It came to my attention that no one published a user defined language mode for Notepad++ that would allow you to view BB code tags in the editor relatively comfortably, so I decided to correct that omission by publishing mine.
As far as technical details go, there isn't anything of particular complexity here - various tags are defined as delimiters and URLs use the same trick that the built-in Markdown UDL uses.
Alternatively, raw UDL XML:
<NotepadPlus>
<UserLang name="BB Code" ext="" udlVersion="2.1">
<Settings>
<Global caseIgnored="yes" allowFoldOfComments="no" foldCompact="no" forcePureLC="0" decimalSeparator="0" />
<Prefix Keywords1="yes" Keywords2="no" Keywords3="no" Keywords4="no" Keywords5="no" Keywords6="no" Keywords7="no" Keywords8="no" />
</Settings>
<KeywordLists>
<Keywords name="Comments"></Keywords>
<Keywords name="Numbers, prefix1"></Keywords>
<Keywords name="Numbers, prefix2"></Keywords>
<Keywords name="Numbers, extras1"></Keywords>
<Keywords name="Numbers, extras2"></Keywords>
<Keywords name="Numbers, suffix1"></Keywords>
<Keywords name="Numbers, suffix2"></Keywords>
<Keywords name="Numbers, range"></Keywords>
<Keywords name="Operators1">"</Keywords>
<Keywords name="Operators2"></Keywords>
<Keywords name="Folders in code1, open"></Keywords>
<Keywords name="Folders in code1, middle"></Keywords>
<Keywords name="Folders in code1, close"></Keywords>
<Keywords name="Folders in code2, open"></Keywords>
<Keywords name="Folders in code2, middle"></Keywords>
<Keywords name="Folders in code2, close"></Keywords>
<Keywords name="Folders in comment, open"></Keywords>
<Keywords name="Folders in comment, middle"></Keywords>
<Keywords name="Folders in comment, close"></Keywords>
<Keywords name="Keywords1">http:// https:// mailto: ftp:// ftps://</Keywords>
<Keywords name="Keywords2"></Keywords>
<Keywords name="Keywords3"></Keywords>
<Keywords name="Keywords4"></Keywords>
<Keywords name="Keywords5"></Keywords>
<Keywords name="Keywords6"></Keywords>
<Keywords name="Keywords7"></Keywords>
<Keywords name="Keywords8"></Keywords>
<Keywords name="Delimiters">00[quote 01 02[/quote] 03[spoiler 04 05[/spoiler] 06[code 07 08[/code] 09[b] 10 11[/b] 12[i] 13 14[/i] 15[b] 15[i] 16 17[/b] 17[/i] 18[h1] 18[h2] 18[h3] 19 20[/h1] 20[/h2] 20[/h3] 21[ 22 23]</Keywords>
</KeywordLists>
<Styles>
<WordsStyle name="DEFAULT" fgColor="000000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" />
<WordsStyle name="COMMENTS" fgColor="000000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" />
<WordsStyle name="LINE COMMENTS" fgColor="000000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" />
<WordsStyle name="NUMBERS" fgColor="000000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" />
<WordsStyle name="KEYWORDS1" fgColor="FF0080" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" />
<WordsStyle name="KEYWORDS2" fgColor="000000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" />
<WordsStyle name="KEYWORDS3" fgColor="000000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" />
<WordsStyle name="KEYWORDS4" fgColor="000000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" />
<WordsStyle name="KEYWORDS5" fgColor="000000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" />
<WordsStyle name="KEYWORDS6" fgColor="000000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" />
<WordsStyle name="KEYWORDS7" fgColor="000000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" />
<WordsStyle name="KEYWORDS8" fgColor="000000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" />
<WordsStyle name="OPERATORS" fgColor="000000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" />
<WordsStyle name="FOLDER IN CODE1" fgColor="000000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" />
<WordsStyle name="FOLDER IN CODE2" fgColor="000000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" />
<WordsStyle name="FOLDER IN COMMENT" fgColor="000000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" />
<WordsStyle name="DELIMITERS1" fgColor="008040" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="254" />
<WordsStyle name="DELIMITERS2" fgColor="808080" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" />
<WordsStyle name="DELIMITERS3" fgColor="0078AA" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" />
<WordsStyle name="DELIMITERS4" fgColor="000000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="1" nesting="160" />
<WordsStyle name="DELIMITERS5" fgColor="000000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="2" nesting="160" />
<WordsStyle name="DELIMITERS6" fgColor="000000" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="3" nesting="0" />
<WordsStyle name="DELIMITERS7" fgColor="0078AA" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="0" />
<WordsStyle name="DELIMITERS8" fgColor="0000FF" bgColor="FFFFFF" fontName="" fontStyle="0" nesting="16778240" />
</Styles>
</UserLang>
</NotepadPlus>
Not bad, but not really good.
Mark pairs of opening and closing tags is missed urgently.
At this time, you can only have that in UDL if you remove “Delimiter 8” and then add every possible BB code tag pair to “Folding in code 1 style”
Depending on what you’re doing, you could use the Markdown➜BB Code converter that I made recently.
Thanks!
I simply want to find pairs in more complex nested structured, e.g. tables.
In that case, yeah – like this, but for all of your desired tags.
Excellent highlighter. Thanks a lot!
Helps to deal with writing complex posts on some of the forums, where WYSIWYG is still not implemented.