Notepad++ Explorer vs Light Explorer
The Notepad++ Plugins directory offers two different “File Explorer” plugins, with very little detail on what makes them different. The difference between the two is very significant, and one should be used over the other in almost all scenarios.
The “Light Explorer” plugin claims that it’s “[light] not only in weight but also in speed.” This plugin is very bare bones, the extent to what you can do with it is browse, delete, rename, and assign ‘Favorite’ folders. You cannot create new files and folders using this plugin, requiring you to open an instance of Windows Explorer. I do not recommend using this plugin, while you are sacrificing many key features you are actually saving no computer memory in doing so. The difference between the memory usage of Light Explorer and the alternative “Explorer” is very minimal.
- Light Explorer 2.0
Download Light Explorer (2.0)
The second option is simply called “Explorer”. This plugin allows you to perform common tasks within Notepad++, such as file and folder creation. These two features are enough reason to recommend this option over Light Explorer. The view is also split into two sections, the folder tree and file view. This separation is great when dealing with large amounts of folders and sub-folders.
The ‘Filter’ box at the bottom makes it easy to find only certain types of files, or quickly find one file in a large listing. The name and extension of the file is separated, which also makes it so you can not only arrange alphabetically, but by file type as well.
- Explorer 1.8.2
Download Explorer (1.8.2)
Thanks! I was looking all over the place under the options of Notepad++ looking for a file/directory explorer. Then I came across your article and installed “Explorer 1.8.2″. Just what I was looking for. Thanks again
Thanks for helping me out to choose one of them.
if, like me, you are forced to traverse multiple directories all day long, light explorer’s ability to create favorites is a godsend, and makes it the explorer of choice for me.
if explorer has this option – please let me know!
bill
Thanks for this overview! I will try Light Explorer. Download link doesn’t work by the way.
It seems that their plugins site is not working properly, here is a direct link to the directory: http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/notepad-plus/index.php?title=Plugin_Central
If you send a lot of time working in the same *tree* you’ll find that Light Explorer is much better. You can keep all the folders in the tree open at the same time and see all your files.
With regular explorer, you can’t see the files in more than one folder at a time, so you have to keep clicking on the folder you want.
notepad++ explorer doesn’t seem to have “search from here” which is very helpful to me.
You can try this fork http://code.google.com/p/npp-light-explorer2-fork/ , which can create files in folders.
I much prefer the Light Explorer plugin – it looks a lot nicer. You can see the files with the tree, too – I don’t like the way the other explorer splits. It’s somewhat unconventional.
Just remember, this article is about 3 years old – things have become a little better since then.
Nice articles, I was looking for a Project Manager to n++ and just found it
@atomiku, You’re right…
I was looking for something like manager folder/files to N++ then a face with explorer vs light-explorer…
i test both, and i think light explorer is much better…and it’s able to create folder and files, you just right-click on the folder and click New folder/New text files…Done!