IDEA: Notepad that remembers the font (and other settings) used per file

[tmpusr]

Since SMPlayer remembers the settings per file I thought Notepad could, too. Know any text editor that has this feature? It would be useful to have different fonts for different files. I'd also like to have a different font for printing. Perhaps it could be implemented in existing notepads with AutoHotkey.

Actually a notepad with RTF would probably serve as well...

[rjbull]

Notetab Pro can do it, within limits; it doesn't seem to offer a huge number of fonts, but there is at least some choice.  Hit the Document menu, then Properties, to have the editor permanently associate the chosen font with the file (I think).  Notetab Pro is payware.  I don't know if the same thing works with Notetab Lite, freeware.

[MilesAhead]

I would bet it's a rare feature since the app would have to maintain a mini-database just to track which settings go with which file.  Files with formatting can stick the info in the file.  Which is probably why Wordpad picks up on font size and color when it loads the file in.

With plain text, even if you track it, what if you edit the file in another program?  There's no way to know.

[tmpusr]

Or you could do it the way I suggested in:

IDEA: Universal restore last position in any text when opened http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=23902.0

append the font parameters to the file name or save them in a separate file in the same folder. Or even simpler: use the first or last line if it exists. If you use more than one notepad, you have to customize the key commands needed to change the font per app.

[MilesAhead]

Searching around I haven't noticed anything that does that with plain text.  A word processor type app has the advantage that either the info is embedded in the file, or it can use a storage, like MS Word.  Multiple streams inside a file.  Plain text carrying around external baggage would be an unlikely choice since it's a problem that's already been "solved" by having the formatting info included in the file/storage.

I tried to do something similar only have external comments for downloads. I had a small flat file in each folder.  When you hovered the mouse it would show the comment in a Tooltip.  But even if you adjust the hover time, the system isn't exactly snappy.  The OS/file system doesn't give all that much support unless you want to do multiple stream handling/storage etc..

If you don't want to alter the file at all, as in it will still generate the same checksum, then it's not an easy task. I wasted a lot of time on it already.

[tmpusr]

I solved the need for comments for downloads by appending them to the filenames sometimes in all caps to stand out clearly and putting them into descriptively named folders - essentially with multiple tags, at least one of which I might remember, and prefixing the important ones with something like ###. Consequently some of the names are Long, and I sometimes hit NTFS paths limits, which is why I've been looking into some other file systems like ZFS which I hope http://dokan-dev.net/en/ or http://www.fs-driver.org/ would some day support.

[MilesAhead]

Basically what I wanted was a way to just copy & paste the website capsule description. At the end, I got it to work fairly well, considering the limitations.  But, I implemented it as 32 bit shell extensions.  As soon as it's finalized, 64 bit comes along and obsoletes it.  I coded it more to learn how to do the extensions rather than to get the actual utility. Probably why it wasn't popular.

Of course the weakness of the Tooltip popup is, you don't remember which ones have comments, so you hover the mouse waiting for something to happen. It's a flawed design.

btw on the remembering last line caret position, it occurs to me you might want to look at some of the Scite based editors.  Seems to me either or both of Scite4AutoIt3 or Scite4ahk remembers the position in the file when you go back.  Could be only for the last file edited though. I'm not sure.

[tmpusr]

Scite looks like a good notepad replacement.

[SleepingWolf]

Or you could do it the way I suggested in:

IDEA: Universal restore last position in any text when opened http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=23902.0

append the font parameters to the file name or save them in a separate file in the same folder. Or even simpler: use the first or last line if it exists. If you use more than one notepad, you have to customize the key commands needed to change the font per app.

You could (in later Windows versions at least) use ADS (Alternate Data Streams) but this may end up setting off warning bells in some security products.