README

Notepad Next

!Build Notepad Next

A cross-platform, reimplementation of Notepad++.

Though the application overall is stable and usable, it should not be considered safe for critically important work.

There are numerous bugs and half working implementations. Pull requests are greatly appreciated.

!screenshot

 Installation

Packages are available for Windows, Linux, and MacOS.

Below are the supported distribution mechanisms. There may be other ways to download/install the application, but this project will likely not be able to offer any support for those since they are made available by other individuals.

 Windows
Windows packages are available as an installer or a stand-alone zip file on the release page. The installer provides additional components such as an auto-updater and Windows context menu integration. You can easily install it with Winget:

powershell
winget install dail8859.NotepadNext


 Linux
Linux packages can be obtained by downloading the stand-alone AppImage on the release page or by installing the flatpak by executing:

bash
flatpak install flathub com.github.dail8859.NotepadNext


If you are using Ubuntu and prefer an up-to-date deb version, you can use the PPA supporting Ubuntu 22.04 and newer provided by
Quentin Lienhardt. You can add it by executing:

bash
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:quentiumyt/notepadnext
sudo apt update
sudo apt install notepadnext


 MacOS
MacOS disk images can be downloaded from the release page.

It can also be installed using brew:
bash
brew tap dail8859/notepadnext
brew install notepadnext


If you receive warnings that Notepad Next is "damaged", this is an Apple complaining that I have not paid them money to "trust" me. You can bypass this by running:

bash
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/NotepadNext.app


 MacOS Tweaks

By default, MacOS enables font smoothing which causes text to appear quite differently from the Windows version. This can be disabled system-wide using the following command:

bash
defaults -currentHost write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 0


A restart is required for this to take effect.

 Translations
Translations are contributed by the community. All translations are managed using Crowdin at https://crowdin.com/project/notepadnext. If there is a language missing you would like to contribute, feel free to start a discussion on Crowdin.

 Development
Current development is done using QtCreator with the Microsoft Visual C++ (msvc) compiler. Qt 6.5 is the currently supported Qt version. Older versions of Qt are likely to work but are not tested. Any fixes for older versions will be accepted as long as they do not introduce complex fixes. This application is also known to build successfully on various Linux distributions and macOS. Other platforms/compilers should be usable with minor modifications.

If you are familiar with building C++ Qt desktop applications with Qt Creator, then this should be as simple as opening CMakeLists and build/run the project.

If you are new