Visual Studio "Format the whole document" for Notepad++ using Tidy

I've started playing with Notepad++ over the last year, and really liking it. If you've been living under a rock, its an opensource replacement for the boring windows notepad.exe and has appeared on top-ten lists, including Scott Hanselman's list Ultimate Developer and Power User Tool List. While I haven't completely replaced Visual Studio, I have found a few neat tricks that have saved me a lot of grief.

My recent favorite is Tidy, an open source tool that can format HTML output, is included as a TextFX plugin for Notepad++.  By default, it doesn't do much, but the magic starts when you drop a configuration file into the TextFX plugin folder. Here's how I've configured mine:

1. Navigate to C:\Program Files\Notepad++\plugins\NPPTextFX
2. Create a text file named htmltidy.cfg and place the following contents inside:

   indent: auto
   indent-spaces: 2
   wrap: 72
   markup: yes
   input-xml: yes

3. Enjoy!

The configuration above is a basic format, which automatically wraps and indents XML/XHTML files nicely. To use just load up your XML file, choose "TextFX -> TextFX HTML Tidy -> Tidy" and your document should automatically indent properly. If you need more options, check out the Tidy quick reference guide. If you format a lot of XML documents, you can speed things up by assigning a ShortCut key:

1. Choose "Settings -> Shortcut Mapper"
2. Click on the "Plugin Commands" and scroll down to entry "D:Tidy" (entry 241 on my system).
3. Double click the item and assign a ShortCut key.

A quick aside on the Shortcut keys, I had to try a few different options until Tidy formatted my document. I suspect that Notepad++ doesn't detect duplicate Shortcuts. I settled with CTRL+ALT+K, which seems to work without issue.

Lastly, if you want to completely replace "notepad.exe" with "Notepad++", there's a neat replacement utility referenced on the Notepad++ site that you should download and follow their basic instructions. Note that this utility is not the same as renaming notepad++.exe to notepad.exe and dropping it in your Windows directory; it's a utility that looks up the location of notepad++.exe from the registry and forwards requests to it. Also note, if your machine shipped with a copy of the operating system (typically a i386 folder), you need to replace the original notepad.exe there as well.