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coding-stylenotepad++indentation

Convert leading spaces to tabs upon entry in Notepad++

It is very close to the reverse of this question.

I prefer coding with 2-whitespace indentation, but I need to have files indented with tabs to align with the project convention. I would like to preferably automatically convert two spaces upon entry to a tab symbol in Notepad++ and have the editor configured to a tab length of 2.

A possible manual way for doing this could be Edit → Blank Operations → Space to TAB, but this converts all of my spaces to tabs, even those of length 1 - which are, for example, spaces between function arguments, not just leading spaces.

In a perfect case scenario, I'm trying to achieve a formatting style as described in this question, but with typing just spaces and the editor taking care of the rest.

I'm on Notepad++ 6.0, but I am willing to upgrade if this helps.

Solution

  • Let me complete the answer of Ari Okkonen to add a workaround to the problem commented by Sergii Zaskaleta of mixed tabs and spaces at the beginning of the line.

    1. Menu Settings → Preferences → Tab Settings → Tab size: 2 (if not already)
    2. Menu Edit → Blank Operations → Space to TAB, (Leading)
    3. Select a block of lines of text with the problem of mixed spaces and tabs. Press Tab and Shift + Tab to add and remove a tab from each line. In the process, the leading spaces had been converted to tabs.