I have been using Notepad++ everyday for coding at home and work for past 2-3 years. I don’t remember using any other editor during this entire period. I like this editor very much due to various features like syntax highlighting, collapse/expand functionality, ability to open 2 workspaces in same window, find in All Open Documents, find in directory, etc. It supports so many languages like PHP, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, XML, C, C++, Java and many more. Also, it has many plugins for formatting the code, FTP directly from the editor, file browser, RegEx Helper, etc. It can be used on systems on which you do not have the admin permissions (i.e. cannot install new softwares) or even run from a flash drive without even installing on the machine.
It is due to above reasons and many more that I recommend it. All these features indeed help me in faster development, but there is another method that I use for faster development and that is Keyboard Shortcuts. I am a huge user of Keyboard shortcuts and use them not just in Notepad++ but in even other software/applications.
Here is the list of all the keyboard shortcuts as mentioned in the Notepad++ Documentation. I will mark some of the shortcuts, in bold, that I use most frequently. All the shortcuts can be changed from the Shortcut Mapper which can be opened from Settings > Shortcut Mapper Menu.
Shortcut | Action |
---|---|
Ctrl-O | Open File |
Ctrl-N | New File |
Ctrl-S | Save File |
Ctrl-Alt-S | Save As |
Ctrl-Shift-S | Save All |
Ctrl-P | |
Alt-F4 | Exit |
Ctrl-Tab | Next Document (also shows list of open files). Can be disabled – see Settings/Preferences/Global. |
Ctrl-Shift-Tab | Previous Document (also shows list of open files). Can be disabled – see above. |
Ctrl-W | Close Current Document |
Shortcut | Action |
---|---|
Ctrl-C | Copy |
Ctrl-Insert | Copy |
Ctrl-Shift-T | Copy current line to clipboard |
Ctrl-X | Cut |
Shift-Delete | Cut |
Ctrl-V | Paste |
Shift-Insert | Paste |
Ctrl-Z | Undo |
Alt-Backspace | Undo |
Ctrl-Y | Redo |
Ctrl-A | Select All |
Alt-Shift-Arrow keys, or Alt + Left mouse click | Column Mode Select |
Ctrl + Left mouse click | Start new selected area. Only multiple stream areas ca be selected this way. |
ALT-C | Column Editor |
Ctrl-D | Duplicate Current Line |
Ctrl-T | Switch the current line position with the previous line position |
Ctrl-Shift-Up | Move Current Line, or current selection if a single stream, Up |
Ctrl-Shift-Down | Move Current Line, or current selection if a single stream, Down |
Ctrl-L | Delete Current Line |
Ctrl-I | Split Lines |
Ctrl-J | Join Lines |
Ctrl-G | Launch GoToLine Dialog |
Ctrl-Q | Block comment/uncomment |
Ctrl-Shift-Q | Stream comment |
Tab (selection of one or more full lines) | Insert Tabulation or Space (Indent) |
Shift-Tab (selection of one or more full lines) | Remove Tabulation or Space (outdent) |
Ctrl-BackSpace | Delete to start of word |
Ctrl-Delete | Delete to end of word |
Ctrl-Shift-BackSpace | Delete to start of line |
Ctrl-Shift-Delete | Delete to end of line |
Ctrl-U | Convert to lower case |
Ctrl-Shift-U | Convert to UPPER CASE |
Ctrl-B | Go to matching brace |
Ctrl-Space | Launch CallTip ListBox |
Ctrl-Shift-Space | Launch Function Completion ListBox |
Ctrl-Enter | Launch Word Completion ListBox |
Ctrl-Alt-R | Text Direction RTL |
Ctrl-Alt-L | Text Direction LTR |
Enter | Split line downwards, or create new line |
Shift-Enter | Split line downwards, or create new line |
Shortcut | Action |
---|---|
Ctrl-F | Launch Find Dialog |
Ctrl-H | Launch Find / Replace Dialog |
F3 | Find Next |
Shift-F3 | Find Previous |
Ctrl-Shift-F | Find in Files |
F7 | Switch to Search results window (was Activate sub view before v5.2) |
Ctrl-Alt-F3 | Find (volatile) Next |
