Tips and Interview Q&A

Productivity Tips

• Keep files in multiple windows (View > Window) for side-by-side.
• Use Find in Files on a logs directory for quick audits.
• Set Autosave off to keep macros predictable.
• Back up the config.xml before big preference rewrites.
• Run the Portable build for a clean test of new plugins.

Interview Q&A

Q: How do you trim a long log with Notepad++?

A: Bookmark important lines, use Find in Files with an error pattern, or filter via Search > Bookmark > Copy Bookmarked Lines to a fresh file.

Q: What is the column editor for?

A: It inserts numbers, text or dates into a rectangular selection, building sequential values across many lines without scripting.

Q: How do you change line endings for a Git repository?

A: Edit > EOL Conversion > Convert to Unix (LF) on the file, then set .gitattributes with eol=lf so mixed platforms stay consistent.

Q: A script shows gibberish - what now?

A: Check the status bar encoding, switch between Encoding > UTF-8 and the likely ANSI code page, then Convert to UTF-8 once the text reads correctly.

Key Points

• Columns, macros and bookmarks handle bulk text.
• Encoding and EOL awareness prevents corruption.
• Compare and Find in Files drive quick audits.
• The plugin ecosystem keeps it a daily tool.