Any way to have Notepad++ automatically save on exit

autosavenotepad

Is there any way I can get Notepad++ to save and close under one command?

For example on hitting Alt-F4, Notepad++ would not only close the program, but also save the document.

(manually editing a very large number of txt documents, and want to avoid having any additional number of key strokes)

Best Answer

There isn't a plugin to do exactly what you want, but there is one to auto save open documents which may be an easy alternative.

It's called AutoSave and is available to download here.

It's configurable to save all or just current file at a user-defined interval along with offering some over-write options.

More information about it is available here.

Update

The functionality is included by default in Notepad++ v6.4.5 and later. 6.4.5 was released August 9th 2013. Note the current version is 7.5.8 released July 23rd 2018.

If you are using a version of Notepad++ older than v6.4.5, the rest of this answer still applies.

Natively

You can do this natively in Notepad++, but in order to replicate the behaviour of Firefox, you need to disable the document switcher and MRU behaviour.

Disable MRU functionality

Navigate to Settings > Preferences... > MISC..
- Where it says Document Switcher (Ctrl+TAB) uncheck the first check box Enable.
- Hit the Close button.

Create the Ctrl+PGUP/PGDN shortcuts

Navigate to Settings > Shortcut Mapper....
- Make sure you are on the Main menu tab.
- Scroll to the bottom and you should see in entries 192 Switch to previous document and 193 Switch to next document.
- By default these should be mapped to Ctrl+Shift+Tab and Ctrl+Tab respectively.
- Double click anywhere on the 192 line and change it to Ctrl+Page up.
- Double click anywhere on the 193 line and change it to Ctrl+Page down.
- Hit the Close button.

That's it!

Please note that you will no longer have access to the Ctrl+Tab/Shift+Tab MRU behaviour now. If, like me, you cannot live without this read on.

Another (better) option

Notepad++ defaults to using the back and forward buttons on a mouse to switch to the adjacent left and right tabs, so if you are a fan of AutoHotkey, you can use this little script:

#IfWinActive, ahk_class Notepad++
; Switch to the adjacent tab to the left
^PgUp::
    Send, {XButton1}
    Return
; Switch to the adjacent tab to the right
^PgDn::
    Send, {XButton2}
    Return

This won't interfere with other programs and enables to you have your cake and eat it! You can navigate left and right through adjacent the tabs using Ctrl+PgUp and Ctrl+PgDn and you can still switch to your last used tab using the built-in document switcher functionality using Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab - just like Firefox :)

Windows – Change description of file types associated with Notepad++

If you have a look under:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.txt\UserChoice\ProgId

You should see something like Notepad++_file

If you find the entry for that in HKCR, e.g.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Notepad++_file

You'll see the description "Notepad++ Document", this is where Explorer picks it up from. If you simply set the value for Notepad++_file to empty and then ALL files will revert to generic descriptions, e.g. TXT file, PHP file etc.