How to automatically start the Python Indent plugin in Notepad++

The Hex Editor plugin was disabled for being unstable. This means that the plugin crashed Notepad++ in some situations. I encountered this problem myself when trying to save an edited file.

Earlier versions of Notepad++ don't have those problems with the plugin.

Here's my quick and dirty solution. Really it just involves creating a macro along with enabling a XML tools feature.

First, remove the "Indent By Fold" plugin, if installed.

Then, enable the "Tag auto-close" feature by going to Plugins>XML Tools.

Also, enable Notepad++'s auto indent by going to Settings > Preferences > MISC. Tab

Next, go to Macro > Start Recording.

Now, hit the following keys in this sequence:

>, enter, enter, up, tab.

Then, go to Macro > Stop Recording. Followed by, Macro > Save Current Recorded Macro.

This will create the final '>' as well as the closing tag, but then leave your cursor indented in a new line between the opening and closing tags.

I saved mine as "CTRL + '.'".

The reasoning behind this was that if I was here:

<hello|

The natural thing to do would be to hit the '>' key. Since I need to hit SHIFT+ '.' on a QWERTY keyboard to get this character, I figure I'd use CTRL+'.' (only one key away) to perform the macro and save SHIFT+'.' for cases where I just want the plain old character (e.g. <hello />).

Here is the result after hitting CTRL + '.'

<hello>
   |
</hello>

I'll be on the lookout for a more elegant solution, but for now this seems to be pretty good.

Hope this helps!