As a Software Engineer, I'm always looking for tools to help me perform my job more quickly, efficiently, and effectively. So when I began my search for a new text editor (my 'officially supported' options at work are Notepad, Wordpad, and Textpad), all I really knew was that what I had, wasn't good enough. I wanted something that offered the following:

• Syntax highlighting for [at least] SQL, XML, HTML, and JavaScript.
• Auto-Completion for [at least] the above languages.
• Editing of multiple files at the same time (in just one window... my TaskBar is full enough as it is).
• Search and Replace using Regular Expressions.
• FREE as in speech (I'm a big fan of OSS) and beer (I wanted something I could use at home too, and I didn't want to have to pay).

If I remember correctly, I believe my first stop was SourceForge.net and a quick search for the phrase "notepad". The #1 result was Notepad++. After a quick look at Notepad++'s features I knew that my rather limited requirements were met... and a lot more. Some of the extra features include:

• Syntax Highlighting and Folding for C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, SQL, HTML, XML, CSS, PHP, and more! You could even define your own syntax highlighting if you want.
• Auto-Completion for most (or even all?) of the above languages and then some. There is also an API for defining your own Auto-Complete scheme.
• Multi-file viewing and editing. They use tabs, like Firefox does!
• Brace and Indent guideline highlighting.
• Open files from the Windows Context (right-click) menu.
• Zoom in/out and Bookmarks.

This little editor is just Awesome! Rarely a day goes by that I don't discover something new it can do or it helps me do better/faster. One of my favorite little features is how it notifies you of the status (read-only, modified [needs saved], or un-modified) of each file you're working on by changing the color of the disk icon on the file tab from to grey, red, or blue respectively. Notepad++ has become my exclusive SQL, HTML, JavaScript, and CSS editor for our JAVA based web app at work, as well as for my home projects. I also introduced this editor to a few developers on my team and they too now love it. Perhaps it will become another 'officially supported' editor for our developers? One can only hope! There are just tons of tweaks for this app, allowing you to tailor it to function how you want, so it works best for you. There are also some cosmetic tweaks you can make, such as 'prettier' icons. Below are some images of the installation and features of this great little editor! So go visit the download site and give this little editor-that-can a try for yourself!