Notepad3 Configuration Reference

Notepad3 stores its settings in a portable INI file (Notepad3.ini). Press Ctrl+F7 to open it directly in the editor. Most [Settings2] changes require restarting Notepad3.

[Notepad3]

This section can redirect to a different settings file. Useful when a non-elevated user cannot write to the Notepad3 program directory:

Notepad3.ini=%APPDATA%\Rizonesoft\Notepad3\Notepad3.ini

Or for per-user settings:

Notepad3.ini=%WINDIR%\Notepad3-%USERNAME%.ini

[Settings]

These settings are managed through Notepad3's user interface (Menu → Settings). For example:

SettingsVersion=5

Favorites=%APPDATA%\Rizonesoft\Notepad3\Favorites\

[Settings2]

Advanced settings that can only be edited manually. Press Ctrl+F7 to open the INI file.

Localization

PreferredLanguageLocaleName=en-US

The default value is determined by the OS language setting. Fallback: en-US.

Available languages:

IME & Input

IMEInteraction=0

Date & Time

DateTimeFormat=

Locale-dependent short format. Specify the short date/time format using strftime() syntax.

DateTimeLongFormat=

Locale-dependent long format.

TimeStampRegEx=

Default: \$Date:[^\$]+\$ — Find pattern to match timestamps for update.

TimeStampFormat=

Default: $Date: %Y/%m/%d %H:%M:%S $

This pattern is used by Shift+F5 to update timestamps, e.g., $Date: 2018/04/26 00:52:39 $.

Notes:

• All DateTime formats accept strftime() format strings.
• TimeStampFormat also accepts %s as a placeholder for a DateTimeFormat-formatted current date/time string (mixing strftime() codes with %s is not allowed).
• If you define a custom TimeStampFormat, define a matching TimeStampRegEx so that "Update Timestamps" can find and replace them correctly.

Files & Directories

DefaultDirectory=

Default directory for open/save dialogs when no file is open. Paths can be relative to the Notepad3 program directory.

DefaultExtension=txt

Default extension for saved files (omit the leading dot).

DenyVirtualSpaceAccess=0

filebrowser.exe=minipath.exe

External program launched by the Browse toolbar button. Defaults to MiniPath.

Additional command line switches can be appended. The currently opened file is passed as the last argument.

Note: Pathnames with spaces need quadruple quoting (""path to/file.exe"") when no arguments follow, or double quoting ("path to/file.exe" /arg) with arguments.

Alternative file browsers:

• filebrowser.exe=explorer.exe — Windows Explorer
• filebrowser.exe=Explorer++.exe — Explorer++
• filebrowser.exe=Q-Dir_x64+.exe — Q-Dir

grepWin.exe=grepWinNP3.exe

Integrated search-and-replace tool with regex support. Launch via:

• File → Launch → Search in Files
• Edit → Search → Search in Files
• Ctrl+Shift+F

FileCheckInterval=2000

Interval in milliseconds to check for external file modification. Min: 200 ms (notify immediately if ≤ 200).

FileWatchingMethod=0 ;(0=both[default], 1=poll-only, 2=push-only)

FileChangedIndicator=[@]

FileDeletedIndicator=[X]

FileDlgFilters=

Custom filters for open/save dialogs. Example:

Text Files|*.txt;*.wtx;*.log;*.asc;*.doc;*.diz;*.nfo|All Files|*.*

FileLoadWarningMB=4

Size limit (MB) for large-file warning. Set to 0 to disable.

MultiFileArg=0

Set to 1 to allow multiple files on the command line. Default (0) accepts a single file like Windows Notepad. Use + and - command-line switches to override; /z behaves like -.

Language Detection

NoCGIGuess=0

Set to 1 to disable language detection for .cgi and .fcgi files.

NoHTMLGuess=0

Set to 1 to disable HTML/XML detection for files without extensions.

Editing Behavior

NoCopyLineOnEmptySelection=0

Set to 1 to prevent Ctrl+C from copying the current line when nothing is selected.

