Notepad++ for bulk editing, regular expressions, and code formatting

Notepad++ has carved out a niche for itself among those who need a lightweight, free, plain text editor with significantly more features than Windows Notepad. Its GPL license and C++ development have made it a beloved tool for programmers, administrators, and anyone who works with text files daily. Although originally designed for Windows, it can be used on Mac or Linux via emulators, virtual machines, Wine, or Snap, and for Android, you'll need to find alternatives that mimic its functionality. Its key appeal lies in its combination of speed, tabs, syntax highlighting, and advanced search capabilities without requiring a powerful computer.

In this area, bulk editing and regular expressions make all the difference when you need to clean up lists, change formats, delete HTML tags, or reorganize hundreds of lines in a flash. The great thing is that you don't need to be a guru: with a few well-understood patterns, you can solve tasks that would be a nightmare to do manually. Furthermore, Notepad++ doesn't just stop at search and replace; it also offers code formatting, autocomplete, file comparison, plugins, and macros to automate repetitive tasks.

What is Notepad++ and why is it so useful?

Notepad++ is a free and open-source text and source code editor, supporting over fifty languages ​​and featuring a Spanish interface, although some parts remain in English. Created by Don Ho, it has grown since 2003 with an active community; its code is available on GitHub, allowing users to contribute to its improvement. Programmed in C++, it utilizes the pure Win32 API and STL, which contributes to its speed and small file size. While not a full-fledged IDE, it is more than adequate for editing HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Python, C++, SQL, or Perl.

Among its defining features are multiple tabs, split view, and syntax highlighting . You can have the HTML in one tab, the stylesheet in another, and the JavaScript in a third, or even move and clone the current document to view two sections of the same file simultaneously. It also includes line numbering, configurable indentation, block collapsibility to hide sections, autocomplete, macros, multi-file search, and a plugin manager that extends its functionality. Versions such as 5.9.3 from 2011 and 6.9.1 from 2016 were mentioned at the time, but the important thing is that the application maintains its philosophy of being an agile and customizable editor.

Installation, first start and basic settings

To install it on Windows, simply go to the official website, access the downloads section, and choose the available version; you'll usually find the x64 build first , although there's also a 32-bit option. Then open the installer, accept the license terms, and follow the wizard. Once finished, you'll have access from the Start menu or the desktop. On a Mac, you can use Wine or a virtual machine, and on Linux, there are options like Wine or the Snap manager; on Android, since there's no direct compatibility, you'll have to use alternatives that mimic its behavior.

The first time you open the program, an update notification may appear; if you see it, select the items and click "Update Selected ." Then close the change.log document and start working in a new tab. If you're writing C++ code and still don't see colors, go to Language, choose C, and then C++ so Notepad++ recognizes the syntax. With Configure and Style Configurator, you can change the theme, try options like Blackboard, adjust the font, and choose colors for each language element. If the text appears small, you can control the zoom with View, Zoom, Zoom In, or with Ctrl + the plus key on the numeric keypad. A monospace font like Consolas is often very useful for reading code.

Don't forget to save: create a folder for your programs or documents and organize subfolders by drive or project. The Save button works just like in any editor, and thanks to tabs, you can keep several files open without losing track. If you're coming from BBEdit or TextWrangler on macOS, the logic is similar, although there the regular expressions option appears as Grep; there are also free alternatives like Atom, Geany, Visual Studio Code, or Brackets, and on macOS you can use BBEdit after the trial period or TextWrangler in older versions.

Bulk editing: find, replace, and clean text

Batch editing is one of Notepad++'s greatest strengths. With Ctrl+R or the Find and Replace menu, you can change commas to line breaks, remove spaces, delete blank lines, or rewrite hundreds of records with a pattern. For example, to replace a comma with a line break, type the comma in the Find box and the corresponding sequence in the Replace box: line breaks are represented by \n and carriage returns by \r, so the combination \r\n is common in these situations. Note that the behavior may vary depending on the system and the file, so it's advisable to verify the result.

To remove empty lines, you can use Edit, Line Operations, Remove Empty Lines, or the variant that removes lines containing whitespace characters. You can also use a regular expression: in the Find field, type ^\s* and leave Replace with blank , always selecting regular expression mode. The ^ symbol indicates the beginning of a line, and \s* means any number of whitespace characters, including zero, tabs, spaces, line feeds, and carriage returns. If you want to delete lines containing a specific word, use the Mark option within Find and Replace, select Mark Line, and then go to Find, Mark, Delete Marked Lines.

