Saturday, 12 November 2011

Saving Custom Aliases in Notepad++ using NppExec

NPPExec has a rather convulated way of doing this. Here's what you need to do:
  1. Start by creating a text file for the commands. I named mine 'NppStartScript.txt' and saved it in the 'scripts' folder. Here's what the folder structure should look like:$(NPP_DIRECTORY)\scripts\NppStartScript.txt where $(NPP_DIRECTORY) represents your Notepad++ application folder.
  2. Locate the 'NppExec.ini' file. It should be in the '$(NPP_DIRECTORY)\plugins\config' folder. Open the file, add the following configuration setting at the bottom of the file (separated from the rest of the settings with a line break) and save the file:
    [Options]
    ScriptNppStart=$(NPP_DIRECTORY)\scripts\NppStartScript.txt
  3. Create the 'NppStartScript.txt', type your command(s) and save the file. In your case it would be:npe_cmdalias alias = Full command
  4. "Full command" should be a npp_exec directive to a file which will contain the commands that you want to execute repeatedly. Here's what my run python command looks like: npe_cmdalias rpy = npp_exec "$(NPP_DIRECTORY)\scripts\rpy.txt"
  5. The "rpy.txt" contains the command to invoke the python interpreter on the file that is open in the current Notepad++ tab. Here's what I have written: D:\Portable Apps\Python\python.exe "$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)"
  6. Restart Notepad++, open the NPPExec console and type your alias. It should run the command that you specified