How to write macro for Notepad

Question

I would like to write a macro for Notepad   which should replace char1  char2  char3 with char4  char5  char6  respectively

User · Answer

Posting more than 10 years after the OP  but I think that this is still a relevant question  it is for me  at least   Today  there is quite some information in the Notepad   User Manual  relating to the OP s question    General Info about macros  https   npp-user-manual org docs macros  General explanation about the language used is in the config files docs  https   npp-user-manual org docs config-files  macros Search and Replace Actions  as requested by the OP  are covered in more detail here  https   npp-user-manual org docs searching  searching-actions-when-recorded-as-macros   Here is a block of macro code  replace SEARCHTEXT by REPLACETEXT  using regular expressions      finds  r and  n  in every file matching the filter GLOBFILEFILTER in a folder PATH  no subfolders  not sure where this flag is defined set     lt Macro name  REPLACE IN FILES REGEX DOT FINDS CR AND LF  Ctrl  no  Alt  no  Shift  no  Key  0  gt       lt Action type  3  message  1700  wParam  0  lParam  0  sParam      gt       lt Action type  3  message  1601  wParam  0  lParam  0  sParam  SEARCHTEXT    gt       lt Action type  3  message  1625  wParam  0  lParam  2  sParam      gt       lt Action type  3  message  1602  wParam  0  lParam  0  sParam  REPLACETEXT    gt       lt Action type  3  message  1653  wParam  0  lParam  0  sParam  PATH    gt       lt Action type  3  message  1652  wParam  0  lParam  0  sParam  GLOBFILEFILTER    gt       lt Action type  3  message  1702  wParam  0  lParam  1024  sParam      gt            lt  --  COMMENT   1024  seems to be the flag    finds  n and  r   This is not in the documentation  -- gt       lt Action type  3  message  1701  wParam  0  lParam  1660  sParam      gt   lt  Macro gt    Remarks about this code    The path to the folder needs to end with a backslash  Characters like  lt       amp  need to be escaped in the xml  Rather create your search and replace strings by recording a macro

User · Answer

My personal experience is that shortcuts xml is overwritten with the initially loaded   later recorded macros and settings when Notepad   exits  So you can t use Notepad   itself for editing this file   Close Notepad    edit shortcuts xml by another tool  save it and restart Notepad

User · Answer

I recorded a macro and I found it in  APPDATA  Notepad   shortcuts xml  It looks like posted in the first post of this thread   I use NPP Ver  5 9 6 2 with Win7

User · Answer

My personal experience is that shortcuts xml is overwritten with the initially loaded   later recorded macros and settings when Notepad   exits  So you can t use Notepad   itself for editing this file   Close Notepad    edit shortcuts xml by another tool  save it and restart Notepad

User · Answer

I found  Python Script  plugin for Notepad   more useful since with the plugin  I could write simple macros in the form of python and It has also got very good documentation and sample macros written in python as well  If you are quite comfortable with python  then I think  Python Script  will provide justice  For more information  refer   http   npppythonscript sourceforge net

User · Answer

This post can help you as a little bit related    Using RegEX To Prefix And Append In Notepad    Assuming alphanumeric words  you can use   Search       A-Za-z0-9     Replace   able   1   Or  if you just want to highlight the lines and use  Replace All   amp   In Selection   with the same replace    Search             points to the start of the line    points to the end of the line    1 will be the source match within the parentheses

User · Answer

I m not sure if this helps  but I needed to create a macro to hold a snippet  so I simply recorded myself inserting the items and set a shortcut to it   Granted  I m not using version 5 9 so there might be some slight version differences   To access the macro recorder go to Macro   Start Recording   Then you will perform your action and then go to Macro   Stop Recording   I d recommend playing it back to ensure it s correct and then save and set your shortcut key   Hope the helps

User · Answer

I recorded a macro and I found it in  APPDATA  Notepad   shortcuts xml  It looks like posted in the first post of this thread   I use NPP Ver  5 9 6 2 with Win7

User · Answer

I just did this in v5 9 1  Just go to the Macro Menu  click  Start Recording   perform your 3 replace all commands  then stop recording  You can then select  Save Current Recorded Macro   and play it back as often as you like  and it will perform the replaces as you expect