Another very useful feature is search and replace across multiple files , ideal for website maintenance. You can locate, for example, `<div>` tags with a certain class on all pages within a directory, including subdirectories, and replace that class with another. Furthermore, Notepad++ allows you to record macros to repeat editing actions and replay them as needed, saving considerable time on repetitive tasks. Snippets, code execution, and plugins round out an environment that, while not a heavyweight IDE, is very practical for everyday use.

Regular expressions: the foundation for complex patterns

Regular expressions, known as regex, are patterns that allow you to search for and replace sequences that meet a condition . They are not simple wildcards: they can require a specific character type, that a sequence be at the beginning or end of the line, that there be optional characters, or that groups be captured and reordered. In corpora like CORDE or CREA, classic wildcards fall short because they only handle asterisks, question marks, and a few logical operators. Therefore, for locating historical variants like dezimos, dezjmos, deçimos, or deçjmos, a regex is much more effective.

A very clear example is the pattern [Dd]e[çcz][ij]mos, which looks for a capital or lowercase D, an e, then a ç, coz, then an io, a jy, and finally mos. Fifteen matches appeared in the text of the municipal ordinance of 1345 This pattern is used with regular expression mode enabled. In Notepad++, select Regular Expression in Search Mode; in BBEdit or TextWrangler, select Grep. This is a great example for understanding that square brackets group alternatives and that the same linguistic reality can be written in various ways over time.

Metacharacters are the building blocks of the system. The period represents any character , while + indicates one or more repetitions and * indicates zero or more. The backslash introduces metacharacters such as \t for tab, \d for digits, \w for alphanumeric characters and the underscore, and \s for whitespace, including tabs, line feeds, and carriage returns. Uppercase versions do the opposite: \D searches for everything except digits, \W for everything except alphanumeric characters and the underscore, and \S for everything except whitespace.

When you want a special character to be searched for as a literal symbol, you have to escape it with a backslash : \. for a period, \+ for a plus sign, \* for an asterisk, \[ and \] for square brackets, \( and \) for parentheses, etc. Regular parentheses are used to capture groups and then retrieve them with \1, \2 through \99; in some contexts you also see $1, $2, but in Notepad++ the standard is the backslash followed by the number. In R, you have to use a double backslash for metacharacters, so an expression like \t.+ in an editor is written \\t.+ in R. This small quirk explains more than one headache if it's not taken into account.

Practical cases with real files

A very illustrative first exercise involves opening zaragoza.txt and observing the mix of spaces, tabs, and blank lines . The spaces could be removed with a standard find and replace, but the tabs require a regular expression. This illustrates why mastering simple patterns is beneficial: with a single command, all the distracting whitespace is eliminated, leaving the text much cleaner. The same principle can be applied to other files downloaded from the 7PartidasDigital repository, such as the 1345 ordinance or the list of members of the XIV Legislature.

In ordenanza1345.txt, the search was for the first-person plural present indicative of the verb decir (to say). Initially, three instances of dezimos and twelve of dezjmos were found , but by expanding the pattern with [Dd]e[çcz][ij]mos, the total rose to fifteen. This demonstrates that a literal search falls short and that regular expressions capture graphical variants that would otherwise go unnoticed. This type of pattern is useful in medieval texts, historical corpora, and editions where spelling is not standardized as it is today.

With diputados.txt, the challenge is different: the file contains surnames, first names, political group, and constituency separated by tabs. To isolate only surnames and first names, search for \t.+ and replace it with nothing , thus deleting everything from the first tab to the end of the line. If you then want to reverse the order, use the pattern (.*), (.*) and replace it with \2 \1, so the first name comes first and the surnames come last. Before applying the complete transformation, it's advisable to reload the original file, because if you continue with the modified version, the patterns will no longer match.

To construct complete sentences, a pattern with four groups is used: (.*?), (.*?)\t(.*?)\t(.*). The first group includes surnames, the second the first name, the third the political group, and the fourth the constituency.In Replace, you write \2 \1, del grupo \3, obtuvo el escaño por la circunscripción de \4. Then you press Replace All. This transforms a technical list into phrases like "José Luis Ábalos Meco, of the Socialist group, won the seat for the Valencia constituency." It's a perfect example of how to capture, reorder, and add static text without manually editing each line.

Clean up HTML tags and other text tricks

Another very common use is saving a web page as HTML and leaving it in plain text. The expression <[^<>]+> removes any tag enclosed in less than and greater than angle brackets, because within the brackets, neither < nor > should be present, and the + sign allows one or more characters. Select Regular Expression, leave Replace with empty, and apply Replace All. Then, you can remove leading spaces from each line with ^\s+, which locates any sequence of whitespace at the beginning of the line. The caret ^ has a dual use: at the beginning of the pattern, it indicates the start of a line, and within brackets, it serves to negate.

