Command Line Switches

From notepad-plus

You can pass the arguments to Notepad++ at launch time from the command line or via a shortcut.

Synopsis

notepad++ [--help] [-multiInst] [-noPlugins] [-lLanguage]
 [-nLineNumber] [-cColumnNumber] [-xPos] [-yPos]
 [-nosession] [-notabbar] [-ro] [-systemtray] [-alwaysOnTop]
[fullFilePathName] 

Alphabetical list of supported switches

--help

Displays an usage message box listing all switches, with a short description.

-alwaysOnTop

Starts Notepad++ as a topmost window.

-c<column number>

Use this option to scroll to the <column number> you want after opening fullFilePathName.

-l<language>

This option applies the <language> syntax highlighting to the fullFilePathName to open.

-multiInst

Notepad++ is single-instance by default. This option allows you to launch several instances of Notepad++.

-n<line number>

Use this option to go to the <line number> you want after opening fullFilePathName.

-noPlugins

Use this parameter to launch Notepad++ without loading the plugins. This parameter is useful when you want to determine where bad behaviour or crash is coming from (from the plugins or from Notepad++ itself).

-nosession

Use this parameter to launch Notepad++ without loading the previous session (the files opened in Notepad++ at the last time). On shutdown, Notepad++ will not record currently opened files in session.xml.

-notabbar

this parameter allows users to turn off tab interface. It may be useful if users want Notepad++ behaviour to be similar to MS Notepad's one:

notepad++    -multiInst    -notabbar    -nosession   d:\file2open

-ro

Use this parameter to open fullfilepathname in read only mode.

-systemtray

Launch Notepad++ directly in system tray

-x<x-coordinate>

Set <x-coordinate> as the initial horizontal position of Notepad++ window. Introduced in v5.4.

-y<y-coordinate>

Set <y-coordinate> as the initial vertical position of Notepad++ window. Introduced in v5.4.

fullFilePathName, surprisingly, is the absolute or relative path of file(s) you want to open. Separate multiple file paths with spaces.

Examples

notepad++ -lxml d

\myproj\proj.vcproj

In the above example, the file proj.vcproj will be opened as an xml file, even though its extension .vcproj is not recognized as xml file extension.

notepad++ -n150 E

\notepad++\PowerEditor\src\Notepad_plus.cpp

The above will open the file Notepad_plus.cpp then scroll the view and place the cursor to the line 150.

How to pass command line switches

There are at least three ways:

• Launching cmd.exe from Start -> Run, and typing in the full command line, after changing to Notepad++'s folder;
• Setting shortcuts with various command lines. This has the drawback of requiring one shortcut per flavour of command line;
• Using a third party shell extension that enables to enter a command line from the Windows GUI.