User · Answer

This post can help you as a little bit related    Using RegEX To Prefix And Append In Notepad    Assuming alphanumeric words  you can use   Search       A-Za-z0-9     Replace   able   1   Or  if you just want to highlight the lines and use  Replace All   amp   In Selection   with the same replace    Search             points to the start of the line    points to the end of the line    1 will be the source match within the parentheses

User · Answer

Macros in Notepad   are just a bunch of encoded operations  you start recording  operate on the buffer  perhaps activating menus  stop recording then play the macro  After investigation  I found out they are saved in the file shortcuts xml in the Macros section  For example  I have there    lt Macro name  Trim Trailing and save  Ctrl  no  Alt  yes  Shift  yes  Key  83  gt       lt Action type  1  message  2170  wParam  0  lParam  0  sParam       gt       lt Action type  1  message  2170  wParam  0  lParam  0  sParam       gt       lt Action type  1  message  2170  wParam  0  lParam  0  sParam       gt       lt Action type  0  message  2327  wParam  0  lParam  0  sParam      gt       lt Action type  0  message  2327  wParam  0  lParam  0  sParam      gt       lt Action type  2  message  0  wParam  42024  lParam  0  sParam      gt       lt Action type  2  message  0  wParam  41006  lParam  0  sParam      gt   lt  Macro gt    I haven t looked at the source  but from the look  I would say we have messages sent to Scintilla  the editing component  perhaps type 0 and 1   and to Notepad   itself  probably activating menu items   I don t think it will record actions in dialogs  like search replace    Looking at Scintilla iface file  we can see that 2170 is the code of ReplaceSel  ie  insert string is nothing is selected   2327 is Tab command  and Resource Hacker  just have it handy     shows that 42024 is  Trim Trailing Space  menu item and 41006 is  Save   I guess action type 0 is for Scintilla commands with numerical params  type 1 is for commands with string parameter  2 is for Notepad   commands   Problem  Scintilla doesn t have a  Replace all  command  it is the task of the client to do the iteration  with or without confirmation  etc  Another problem  it seems type 1 action is limited to 1 char  I edited manually  when exiting N   it was truncated   I tried some tricks  but I fear such task is beyond the macro capabilities   Maybe that s where SciTE with its Lua scripting ability  or Programmer s Notepad which seems to be scriptable with Python  has an edge     -    EDIT  Looks like I got the above macro from this thread or a similar place     -  I guess the first lines are unnecessary  side effect or recording  but they were good examples of macro code anyway

User · Answer

I found  Python Script  plugin for Notepad   more useful since with the plugin  I could write simple macros in the form of python and It has also got very good documentation and sample macros written in python as well  If you are quite comfortable with python  then I think  Python Script  will provide justice  For more information  refer   http   npppythonscript sourceforge net

User · Answer

I m not sure if this helps  but I needed to create a macro to hold a snippet  so I simply recorded myself inserting the items and set a shortcut to it   Granted  I m not using version 5 9 so there might be some slight version differences   To access the macro recorder go to Macro   Start Recording   Then you will perform your action and then go to Macro   Stop Recording   I d recommend playing it back to ensure it s correct and then save and set your shortcut key   Hope the helps

User · Answer

This post can help you as a little bit related    Using RegEX To Prefix And Append In Notepad    Assuming alphanumeric words  you can use   Search       A-Za-z0-9     Replace   able   1   Or  if you just want to highlight the lines and use  Replace All   amp   In Selection   with the same replace    Search             points to the start of the line    points to the end of the line    1 will be the source match within the parentheses

