Compare allows you to open two different coding files in separate tabs. A must-have plugin to start with would be AutoSave - this could save your progress if a computer error or a similar action were to occur, so you won't have to rewrite your code over again. It's simple to add and remove plugins with the help of Plugin Admin, the feature that comes built-in to assist users with customizing and installing supported plugins.

This software also supports a wide variety of plugins. The multi-tab interface makes switching documents a breeze.

Highlighting with a selection of different colors makes for a more relaxing experience as you're able to more easily find what you're looking for in the code.

This is a big help when you want to choose what to hide and what to display while coding. Notepad++ has a lot of helpful features including syntax folding and highlighting. The style configurator comes with preset colors to change the appearance of the window in case the bright white default gets a bit hard on the eyes after a while. Instead of going into the settings tab, you can also just select the languages tab and search for the language that you'd like to code in from the list in alphabetical order. Looking in the language menu shows you how many languages that the software supports, with over 70 available items.

In the General category, you can change the size of icons, darken the color of bars and inactive tabs, and make other customizations to the tab bar. Opening the settings menu gives the user a good idea of just how many functions that Notepad++ provides. Upon downloading the software, it presents similarly to a regular word processor and it's predecessor, Notepad. On the website, there are a few options to choose from, but the website does suggest that you download the first option listed for both 32 and 64-bit. The most efficient and lightweight code editor availableįor users that have little to no experience with coding or programming software, just figuring out which version of Notepad++ can be a bit daunting.

Desktop notepad