@John-Bowman

If you don’t mind the idea of creating some new commands (one-time-only) and executing TWO additional steps (every search), here is a workaround for Notepad++'s current inability to search in extensionless files.

Your workflow will be slightly modified:

Step 1: Run command “Rename *. to *.NOEXT” (defined below) on the Run menu to rename extensionless files to have extension “.NOEXT” (while you are editing any top-level file in the search tree that has a real extension)
Step 2: Run your desired search; add *.NOEXT to list of filespecs to search
Step 3: Run command “Rename *.NOEXT to *.” (defined below) on the Run menu to rename .NOEXT files back to being extensionless (again, while you are editing any top-level file in the search tree that has a real extension)

Details of command “Rename *. to *.NOEXT”:
One-time setup:
In Notepad++'s Run menu, choose Run…
Paste the following in “The Program to Run” box:
cmd /c cd $(CURRENT_DIRECTORY) & For /R %G in (*.) do REN "%G" "%~nG.NOEXT"
Press the Save button and name it something meaningful like “Rename *. to *.NOEXT”
After accepting the name via the OK button in the “Shortcut” window, press the Cancel button in the “Run…” window (yes, seems like the wrong thing to do).

Details of command “Rename *.NOEXT to *.”:
One-time setup:
In Notepad++'s Run menu, choose Run…
Paste the following in “The Program to Run” box:
cmd /c cd $(CURRENT_DIRECTORY) & For /R %G in (*.NOEXT) do REN "%G" "%~nG."
Press the Save button and name it something meaningful like “Rename *.NOEXT to *.”
After accepting the name via the OK button in the “Shortcut” window, press the Cancel button in the “Run…” window.

Thanks to this website for some helpful info on renaming files: http://ss64.com/nt/ren.html

@fralbert Yeah! Would never have tested that. Thanks 1k!

Hello, Trucide Polère and Claudia,

Trucide, I also found two S/R to achieve what you would like to but, compared to the Claudia’s solution, the second S/R needs to be run, once only :-))) So, just click on the Replace All button, once for each S/R !

My solution works :

Whatever the location of the word “Chapter”, in current line

Whatever the number value, of the word “Chapter” ( Numeric sort not needed )

Whatever the case of the word “Chapter”

If blank line(s) is(are) inserted between two chapters

If blank line(s) is(are) inserted between two lines of a chapter

Remark : These regexes need an extra character, which must NOT exist, yet, in your file. I chose the # symbol but any other symbol may be used. Just escape it if this symbol is a special regex character !

So, given the example text, below, with 3 blank lines after “line 10” :

The first regex S/R, below, adds a line, beginning with a # symbol and followed by the number of the current chapter, just before the line, containing the next word chapter, whatever its case OR before the very end of the file

SEARCH (?i)Chapter\h+(\d+)(?s).+?(?=(?-s).*Chapter|\z)

REPLACE $0#\1\r\n

So it gives the changed text, below :

The second regex S/R, below :

search for a complete line, beginning with a # symbol, and deletes it

search for a non-empty line, which does not contain the word Chapter, whatever its case but it’s followed, further on, by the nearest # symbol with its number, stored as group 1 then adds this number, followed by a dash, in front of each line, during replacement

SEARCH (?i-s)^#.+\R|(?!.*Chapter)^.+(?=(?s).+?#(\d+))
REPLACE ?1\1-$0

So, we obtain the final text, below :

Best Regards,

guy038

Note : as usual :

The modifier (?-s) means that further dot character ( . ) stands for any single standard character, except for any End of Line character

The modifier (?s) means that further dot character ( . ) stands for any single character, included End of Line character

The modifier (?i) means that the regex search is performed in an insensitive way

The modifier (?s) means that the regex search is performed in a sensitive way

I don’t know if you have figured this out by yourself yet, but it appears that Notepad ++ breaks several file associations (at least on my systems) that I have had to manually fix - .bat, .cmd, .ini, .inf, nfo. and .vbs. The easiest way to fix this is via the ASSOC command from the (Administrator) command prompt. The best way to check which associations need to be looked at is to run ‘assoc’ and copy-and-paste the results into (ironically) Notepad ++ and look at which ones are associated with NPP. You can get the syntax by typing ‘assoc /?’ at a prompt. The proper associations for the ones listed are:
.bat=batfile;
.cmd=cmdfile;
.inf=inffile;
.ini=inifile;
.nfo=MSInfoFile
.vbs=VBSFile

It also seems to grab .bash file extensions too, but unless you have the new Bash shell on Windows 10 installed this won’t matter.

Hope this helps!

Hi Guy038 ,

" the regexes : SEARCH = (?-s)^(.+\R)\1+ , REPLACE = EMPTY "

i do that step ,but nothing happen ,why so ,dear

@crogersts

Thanks for replying, I tried the switch and no it is the same unfortunately.

Are you sure? This switch disables the plugin manager - you still have the import
menu but you cannot load the plugins.

Cheers
Claudia

Hello, Antonio,

If you are sure that the last colon, of each line of your file, is the exact location which separates the two parts, of each line, to be reversed , an other formulation could be :

SEARCH : (?-s)^(.+):(.+)

REPLACE : \2: \1 ( with a space between the colon : and the back-reference \1)

Notes :

The (?-s) first part ensures that the dot special character ( . ) represents a single standard character and not any End of Line character

Then the part (.+):, look, from beginning of line ( ^ ), for the longest non-empty range of standard characters, followed by the last colon of each line, which is stored as group 1, due to round brackets

Finally, the part (.+), grabs all the remaining standard characters of the current line ( = all text after the last colon character ) and stores them in group 2

Best Regards,

guy038

Which type of installation do you use?

Notepad++ Installer 32-bit x86: Take this one if you have no idea which one you should take.
Notepad++ zip package 32-bit x86: Don’t want to use installer? Check this one (zip format).
Notepad++ 7z package 32-bit x86: Don’t want to use installer? 7z format.
Notepad++ minimalist package 32-bit x86: No theme, no plugin, no updater, quick download and play directly. 7z format.

The autoupdater is named gup.exe under Notepad++\updater and has a corresponding config file gup.xml. Gup.xml could be modified to avoid that the update page could be found or could be removed as in the minimalist package.

The gpup.exe in the same folder is the updater for the plugin manager.

@Claudia-Frank

Running npp as admin worked. I have never set it up that way and did not know. Thanks for your help :)

ouch!!

try opening the original pdf file using Notepad++
you may get lucky, and the contents may be cleartext (not compressed)

otherwise, try a different pdf to txt converter or try ocr software

good luck