Notepad++ Keyboard Shortcuts

I have been using Notepad++ everyday for coding at home and work for past 2-3 years. I don’t remember using any other editor during this entire period. I like this editor very much due to various features like syntax highlighting, collapse/expand functionality, ability to open 2 workspaces in same window, find in All Open Documents, find in directory, etc. It supports so many languages like PHP, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, XML, C, C++, Java and many more. Also, it has many plugins for formatting the code, FTP directly from the editor, file browser, RegEx Helper, etc. It can be used on systems on which you do not have the admin permissions (i.e. cannot install new softwares) or even run from a flash drive without even installing on the machine.
It is due to above reasons and many more that I recommend it. All these features indeed help me in faster development, but there is another method that I use for faster development and that is Keyboard Shortcuts. I am a huge user of Keyboard shortcuts and use them not just in Notepad++ but in even other software/applications.
Here is the list of all the keyboard shortcuts as mentioned in the Notepad++ Documentation. I will mark some of the shortcuts, in bold, that I use most frequently. All the shortcuts can be changed from the Shortcut Mapper which can be opened from Settings > Shortcut Mapper Menu.

File menu
Shortcut Action
Ctrl-O Open File
Ctrl-N New File
Ctrl-S Save File
Ctrl-Alt-S Save As
Ctrl-Shift-S Save All
Ctrl-P Print
Alt-F4 Exit
Ctrl-Tab Next Document (also shows list of open files). Can be disabled – see Settings/Preferences/Global.
Ctrl-Shift-Tab Previous Document (also shows list of open files). Can be disabled – see above.
Ctrl-W Close Current Document
Edit menu
Shortcut Action
Ctrl-C Copy
Ctrl-Insert Copy
Ctrl-Shift-T Copy current line to clipboard
Ctrl-X Cut
Shift-Delete Cut
Ctrl-V Paste
Shift-Insert Paste
Ctrl-Z Undo
Alt-Backspace Undo
Ctrl-Y Redo
Ctrl-A Select All
Alt-Shift-Arrow keys, or Alt + Left mouse click Column Mode Select
Ctrl + Left mouse click Start new selected area. Only multiple stream areas ca be selected this way.
ALT-C Column Editor
Ctrl-D Duplicate Current Line
Ctrl-T Switch the current line position with the previous line position
Ctrl-Shift-Up Move Current Line, or current selection if a single stream, Up
Ctrl-Shift-Down Move Current Line, or current selection if a single stream, Down
Ctrl-L Delete Current Line
Ctrl-I Split Lines
Ctrl-J Join Lines
Ctrl-G Launch GoToLine Dialog
Ctrl-Q Block comment/uncomment
Ctrl-Shift-Q Stream comment
Tab (selection of one or more full lines) Insert Tabulation or Space (Indent)
Shift-Tab (selection of one or more full lines) Remove Tabulation or Space (outdent)
Ctrl-BackSpace Delete to start of word
Ctrl-Delete Delete to end of word
Ctrl-Shift-BackSpace Delete to start of line
Ctrl-Shift-Delete Delete to end of line
Ctrl-U Convert to lower case
Ctrl-Shift-U Convert to UPPER CASE
Ctrl-B Go to matching brace
Ctrl-Space Launch CallTip ListBox
Ctrl-Shift-Space Launch Function Completion ListBox
Ctrl-Enter Launch Word Completion ListBox
Ctrl-Alt-R Text Direction RTL
Ctrl-Alt-L Text Direction LTR
Enter Split line downwards, or create new line
Shift-Enter Split line downwards, or create new line
Search menu
Shortcut Action
Ctrl-F Launch Find Dialog
Ctrl-H Launch Find / Replace Dialog
F3 Find Next
Shift-F3 Find Previous
Ctrl-Shift-F Find in Files
F7 Switch to Search results window (was Activate sub view before v5.2)
Ctrl-Alt-F3 Find (volatile) Next
Ctrl-Alt-Shift-F3 Find (volatile) Previous
Ctrl-F3 Select and Find Next (was Find (Volatile) Next prior to v5.6.5)
Ctrl-Shift-F3 Select and Find Previous (was Find (Volatile) Previous prior to v5.6.5)
F4 Go to next found
Shift-F4 Go to previous found
Ctrl-Shift-I Incremental Search
Ctrl-n Jump Down (to next text marked using n-th stye. n is 1 to 5, or 0 for default Found style.
Ctrl-Shift-n Jump Up (to next text marked using n-th stye. n is 1 to 5, or 0 for default Found style.
Ctrl-F2 Toggle Bookmark
F2 Go To Next Bookmark
Shift-F2 Go To Previous Bookmark
View menu
Shortcut Action
Ctrl-(Keypad-/Keypad+) or Ctrl + mouse wheel button (if any) Zoom in (+ or up) and Zoom out (- or down)
Ctrl-Keypad/ Restore the original size from zoom
F11 Toggle Full Screen Mode
F12 Toggle Post-It Mode
Ctrl-Alt-F Collapse the Current Level
Ctrl-Alt-Shift-F Uncollapse the Current Level
Alt-0 Fold All
Alt-(1~8) Collapse the Level (1~8)
Alt-Shift-0 Unfold All
Alt-Shift-(1~8) Uncollapse the Level (1~8)
Run menu
Shortcut Action
F5 Launch Run Dialog
Alt-F1 Get PHP help
Alt-F2 Google search
Alt-F3 Wikipedia search
Alt-F5 Open file (name at cursor)
Alt-F6 Open file in another instance (name at cursor)
Ctrl-Alt-Shift-R Open in Chrome
Ctrl-Alt-Shift-X Open in Firefox
Ctrl-Alt-Shift-I Open in IE
Ctrl-Alt-Shift-F Open in Safari
Ctrl-Alt-Shift-O Send via Outlook
Note: I am not affiliated with or do not endorse Notepad++.

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11 thoughts on “Notepad++ Keyboard Shortcuts”

  1. Enjoyed your post. I am just getting into using Notepad++ for more and more. I like that fact you can create your own shortcuts, but am running into the issue of sometimes choosing key combos that are already mapped to something.

    Do you know of anyway to list all the shortcuts so I can avoid duplicating a key combo.

    Thanks in advance

  2. I need to select a lot of lines in Column Mode Select (ALT).
    I can select using also Page-Down instead of Arrow key down, more speed for big selections.
    But my question is… ther’s a way to select between columns from a point(line to the END OF DOCUMENT?

    1. I always used it for deleting the line, never noticed it was actually cutting the line. Also, the Notepad++ documentation mentioned it was for deleting the line. I’ll update the post to say it is both both cut / delete.

      Thanks.

  3. Roberto: Do you mean like Shift + Ctrl + End (works in most text editors / areas, for selecting everything from the current cursor position to the end of the document).
    But your wrote “Column mode”… So I guess you would like the part to the left of the cursor to be excluded from the selection as well? I know no keyboard shortcut for that. Holding down Alt+Shift and then scrolling to the end of the document and clicking with the mouse would do the work, but that includes the mouse of course.

  4. Hi,
    Warning about changing the default keyboard shortcuts:

    I made changes to the keyboard shortcuts and dragged one of the files I was editing out of NotePad+ window so it would be in a separate NotePad+ window of its own, none of the shortcuts followed to the new NotePad+ window. But if I close all NotePad+ windows and reopen to edit my files I see my changed keypad shortcuts.
    Thanks,
    –Ross

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