NoCutLineOnEmptySelection=0

Set to 1 to prevent Ctrl+X from cutting the current line when nothing is selected.

NoFadeHidden=0

Set to 1 to disable fading of hidden objects in file lists (Favorites, etc.).

NoFileVariables=0

Set to 1 to disable file variable parsing. Encoding tag parsing can be disabled separately in Menu → File → Encoding → Default.

Notepad3 parses Emacs-style variables in the first and last 512 bytes of a file:

To bypass both file variable and encoding tag parsing, reload the file with Alt+F8.

Portability & Window

PortableMyDocs=1

Store recent file paths relative to My Documents for USB portability across Windows versions. Enabled by default when RelativeFileMRU=1.

OpacityLevel=75

Window opacity (%) in transparent mode.

FindReplaceOpacityLevel=50

Find/Replace dialog opacity (%) in transparent mode.

RelativeFileMRU=1

Store recent file paths as relative when on the same drive/share as Notepad3.exe.

ReuseWindow=0

Managed by Notepad3 (Menu → Settings → Window → Reuse Window, Ctrl+Shift+L). When enabled, new instances hand off to the existing window.

SaveBlankNewFile=true

Whether to prompt for save when closing an untitled document that contains only whitespace.

SciFontQuality=3

SimpleIndentGuides=0

Set to 1 to prevent indentation guides from jumping across empty lines.

SingleFileInstance=1

Managed by Notepad3.

ShellAppUserModelID=Rizonesoft.Notepad3

ShellUseSystemMRU=1

Controls taskbar grouping, Jump List, and system MRU behavior. See Replacing Windows Notepad for details.

StickyWindowPosition=0

Managed by Notepad3 (Menu → View → Position → Sticky Window Position). Remembers current position on restart instead of last-closed position.

SubWrappedLineSelectOnMarginClick=false

Set to true for old selection behavior: single click selects the visible sub-line, double click selects the entire wrapped line.

LaunchInstanceWndPosOffset=28

LaunchInstanceFullVisible=true

Appearance

UseOldStyleBraceMatching=0

Set to 1 for legacy brace-matching style.

LargeIconScalePrecent=150

Display scale percent threshold to switch to larger file-type icons.

DarkModeBkgColor=0x1F1F1F

DarkModeBtnFaceColor=0x333333

DarkModeTxtColor=0xEFEFEF

Web Actions

WebTemplate1=https://google.com/search?q=%s

WebTmpl1MenuName=Open Web Action 1

WebTemplate2=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?search=%s

WebTmpl2MenuName=Open Web Action 2

Auto-Completion & Editing

ExtendedWhiteSpaceChars=:

Additional ASCII characters treated as word delimiters for Accelerated Word Navigation.

AutoCompleteWordCharSet=

Set automatically for CJK input languages. Custom character sets limit the auto-completion word list to words composed of these characters only (case-insensitive).

AutoCompleteFillUpChars=

Characters that accept an auto-completion item. For Enter-to-complete behavior:

AutoCompleteFillUpChars=\r\n

To also accept on ( or .:

AutoCompleteFillUpChars=\r\n(.

LineCommentPostfixStrg=

String appended/removed after comment tags on line-comment toggle. Double-quote if it contains spaces:

LineCommentPostfixStrg=" "

Hyperlinks

HyperlinkShellExURLWithApp=""

External application for Ctrl+Click on URLs. If empty, the OS default handler is used.

HyperlinkShellExURLCmdLnArgs="${URL}"

Command-line arguments for the URL application. Use ${URL} as placeholder:

HyperlinkShellExURLCmdLnArgs="--incognito "${URL}""

HyperlinkFileProtocolVerb=""

ShellExecuteEx verb: "" (default), "edit", "explore", "find", "open", "print", "properties", "runas".

Fonts

CodeFontPrefPrioList="Cascadia Code,Cascadia Mono,Cousine,Fira Code,Source Code Pro,Roboto Mono,DejaVu Sans Mono,Inconsolata,Consolas,Lucida Console"

Font priority list for the "Common Base" scheme.

