Ghost typing can be used to launch Notepad++ with an auto-typing text. Use command line arguments -qn, -qt or -qf to trigger it.

Syntax

Main Ghost Typing Modes

Use one of these three command-line options to enable the various modes of ghost typing.

notepad++.exe -qn="EasterEggName"

-qn: ghost typing text is derived from a builtin easter egg text.

EasterEggName: the name of easter egg. Quotes are required if the name contains a space.

Use -qn=random to randomly select an easter egg quote. Other than that, we encourage examining the source code to discover more easter egg quotes.

notepad++.exe -qt="Text" [-qSpeedX] [-lLang]

-qt: ghost typing text is derived from the string passed to this option.

Text: given text. Quotes are required if there are spaces in the text.

notepad++.exe -qf="ContentFilePath" [-qSpeedX] [-lLang]

-qf: quote by file.

ContentFilePath: The path of file, absolute or relative. If there are spaces in the directory or filename, use quotes around the whole path. The content (in ASCII or Unicode) of the file will be shown.

Ghost Typing Options

These options apply to any of the ghost typing modes, unless otherwise mentioned.

-qSpeedX : optional; ignored when using -qn. Use this flag if you want to control your display speed. X could be 1 (slow), 2 (fast) or 3 (fastest).

-lLang : optional; ignored when using -qn. It will make ghost typing apply the syntax highlighting of the specified Lang.

Samples

notepad++.exe -qn=random

notepad++.exe -qn="Bill Gates"

notepad++.exe -qt="Test of ghost typing example." -qSpeed1

notepad++.exe -qf="myFile.txt"

notepad++.exe -qf="myVeryLongFile.txt" -qSpeed3

notepad++.exe -qf="C:\my folder\my poetries.txt"

notepad++.exe -qt="#hulk { height: 200%; width: 200%; color: green; }" -lcss

Historical Syntax

The syntax listed above is valid for Notepad++ v7.9.2 and newer.

In Notepad++ v7.9.1 and earlier, there were differnces in the syntax:

• the command-line options for the ghost typing modes did not use the =, so it would be interpreted as literal text (part of the value)
• quotes were interpreted as literal text (part of the value)
• the sequence %20 was used to represent a space, since you could not use quotes to make spaces significant.

Keep these differences in mind if using older versions of Notepad++.