As I’ve mentioned in a previous Freebie Friday, I’m a big fan of OneNote, but sometimes I find myself in situations where I need to type something out really quickly and OneNote is not a good option. An example of this would be when I want to quickly write a powershell script or any other type of script, really. While OneNote does have some code formatting ability built-in, it definitely leaves something to be desired. So in these situations, I reach for Notepad++.
Notepad++ is a free (as in “free speech” and also as in “free beer”) source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages. It runs in Microsoft Windows operating system environments, and is published under the GPL License. It’s a very lean application, weighing in at under 7MB installed and user-friendly enough to download and jump right in. It offers myriad features over the native Windows notepad application.
First and foremost, it offers a tabbed user interface and for me this is huge. I remember dark times, many years ago, when I would look at my taskbar and find 10 – 15 instances of notepad open — not so with Notepad++. As I touched on earlier, there is also the syntax highlighting and syntax folding feature, which really comes in handy when writing scripts or small programs (the breadth of languages supported is really quite impressive). It’s also extendable with plugins, has auto-completion, and supports macros! So what are you waiting for? Download a copy by clicking the button below.
Check back on Fridays for more awesome free software recommendations from Netris.
Brian Dunham is a Cisco and Microsoft certified network and systems engineer with over a decade of experience in the Information Technology field. When he is not in front of a computer he can be found out in the wilderness canoing, hiking, fishing, or camping.
Contact: brian.dunham@netris.us