Notepad++ for Mac: Familiar Features in notePad++++

The original Notepad++ project distributes a Windows application. notePad++++ is a separate macOS app, not a Mac release from the Notepad++ project. Its purpose is to cover familiar text editing jobs using a Mac interface.

If you depend on the original Windows program or a particular Notepad++ plugin, check that requirement before switching. If your everyday tasks are opening several files, editing aligned text, searching with patterns, and finding a field across a folder, the examples below give you concrete things to evaluate.

The Notepad++ manual documents document tabs, column selections, search and replacement, and finding text in files. The useful comparison is how you complete those tasks in another editor, rather than whether every menu has the same name.

The table gives you a small check for each task. Shortcuts, search syntax, extension systems, and available features can differ; use your own representative files after trying the demonstration workspace.

The opening screenshot shows five demonstration files in a workspace: notes, aligned text, search examples, a log, and JSON settings. Several documents are open in tabs above the editor, so you can switch files while keeping the folder list available.

Try opening the notes, log, and settings file in separate tabs. Switch between them and confirm you can tell which file is active before saving. When many tabs are open, use the workspace list to locate the next file instead of arranging separate windows.

In the JSON file shown above, property names, strings, numbers, and booleans have different colors. Line numbers and indentation keep the nested editor settings easy to follow. This is the sort of structured-file reading that many Notepad++ users want from a Mac editor.

Use the language selector to check the detected file type or choose a language explicitly. Plain TXT notes can stay in Plain Text mode, while a JSON configuration benefits from JSON highlighting. The optional JSON tree preview shown beside the source offers another way to inspect nested values; syntax colors alone do not establish that a file is valid.

Column editing selects the same character positions across multiple rows. In notePad++++, enable Column Mode from the toolbar, then drag across the aligned text. You can also use Option-drag for a rectangular selection. In the screenshot, only the three-character OLD prefix is selected on five rows.

We tried typing NEW into this selection. All five prefixes changed to NEW, while the identifier and status text stayed in place. The input and resulting file are linked below so you can reproduce this small operation. Use aligned, fixed-width text for the example; a character column is not a parsed CSV field.

Open Search / Replace, enable Advanced Regex, and search for customer_id=([0-9]+) in the sample file. The parentheses capture the number. Enter client_id=$1 as the replacement: $1 puts the captured number back into the output.

The screenshot shows four matches before replacement. In this demonstration, Replace All changed customer_id=1001 through customer_id=1004 into client_id=1001 through client_id=1004. The account_id and invoice_id rows stayed unchanged. Check the output when migrating a pattern from Notepad++; regular-expression behavior and replacement conventions can differ between editors.

Open the demonstration folder as a workspace, expand Search in Workspace, and enter customer_id. This searches the selected folder instead of only the document you are currently editing. The sidebar lets you check the folder scope, file types, excluded directory names, and optional path or filename filters.

In our five-file sample, the search reported 14 matching lines across five files. The screenshot shows the search controls beside the fictional log, with the match summary in the status area. Check the scope and filters whenever an expected file is missing from a search. The shown counts belong to this sample; they are not a large-file performance result.

Save the five input files below into one folder and open it as a workspace in notePad++++. Start with the tabs and JSON file, then try the column edit and regex replacement on copies. The two verified result files linked above make it easy to check your output.

These are fictional samples. Use a copy of your own files for the next check, including any non-English text, file encodings, and search patterns that your work depends on.

notePad++++ does not run Windows Notepad++ plugins. A familiar feature name does not transfer a plugin or its binary. List the plugins and shortcuts you use, then check whether the required task has a built-in Mac workflow or needs another tool.

For repeated cleanup, notePad++++ offers Script Pipelines and Batch Processing with review and recovery tools. These are its own workflows, not an import path for Notepad++ recorded macros. Markdown Preview and user-configured AI are additional options; the tabs, column selection, and search examples above are the starting point for everyday editing.