Notepad++ is capable of recording some of your actions you perform while editing a document, and replaying those later on to avoid having to repeat that sequence of actions. This is called a macro and can save a great deal of time. Macros can be played once, or multiple times, even as long as is required to run through an entire document. You can save them for later use and assign keystrokes to them for fast access (See Shortcut Mapper). Macros are sensitive to the current position of the caret and will (normally speaking) operate relative to it.

Record a macro

To record a macro, select Macro > Start Recording or press the button on the toolbar. Notepad++ will now keep track of the changes you make on a document or certain actions you perform.

To stop recording, select Macro > Stop Recording or select the button on the toolbar. As an exception to most commands, you can toggle this behavior with a special shortcut combination that is not listed in the menu but solely in the Shortcut mapper (see Shortcut Mapper). By default, this is the combination Ctrl-Shift-R.

After the recording is stopped, it will be stored in a temporary buffer. If you haven’t performed any actions during the recording, this buffer will be cleared. If you start recording another macro without saving your earlier work, it will be lost.

Macro Recording Limitations

Not all commands are macro recordable. The following commands or actions should be recordable (based on investigations in the source code, looking for the menu commands and underlying editor commands that are in respective lookups for menu-recordable items).

Play a recorded macro

To play the macro in the buffer, select Macro > Playback or press the button. This will perform the macro once at the current position.

Save a recorded macro

To save the macro in the buffer, select Macro > Save current recorded macro… or press the toolbar button. A dialog will pop up asking for a name of the macro and the default key combination. These can later be changed (or deleted) using Macro > Modify Shortcut/Delete Macro…, which brings up the Settings > Shortcut Mapper on the Macros tab. When saved, the macro will be available in the bottom section of the Macro menu, or from the pulldown in the dialog accessed from the Macro > Run a Macro Multiple Times… menu entry.

As noted in the Configuration Files documentation, Notepad++ writes the configuration files (including the macros) when it exits, which means that after you save your macro, your new macro will not be written to the shortcuts.xml configuration file until Notepad++ exits. Thus, if you open shortcuts.xml after saving the macro but before exiting Notepad++, you will not be able to see your new macro yet.

Play a recorded macro multiple times

To play the current macro in the buffer or any saved macro once or multiple times, select Macro > Run a Macro Multiple Times… or press the button. A dialog will pop up allowing you to select what macro to perform (buffer macro or any saved macro) and how many times. You can also opt to perform the macro until the caret reaches the end of the current file (starting from its current position).

Note that if no macros are available, this menu option is greyed out, and the dialog is inaccessible.

Edit or delete an existing macro shortcut

To edit or delete an existing macro shortcut, you can use the Shortcut mapper, which displays all shortcuts of all kinds, and allows changing or removing a key binding. The interface is also available through the Macro > Modify shortcut/Delete macro… menu entry.

The contents of a macro definition can be edited only in the shortcuts.xml file: there is no built-in interface in Notepad++. For more information on the details of how the macros are stored, and the syntax involved, see the Configuration Files Details: section.

Some information on the limitations of Macros and possible workarounds can be found in the community page FAQ: Automating Notepad++.

Macro Security

Starting in v8.9.6.2, the Run menu added extra security-warning that will notify you if the shortcuts.xml was modified manually or outside of Notepad++ (if your file was customized when you upgraded from a version before this to this version or later, the notification will also be used the first time you run a saved entry from the Run menu). In v8.9.7, this protection was extended to also apply to the Macro menu. You can read more in the Config Files > shortucts.xml Security section; but in brief, open shortcuts.xml, verify that your <UserDefinedCommands> and <Macros> entries look correct, then use Run > Validate shortcuts.xml to inform Notepad++ that everything looks reasonable. (This security step prevents a malicious outside actor from overwriting your shortcuts.xml to include a malicious macro or run-menu command, by warning you when there’s an unexpected change to the file.)