If you want to delete a specific line that begins with a word, you can use ^Arriba$ to locate the entire line and replace it with nothing, although this would leave a blank line. To avoid this, you can use \R instead of $, thus also removing the line break. The supporting material mentions that on Windows the sequence can be expressed as \n\r, while on Mac and Linux, \n is usually sufficient. The lesson is that it's best to experiment carefully and adapt the pattern to the system and file you're working with.

HTML cleanup doesn't end with removing tags: you can also delete empty lines, extra spaces, and temporary tags left over from conversion. With a little practice, these operations can be chained together, allowing you to prepare texts for analysis, review, or publication. In real-world projects, it's advisable to save a copy of the original, work on a copy, and check the result using the Undo function or the Compare plugin if you need to review differences line by line.

Code formatting, autocomplete, and productivity

Notepad++ also shines as a code editor. It recognizes the file's language and applies distinct colors to reserved words, tags, attributes, strings, and comments. The list of supported languages ​​is extensive: C, Java, XML, HTML, PHP, JavaScript, RC, Makefile, ASCII art, Doxygen, INI, ASP, VB/VBS, SQL, Objective-C, CSS, Pascal, Perl, Python, and many more. You can manually specify the language, add keywords, create your own sets, and define colors, sizes, and fonts for each element. This customization helps detect errors and makes code easier to read.

Autocomplete is enabled in Settings > Preferences, within the Autocomplete section; it's advisable to select the option for functions and words and enable parameter hints . While it doesn't reach the level of more advanced environments, it does suggest keywords, functions, and parameters as you type. The exact location of the menus may vary depending on the version, so if you don't see the option where you expect, check the Backup and Autocomplete tabs. For automatic closing of HTML tags, you can use TextFX, TextFX Settings, Autoclose XHTML/XML tag; if TextFX doesn't appear, you can enable html/xml close tag in Preferences or install the TextFX Characters plugin from Plugins.

Productivity improves with plugins and tools. Plugin Manager lets you install, update, and manage plugins ; Compare helps you check for differences between two documents; Emmet speeds up HTML and CSS writing; NppFTP integrates an FTP client for editing on the server; XML Tools adds XML formatting and validation; Spell Checker checks spelling; Light Explorer includes a lightweight file explorer; Hex Editor lets you edit hexadecimal files; and Markdown Viewer offers Markdown previews. Add to that macros, snippets, and the ability to run code, and you have a highly flexible little workshop.

Reasonable alternatives and comparisons

Notepad++ isn't the only option, but it is one of the most well-rounded for Windows. Sublime Text is very smooth, even with large files , although it's not entirely free; Atom has excellent GitHub integration and extensive customization, but it can be resource-intensive; Brackets stands out for its live preview for web development, although it falls short in backend support; and Visual Studio Code is excellent for development, version control, and debugging, but it may be less accessible for beginners. Geany is cross-platform and has a following on Linux, although its documentation isn't always up to par; BBEdit and TextWrangler cover macOS, and Atom, Geany, and VS Code also work on Windows and Mac.

The choice depends on your needs. If you're looking for speed, a lightweight interface, and a gentle learning curve, Notepad++ is a safe bet ; if you need advanced debugging, deep Git integration, or a vast ecosystem, VS Code might be a better fit; if you work on macOS and want a native editor, BBEdit or TextWrangler could be good options. In any case, the logic of searching, replacing, regular expressions, and formatting transfers quite well between editors, so learning these concepts isn't a waste of time.

An important detail is that Notepad++ only has a native version for Windows, but that doesn't prevent its use on other systems with Wine, Snap, or virtual machines. On Mac and Linux, there are very capable alternatives , and on Android, you have to look for apps that mimic its functions. What truly makes the difference is the habit of working with plain text, saving copies, testing patterns in a small file, and always reviewing the result before applying a mass replacement. This discipline prevents surprises and makes the editor a reliable tool, even for delicate tasks.

Notepad++ proves to be a very complete editor for anyone who needs bulk editing, regular expressions, and code formatting without unnecessary hassle . Its speed, tabs, syntax highlighting, plugins, and search and replace system make it a Swiss Army knife for text files. Add to that a little practice with screenshots, metacharacters, and HTML cleanup, and you'll have a tool capable of saving hours of work and reducing errors in projects of any size.