Notepad2 (64-bit) for Windows

Notepad2's developer, Flo's Freeware, notes that there's nothing wrong with Notepad, the default text editor in Windows: it's lightweight, fast, and fully integrated with the operating system. But writers, programmers, and others who use text files a lot know that Notepad has its limitations. Notepad2 offers many more features than Notepad and can replace it as the default text file tool in Windows. It's available in separate downloads for 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows. We tried it in 64-bit Windows Home Premium SP1.

Notepad2 comes packed with features that help users work efficiently and effectively:

• Syntax Highlighting: This feature supports many languages like HTML, XML, PHP, ASP, and CSS.
• Text Manipulation: You can drag & drop text within the app or between other apps.
• Search Functionality: The app lets you search and replace text using basic regular expressions.
• Editing Efficiency: There are shortcuts for editing words, lines, and blocks.

Some of the standout features of Notepad2 include:

• You can select text in a block using Alt+Mouse.
• The app matches braces and automatically indents lines to keep code neat.
• You can mark long lines and zoom in for a clearer view.
• It supports various file formats including Unicode, UTF-8, Unix, and Mac text files.
• You can open shell links directly.
• You can adjust many settings to fit your needs.

With these features, Notepad2 is more than just a basic editor. It's a versatile tool that meets the needs of various text editing tasks. Its design focuses on making work easy, making it a top choice for coding professionals and enthusiasts. 

Notepad2's installer asked us if we wanted to replace Notepad as the default text editor in Windows, though it says you can uninstall Notepad2 from the Control Panel to restore Notepad as the default text editor. We opened a new text document from Explorer. The document opened inside Notepad2 and worked like any text file. Notepad2's toolbar offered not only basic controls like Open, Browse, and Save but also useful text tools such as Word Wrap and Zoom In and Out.

Better still are the two built-in Scheme tools, Select Scheme and Customize Schemes. The Select Scheme tool's default setting is Default Text, but the list includes Web Source Code, XML, JavaScript, VBScript, C and C++, SQL, Perl, Pascal, Batch, and Diff files, among many others. We could also check boxes to set a scheme as default and autoselect schemes by filename extension. That's pretty clever, but if it's not enough, click Customize Schemes for more control and options, including the ability to import and export configuration files.

Notepad's View menu has one entry, Status bar. Notepad2's has 17 entries, including Default Font, Show Whitespace, Long Line Markers, Highlight Current Line, and Selection Margin. The Settings menu has more than 20 entries ranging from Transparency to Esc Key Function.

If all you use Notepad for is grocery lists and passwords, you probably don't need Notepad2; the Microsoft tool is enough. But if you use Notepad for lots of things, you'll probably like Notepad2's many improvements. And if you need a more capable text-editing tool than the built-in Windows Notepad, we definitely recommend Notepad2.

• "Align Lines" with several options (Alt+J)
• "Modify Lines" supports several variables to insert numbers (Alt+M)
• "Sort Lines" (Alt+O) handles column sort (rectangular selection)
• "Sort Lines" also handles shuffle, remove duplicates, and uniques
• "Merge Blank Lines" block command (Alt+Y)
• Use built-in Windows functionality for "Title Case" on Windows 7
• Convert between characters and hex codes (Ctrl+Alt+X, Ctrl+Alt+C)
• "Recode file as default encoding" (Ctrl+Shift+F)
• UTF-16 and UTF-16 BE formats are valid recoding options
• Enable case-insensitive searching for non-ASCII text
• Regex quantifier ? to match 0 or 1 times
• Regex quantifiers * and + available as non-greedy forms *? and +?
• Regex syntax for tagged regions simplified from ......... to (...)
• Updated HTML5 and CSS3 schemes according to current working drafts
• Updated Assembly scheme with x64 and SSE4 instructions
• Several minor updates to syntax schemes and keywords
• Merged caret styles into a single item and added "noblink" option
• /l and /l- cmd switches to control auto-reloading of modified files
• Ini-option to specify auto-reload timeout (see FAQ on my website)
• Support combination of /g and /m command line switches
• /o and /o- cmd switches to control "Always on top" option
• Copy window position to clipboard as cmd line switch (Ctrl+Shift+K)
• Move window to default position on current screen (Ctrl+Shift+P)
• Fixed Notepad .LOG feature (broken since 4.1.24)
• Launch command uses current file directory as working directory
• Don't lock any directories except the one containing Notepad2.exe
• Forward system MRU, taskbar, and jump list behavior to new windows
• Always show file name extensions (ignore Windows Explorer setting)
• Check availability of "Consolas" when set as default font
• Support a few more file variables (see FAQ on my website)
• Configure whether backspace should reformat indenting whitespace
• Transform backslashes function understands \u#### hex codes
• Several F2, F3, and F4 hotkeys work in find and replace dialogs
• Removed "Select Up" and "Select Down" buttons from find dialog
• Ini-options to block suppression of notification messages
• Simplified appearance of word wrap settings dialog
• Remapped "Unescape C Special Chars" to Ctrl+Alt+R (fix duplicate)
• Reloading keeps scrolling position more unerringly with word wrap
• Jumps with /g switch locate position more accurately with word wrap
• Various internal optimizations and fixes
• Improved look of disabled toolbar buttons on Windows XP and above
• Improved overall look of toolbar buttons on Windows 2k
• Lower frequency of NFS access delays by caching file display names
• Improved compatibility with Windows 7
• Released x64 build of Notepad2.exe
• Updated Scintilla library to 2.24