NotePad++

My wife was telling me the other day that I spend most of my time blogging on various sites about real estate only, why not spend some time posting things about another topic that I know well which is computers since I come from the IT industry.  Whenever I come across a new useful tool I will start posting them and also some of the ones that I've used for years.

One of my favorite tools is called Notepad++, which I use pretty much every day.  When clients call me and I'm at my desk it's faster for me to click on Notepad++'s icon than it is to find a pen and piece of paper.  Microsoft gives you a small word processor program called Notepad, but it has very limited functionality.  On the other hand, Notepad ++ takes Notepad to a whole new level, it is an open source program which means that people can add to the program with plug-ins that you might find very useful.

Once you install this program you will immediately see the difference between Notepad and Notepad++, even without any plug-ins you have much more versatility than Notepad and not the bloated Microsoft Word.  Don't get me wrong, Word is a great program and I use it, but when I just want to pull a word processor up quickly to jot something down Word is too bloated and Notepad can be too devoid of helpful features.

I will be putting a page together on my website for tools like this so that people can just go there and find a tool that they would like.  Until then I here is the Website link for Notepad++  which has a page full of plug-ins and here is the link for the installer Installer Page , right at the top you will see 3 - 4 choices that end in .zip, .exe and .md5.  The easiest to use is the npp.4.7.5.installer.exe since you only need to run it without any extra steps.

If anybody has any questions about this program go ahead and respond here and I will try to help you.  I am in no way an expert with this program, but have used it and other programs like it.  Notepad++ has helpful info on their site as well.

The best part about this program.........IT'S FREE!!!