TextFontPrefPrioList="Cascadia Mono,Cousine,Roboto Mono,DejaVu Sans Mono,Inconsolata,Consolas,Lucida Console"

Font priority list for the "Text Files" scheme.

Miscellaneous

UpdateDelayMarkAllOccurrences=50

CurrentLineHorizontalSlop=40

CurrentLineVerticalSlop=5

UndoTransactionTimeout=0

Timeout in milliseconds. Set to 1 (clamped to 10 ms minimum) to make nearly every keystroke a separate undo action. 0 disables the timer.

AdministrationTool.exe=

Reserved for future use.

DevDebugMode=0

Show encoding detector (UCHARDET) info in the title bar for debugging.

AnalyzeReliableConfidenceLevel=66

Confidence threshold for the encoding reliability indicator.

LocaleAnsiCodePageAnalysisBonus=33

Bias added to confidence when the system's ANSI code page matches the detected encoding.

UchardetLanguageFilter=31

;  Bitmask controlling which CJK charset probers are active in uchardet:
;    Bit 0 (0x01/1)  = Chinese Simplified (GB18030)
;    Bit 1 (0x02/2)  = Chinese Traditional (Big5, EUC-TW)
;    Bit 2 (0x04/4)  = Japanese (Shift_JIS, EUC-JP)
;    Bit 3 (0x08/8)  = Korean (EUC-KR)
;    Bit 4 (0x10/16) = Non-CJK (single-byte encodings)
;  Common values:
;    31 = All probers (default)
;    27 = Exclude Japanese (fix GB18030 misdetected as EUC-JP)
;    17 = Chinese Simplified + Non-CJK only
;     3 = Chinese only (simplified + traditional)

LexerSQLNumberSignAsComment=1

Enable # as a line-comment character in MySQL-dialect SQL. Set to 0 to disable.

AtomicFileSave=true;

ExitOnESCSkipLevel=2

Controls ESC key behavior:

• 2 (default): Cancel each state separately (message boxes → selection → exit)
• 1: Cancel message boxes, skip selection state
• 0: Cancel all states and proceed to exit (if configured)

ZoomTooltipTimeout=3200

Zoom tooltip display duration in milliseconds. Set to 0 to disable.

WrapAroundTooltipTimeout=2000

Search wrap-around tooltip duration in milliseconds. Set to 0 to disable.

[Statusbar Settings]

Customize the status bar layout: number, order, width, and prefix/postfix text of fields.

VisibleSections=0 1 15 14 2 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Defines visible fields and their order:

SectionPrefixes=Ln ,Col ,Sel ,Sb ,SLn ,Occ ,,,,,,,Ch ,Repl ,Eval ,U+,

Redefine display prefixes. Comma-separated; spaces are significant.

SectionPostfixes=,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Redefine display postfixes. Comma-separated; spaces are significant.

SectionWidthSpecs=30 20 20 20 20 20 20 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 20 24

Relative field widths. 0 = auto-fit, negative = fixed pixel width (text truncated).

ZeroBasedColumnIndex=0

Start column counting at 0 or 1.

ZeroBasedCharacterCount=0

Start character counting at 0 or 1.

[Toolbar Labels]

Display function names next to toolbar icons:

01=New
02=Open
03=Browse
04=Save
05=Undo
06=Redo
07=Cut
08=Copy
09=Paste
10=Find
11=Replace
12=Word Wrap
13=Zoom In
14=Zoom Out
15=Scheme
16=Customize Schemes
17=Exit
18=Save As
19=Save Copy
20=Delete
21=Print
22=Favorites
23=Add to Favorites
24=Toggle Folds
25=Execute Document
26=Focused View
27=Monitoring Log
28=History
29=Always On Top
30=Search in Files
31=Reset Zoom
32=New Empty Window

[Window]

<ResX>x<ResY> DefaultWindowPosition=

Managed by Notepad3 (Menu → View → Position → Save as Default Position). Recall with Ctrl+Shift+P.