User · Answer

Macros in Notepad   are just a bunch of encoded operations  you start recording  operate on the buffer  perhaps activating menus  stop recording then play the macro  After investigation  I found out they are saved in the file shortcuts xml in the Macros section  For example  I have there    lt Macro name  Trim Trailing and save  Ctrl  no  Alt  yes  Shift  yes  Key  83  gt       lt Action type  1  message  2170  wParam  0  lParam  0  sParam       gt       lt Action type  1  message  2170  wParam  0  lParam  0  sParam       gt       lt Action type  1  message  2170  wParam  0  lParam  0  sParam       gt       lt Action type  0  message  2327  wParam  0  lParam  0  sParam      gt       lt Action type  0  message  2327  wParam  0  lParam  0  sParam      gt       lt Action type  2  message  0  wParam  42024  lParam  0  sParam      gt       lt Action type  2  message  0  wParam  41006  lParam  0  sParam      gt   lt  Macro gt    I haven t looked at the source  but from the look  I would say we have messages sent to Scintilla  the editing component  perhaps type 0 and 1   and to Notepad   itself  probably activating menu items   I don t think it will record actions in dialogs  like search replace    Looking at Scintilla iface file  we can see that 2170 is the code of ReplaceSel  ie  insert string is nothing is selected   2327 is Tab command  and Resource Hacker  just have it handy     shows that 42024 is  Trim Trailing Space  menu item and 41006 is  Save   I guess action type 0 is for Scintilla commands with numerical params  type 1 is for commands with string parameter  2 is for Notepad   commands   Problem  Scintilla doesn t have a  Replace all  command  it is the task of the client to do the iteration  with or without confirmation  etc  Another problem  it seems type 1 action is limited to 1 char  I edited manually  when exiting N   it was truncated   I tried some tricks  but I fear such task is beyond the macro capabilities   Maybe that s where SciTE with its Lua scripting ability  or Programmer s Notepad which seems to be scriptable with Python  has an edge     -    EDIT  Looks like I got the above macro from this thread or a similar place     -  I guess the first lines are unnecessary  side effect or recording  but they were good examples of macro code anyway

User · Answer

I just did this in v5 9 1  Just go to the Macro Menu  click  Start Recording   perform your 3 replace all commands  then stop recording  You can then select  Save Current Recorded Macro   and play it back as often as you like  and it will perform the replaces as you expect

User · Answer

Actually  the shortcuts xml file does not store user-generated macros and no obvious candidates contain this info  These instructions are out of date    Contrary to various websites  tips  storing user-generated macros isn t enabled for v 5 4 2  That XML file is there  but your macro does not get stored it in   I m guessing it s a bug that ll be fixed by the next version

User · Answer

Macros in Notepad   are just a bunch of encoded operations  you start recording  operate on the buffer  perhaps activating menus  stop recording then play the macro  After investigation  I found out they are saved in the file shortcuts xml in the Macros section  For example  I have there    lt Macro name  Trim Trailing and save  Ctrl  no  Alt  yes  Shift  yes  Key  83  gt       lt Action type  1  message  2170  wParam  0  lParam  0  sParam       gt       lt Action type  1  message  2170  wParam  0  lParam  0  sParam       gt       lt Action type  1  message  2170  wParam  0  lParam  0  sParam       gt       lt Action type  0  message  2327  wParam  0  lParam  0  sParam      gt       lt Action type  0  message  2327  wParam  0  lParam  0  sParam      gt       lt Action type  2  message  0  wParam  42024  lParam  0  sParam      gt       lt Action type  2  message  0  wParam  41006  lParam  0  sParam      gt   lt  Macro gt    I haven t looked at the source  but from the look  I would say we have messages sent to Scintilla  the editing component  perhaps type 0 and 1   and to Notepad   itself  probably activating menu items   I don t think it will record actions in dialogs  like search replace    Looking at Scintilla iface file  we can see that 2170 is the code of ReplaceSel  ie  insert string is nothing is selected   2327 is Tab command  and Resource Hacker  just have it handy     shows that 42024 is  Trim Trailing Space  menu item and 41006 is  Save   I guess action type 0 is for Scintilla commands with numerical params  type 1 is for commands with string parameter  2 is for Notepad   commands   Problem  Scintilla doesn t have a  Replace all  command  it is the task of the client to do the iteration  with or without confirmation  etc  Another problem  it seems type 1 action is limited to 1 char  I edited manually  when exiting N   it was truncated   I tried some tricks  but I fear such task is beyond the macro capabilities   Maybe that s where SciTE with its Lua scripting ability  or Programmer s Notepad which seems to be scriptable with Python  has an edge     -    EDIT  Looks like I got the above macro from this thread or a similar place     -  I guess the first lines are unnecessary  side effect or recording  but they were good examples of macro code anyway

User · Answer

Actually  the shortcuts xml file does not store user-generated macros and no obvious candidates contain this info  These instructions are out of date    Contrary to various websites  tips  storing user-generated macros isn t enabled for v 5 4 2  That XML file is there  but your macro does not get stored it in   I m guessing it s a bug that ll be fixed by the next version

