Multi
View
You
can enable a secondary edit window in Notepad++ to be able to view
two documents at the same time (possibly the same). If used with the
same document, you can quickly compare two documents or make quick
changes in two places at the same time without having to scroll or
keep bookmarks.
To
use Multi View, first activate the document that you want to view in
the other view. Then, you have two options:
Select , this will move the document to the other view, closing
it in the first view.
Select
, this will clone the document into the
other view, linking the two. Any change in the first document will
automatically be forwarded to the second and vice versa. You can also
reach these command by rightclicking on the tab of a document and
selecting the command from the context menu.
Note that these options are also available from the Tab bar context menu and by dragging a tab into an edit field.
Once
you have Multi View enabled, you can control its layout. You can drag
the divider around using your mouse, or click on the small arrows on
the top and bottom to completely move it to the left or right.
Rightclicking on the divider shows a popup menu allowing you to
rotate the layout for a horizontal or vertical version.
Although
you can view two documents at the same time, only one can be active
(have the focus). You can determine the active view by the tabbar if
you have the topline enabled (see Preferences, Global). By default,
the active view has a darker color of orange than the inactive view.
Also, only the active view can have the cursor. You can switch the
active view by selecting . The active
view determines what options are available from the menu or toolbar.
If the main view has a saved document, but the secondary view is
modified, you can only select the Save option if you have the
secondary view active.
If
you have the same document open in two views, they will share some
properties, but some of them can be modified independently. These
include:
- Folding
(but not line hiding).
- Zoom
level;
- Scroll
position;
- Cursor
position;
- RTL
modus (see RTL).
Additionally,
each view can have its own properties which can be set in
Preferences, Edit components, use the dropdown list to choose between
the views. Each view can also independently show unprintable
characters, determine the linewrapping modus and control the overtype
option.
If
you open a new document or a file, it will do so in the currently
active view. Additionally, closing the last document of a view will
close that view if two views are visible (including moving the last
document of one view to the other).
To
move or clone a document to the other view, you can also (if both
views are visible) drag the tab of the document to the tabbar of the
other view. Simply dragging the document will move it, pressing Ctrl
before releasing it will clone the document.
Scrolling
To
ease document comparison/navigation, you can enable scroll locking in
Multi View. When a lock is enabled, scrolling one view will
automatically scroll the other. The lock will attempt to keep the
current offset. This means if one view is scrolled 5 lines lower than
the other, the vertical scroll lock will keep this distance unless
this is not possible anymore. Is soon as it is possible it will
retain the offset again.
To
enable horizontal scroll locking, select or press the 
button.
To
enable vertical scroll locking, select or press the 
button.