Ctrl-Alt-Shift-F3 | Find (volatile) Previous |
Ctrl-F3 | Select and Find Next (was Find (Volatile) Next prior to v5.6.5) |
Ctrl-Shift-F3 | Select and Find Previous (was Find (Volatile) Previous prior to v5.6.5) |
F4 | Go to next found |
Shift-F4 | Go to previous found |
Ctrl-Shift-I | Incremental Search |
Ctrl-n | Jump Down (to next text marked using n-th stye. n is 1 to 5, or 0 for default Found style. |
Ctrl-Shift-n | Jump Up (to next text marked using n-th stye. n is 1 to 5, or 0 for default Found style. |
Ctrl-F2 | Toggle Bookmark |
F2 | Go To Next Bookmark |
Shift-F2 | Go To Previous Bookmark |
Shortcut | Action |
---|---|
Ctrl-(Keypad-/Keypad+) | or Ctrl + mouse wheel button (if any) Zoom in (+ or up) and Zoom out (- or down) |
Ctrl-Keypad/ | Restore the original size from zoom |
F11 | Toggle Full Screen Mode |
F12 | Toggle Post-It Mode |
Ctrl-Alt-F | Collapse the Current Level |
Ctrl-Alt-Shift-F | Uncollapse the Current Level |
Alt-0 | Fold All |
Alt-(1~8) | Collapse the Level (1~8) |
Alt-Shift-0 | Unfold All |
Alt-Shift-(1~8) | Uncollapse the Level (1~8) |
Shortcut | Action |
---|---|
F5 | Launch Run Dialog |
Alt-F1 | Get PHP help |
Alt-F2 | Google search |
Alt-F3 | Wikipedia search |
Alt-F5 | Open file (name at cursor) |
Alt-F6 | Open file in another instance (name at cursor) |
Ctrl-Alt-Shift-R | Open in Chrome |
Ctrl-Alt-Shift-X | Open in Firefox |
Ctrl-Alt-Shift-I | Open in IE |
Ctrl-Alt-Shift-F | Open in Safari |
Ctrl-Alt-Shift-O | Send via Outlook |
Related Links:
Note: I am not affiliated with or do not endorse Notepad++.
Enjoyed your post. I am just getting into using Notepad++ for more and more. I like that fact you can create your own shortcuts, but am running into the issue of sometimes choosing key combos that are already mapped to something.
Do you know of anyway to list all the shortcuts so I can avoid duplicating a key combo.
Thanks in advance
You can view all the shortcuts in Shortcut Mapper.
I need to select a lot of lines in Column Mode Select (ALT).
I can select using also Page-Down instead of Arrow key down, more speed for big selections.
But my question is… ther’s a way to select between columns from a point(line to the END OF DOCUMENT?
Hi Roberto,
I am not aware of anything similar to what you need. Ill try to see if there is anything for it.
Ctrl+Shift+End will select everything from a point to the “END OF DOCUMENT”.
CTRL+SHIFT+END selects everything from the cursor to the end, is that what you meant (7 years ago)?
Ctrl-L use for “Cut Current Line” not Delete Current Line 🙂
You can test this Shortcut …
I always used it for deleting the line, never noticed it was actually cutting the line. Also, the Notepad++ documentation mentioned it was for deleting the line. I’ll update the post to say it is both both cut / delete.
Thanks.
Roberto: Do you mean like Shift + Ctrl + End (works in most text editors / areas, for selecting everything from the current cursor position to the end of the document).
But your wrote “Column mode”… So I guess you would like the part to the left of the cursor to be excluded from the selection as well? I know no keyboard shortcut for that. Holding down Alt+Shift and then scrolling to the end of the document and clicking with the mouse would do the work, but that includes the mouse of course.
Hi,
Warning about changing the default keyboard shortcuts:
I made changes to the keyboard shortcuts and dragged one of the files I was editing out of NotePad+ window so it would be in a separate NotePad+ window of its own, none of the shortcuts followed to the new NotePad+ window. But if I close all NotePad+ windows and reopen to edit my files I see my changed keypad shortcuts.
Thanks,
–Ross
Thanks a lot for the post.
This post saved my hours of time.