Document Monitor

Older Notepad++ versions doesn't come bundled with the feature that automatically saves text documents. This is extremely useful in case of power failure, accidental program exit, hangs or crashes, since you won't lose any unsaved work.

If you're still using an older edition of Notepad++ that doesn't support this feature, you can resort to Document Monitor.

It's a small-sized and straightforward tool that monitors all opened document for changes and updates information to autosave the content. This works even if the files haven't been saved yet with a file name and destination directory.

There is no installation pack involved. Instead, the downloaded package includes two DLL files with Unicode and ANSI versions. Depending on which edition you need, it's necessary to copy that DLL file to the "plugins" folder of Notepad++, whether you have the installer or portable version of the text editor.

In the following step, you have to relaunch Notepad++ if it was already running before taking the previous action. Now, Document Monitor can be accessed from the "Plugins" menu to turn it on and off.

Unfortunately, this is where the add-on's functionality ends. The developer hasn't implemented a help file in the archive, so it's hard to tell how Document Monitor works exactly. It checks for new or modified content every three seconds and saves changes accordingly.

On top of the lack of documentation, there are no kinds of configuration settings available. For example, it's not possible to modify the default saving frequency, nor to effortlessly start and stop the monitor using a keyboard shortcut.

While newer Notepad++ models don't need this plugin because it's built in, users who prefer older versions of Notepad++ will definitely find Document Monitor practical.