Emoji Description for Notepad++

Version 0.3.15

A Notepad++ plugin that automatically displays detailed character encoding information in the status bar for the character under the cursor.

GitHub: https://github.com/Ruberoid/npp_emoji_description

Features

When you move the cursor through text, the plugin automatically displays for the current character:

• Unicode code point (U+XXXX format)
• Unicode character name (e.g. EM DASH, NO-BREAK SPACE, GRINNING FACE) — handy for telling look-alike characters apart; covers the entire Unicode code space including emoji; off by default
• Decimal value
• Hexadecimal value
• HTML entity (&#XXXX; format)
• UTF-8 byte sequence (hex bytes)

Each field can be toggled individually from the Plugins → Emoji Description menu, so you can show just the information you care about. Your choices are remembered between sessions.

Supported Characters

• All ASCII characters
• All Unicode characters (including Cyrillic, Chinese, etc.)
• Emoji and other characters outside the Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP)
• Full support for multi-byte UTF-8 sequences

Output Examples

For character A:

U+0041 | Dec: 65 | Hex: 0x41 | HTML: A | UTF-8: 0x41

For emoji 😀:

U+1F600 | Dec: 128512 | Hex: 0x1F600 | HTML: 😀 | UTF-8: 0xF0 0x9F 0x98 0x80

For Cyrillic character Я:

U+042F | Dec: 1071 | Hex: 0x42F | HTML: Я | UTF-8: 0xD0 0xAF

Installation

Option 1: From Release (Recommended)

1. Download the latest release from Releases page

2. Choose the appropriate ZIP file for your Notepad++ version:

   • EmojiDescription_x64_*.zip for 64-bit Notepad++
   • EmojiDescription_x86_*.zip for 32-bit Notepad++
   • EmojiDescription_arm64_*.zip for ARM64 Notepad++

3. Extract the DLL file

4. Copy it into a EmojiDescription subfolder of your Notepad++ plugins directory, so that the final path is plugins\EmojiDescription\EmojiDescription.dll. The plugins directory depends on how Notepad++ was installed:

   • Standard installer (e.g. C:\Program Files\Notepad++): C:\Program Files\Notepad++\plugins\EmojiDescription\
   • Per-user / "Don't use %APPDATA%" installs and portable builds: %APPDATA%\Notepad++\plugins\EmojiDescription\

   If unsure, check Settings → Import → Import plugin(s)... or look at where your existing plugins live. You may need administrator rights to write into C:\Program Files.

5. Restart Notepad++

Option 2: Build from Source

See Building from Source section below.

Usage

After installation, the plugin starts working automatically. Access plugin commands via Plugins → Emoji Description:

• Show Character Info - Toggle the whole display on/off (enabled by default)
• Show: Code Point / Character Name / Decimal / Hexadecimal / HTML Entity / UTF-8 Bytes - Toggle each field individually (Character Name is off by default)
• About - Plugin information

Simply move the cursor through text, and character information will be displayed in the status bar at the bottom of the Notepad++ window.

Building from Source

Requirements

• Visual Studio 2017 or later with "Desktop development with C++" workload
• Windows SDK
• (Optional) CMake 3.15 or later for CMake-based builds

Build Option 1: Visual Studio (Recommended)

1. Open vs.proj\EmojiDescription.vcxproj in Visual Studio
2. Select Release configuration and x64 platform (or Win32 for 32-bit)
3. Build → Build Solution (or press Ctrl+Shift+B)
4. Compiled DLL will be in bin64\ (or bin\ for x86)

Build Option 2: MSBuild from Developer Command Prompt

1. Open "Developer Command Prompt for VS 2022" (or your VS version)
2. Navigate to project folder:

cd <path_to_project>

3. Build:

msbuild vs.proj\EmojiDescription.vcxproj /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=x64

Build Option 3: CMake

1. Create build directory:

mkdir build
cd build

2. Open "Developer Command Prompt for VS 2022"
3. Generate project:

cmake ..

4. Build:

cmake --build . --config Release

Development

Repository: https://github.com/Ruberoid/npp_emoji_description

Project Structure

EmojiDescription/
├── src/
│   ├── PluginDefinition.h       - Header with declarations
│   ├── PluginDefinition.cpp     - Main plugin logic
│   ├── EmojiDescription.cpp     - DLL entry point
│   ├── EmojiDescription.rc      - Resources (version, description)
│   ├── PluginInterface.h        - Notepad++ plugin interface
│   ├── Scintilla.h              - Scintilla API
│   └── ...
├── vs.proj/
│   └── EmojiDescription.vcxproj - Visual Studio project
├── .github/workflows/
│   ├── CI_build.yml             - CI for builds
│   └── release.yml              - Automated releases
├── CMakeLists.txt               - CMake configuration
└── README.md                    - This file

Key Functions

• updateCharacterInfo() - Updates character info under cursor (src/PluginDefinition.cpp:194)
• decodeUtf8Char() - Decodes UTF-8 character to Unicode code point (src/PluginDefinition.cpp:91)
• formatCharacterCodes() - Formats all code representations (src/PluginDefinition.cpp:136)
• pluginBeNotified() - Handles notifications from Notepad++ and Scintilla (src/PluginDefinition.cpp:243)

CI/CD

The project uses GitHub Actions for automated builds and releases:

• CI Build: Runs on every commit to verify compilation for all platforms
• Release: Automatically creates releases with binaries when a version tag is pushed

See PUBLISHING.md for details on creating releases.

License

This plugin is distributed under the GPL v2 license, same as Notepad++.

See LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Support

If you encounter any issues or have suggestions, please open an issue on GitHub.

Author

Ruberoid

• GitHub: @Ruberoid
• Repository: https://github.com/Ruberoid/npp_emoji_description

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for version history and changes.