An updated version of Notepad++ is available, on its 20th anniversary. The text editor first saw light in November 2003 when it was released on SourceForge.

Notepad++ is a more fully-featured text editor than Microsoft's built-in Windows text editor, Notepad. Originally hosted on SourceForge, NetNotepad++ has always been free to use. It supports tabbed editing, meaning developers can work with multiple open files.  It supports syntax highlighting and syntax folding for over 50 programming, scripting, and markup languages, including HTML.

Don Ho, who is the main creator of Notepad++, noted in the announcement of the updated version that from v1.0 to the current v8.6, there have been 238 official releases, and says that between the v1.x and the v2.0, he repeatedly signed up on various websites in order to spam the forums with "Notepad++ is awesome!" message. He continued:

"At the beginning of the project, it has been a one-man show from coding to web design to marketing to logo design to user interaction, which confirms that:

"Doing open source projects is like being stranded on a deserted island. The bad news is you have to do everything yourself. The good news is you have to do everything yourself."

Multi-edit is a new feature of this version (8.6). You could achieve this using a plugin, but the facility is now part of the core program. Multi-edit transforms the column mode to multi-caret on HOME/END/Arrow keys to make it easier to make multiple selections. An associated improvement means you can now customize multi-select background and caret colors. 

The new version also adds the ability to remember inaccessible files across the sessions, which the developers say is a frequently requested feature. The new option works by using empty and read-only documents as placeholders, and can be enabled by checking the option "Remember inaccessible files from past session" in the Backup section of the Preferences dialog.

Notepad++ 8.6 is available now.

More Information

Notepad++ Download

Notepad++ 20th Anniversary Announcement

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