large text files of 10M or 20M.
  • It’s best to use it only for everyday purposes.