User · Answer

Macros in Notepad   are just a bunch of encoded operations  you start recording  operate on the buffer  perhaps activating menus  stop recording then play the macro  After investigation  I found out they are saved in the file shortcuts xml in the Macros section  For example  I have there    lt Macro name  Trim Trailing and save  Ctrl  no  Alt  yes  Shift  yes  Key  83  gt       lt Action type  1  message  2170  wParam  0  lParam  0  sParam       gt       lt Action type  1  message  2170  wParam  0  lParam  0  sParam       gt       lt Action type  1  message  2170  wParam  0  lParam  0  sParam       gt       lt Action type  0  message  2327  wParam  0  lParam  0  sParam      gt       lt Action type  0  message  2327  wParam  0  lParam  0  sParam      gt       lt Action type  2  message  0  wParam  42024  lParam  0  sParam      gt       lt Action type  2  message  0  wParam  41006  lParam  0  sParam      gt   lt  Macro gt    I haven t looked at the source  but from the look  I would say we have messages sent to Scintilla  the editing component  perhaps type 0 and 1   and to Notepad   itself  probably activating menu items   I don t think it will record actions in dialogs  like search replace    Looking at Scintilla iface file  we can see that 2170 is the code of ReplaceSel  ie  insert string is nothing is selected   2327 is Tab command  and Resource Hacker  just have it handy     shows that 42024 is  Trim Trailing Space  menu item and 41006 is  Save   I guess action type 0 is for Scintilla commands with numerical params  type 1 is for commands with string parameter  2 is for Notepad   commands   Problem  Scintilla doesn t have a  Replace all  command  it is the task of the client to do the iteration  with or without confirmation  etc  Another problem  it seems type 1 action is limited to 1 char  I edited manually  when exiting N   it was truncated   I tried some tricks  but I fear such task is beyond the macro capabilities   Maybe that s where SciTE with its Lua scripting ability  or Programmer s Notepad which seems to be scriptable with Python  has an edge     -    EDIT  Looks like I got the above macro from this thread or a similar place     -  I guess the first lines are unnecessary  side effect or recording  but they were good examples of macro code anyway

User · Answer

This post can help you as a little bit related    Using RegEX To Prefix And Append In Notepad    Assuming alphanumeric words  you can use   Search       A-Za-z0-9     Replace   able   1   Or  if you just want to highlight the lines and use  Replace All   amp   In Selection   with the same replace    Search             points to the start of the line    points to the end of the line    1 will be the source match within the parentheses

User · Answer

Posting more than 10 years after the OP  but I think that this is still a relevant question  it is for me  at least   Today  there is quite some information in the Notepad   User Manual  relating to the OP s question    General Info about macros  https   npp-user-manual org docs macros  General explanation about the language used is in the config files docs  https   npp-user-manual org docs config-files  macros Search and Replace Actions  as requested by the OP  are covered in more detail here  https   npp-user-manual org docs searching  searching-actions-when-recorded-as-macros   Here is a block of macro code  replace SEARCHTEXT by REPLACETEXT  using regular expressions      finds  r and  n  in every file matching the filter GLOBFILEFILTER in a folder PATH  no subfolders  not sure where this flag is defined set     lt Macro name  REPLACE IN FILES REGEX DOT FINDS CR AND LF  Ctrl  no  Alt  no  Shift  no  Key  0  gt       lt Action type  3  message  1700  wParam  0  lParam  0  sParam      gt       lt Action type  3  message  1601  wParam  0  lParam  0  sParam  SEARCHTEXT    gt       lt Action type  3  message  1625  wParam  0  lParam  2  sParam      gt       lt Action type  3  message  1602  wParam  0  lParam  0  sParam  REPLACETEXT    gt       lt Action type  3  message  1653  wParam  0  lParam  0  sParam  PATH    gt       lt Action type  3  message  1652  wParam  0  lParam  0  sParam  GLOBFILEFILTER    gt       lt Action type  3  message  1702  wParam  0  lParam  1024  sParam      gt            lt  --  COMMENT   1024  seems to be the flag    finds  n and  r   This is not in the documentation  -- gt       lt Action type  3  message  1701  wParam  0  lParam  1660  sParam      gt   lt  Macro gt    Remarks about this code    The path to the folder needs to end with a backslash  Characters like  lt       amp  need to be escaped in the xml  Rather create your search and replace strings by recording a macro

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