Notepad++ htmltidy - unable to find libtidy.dll

Question

I'm on a relatively new Windows 7 machine and in Notepad++ the TextFX HTMLTidy doesn't work. It says "Unable to find libTidy.dll in the system path or C:\program files (x86)\Notepad++\plugins\Config\tidy\libTidy.dll". Some links suggest moving the files to that location, but where do I get them from? Argh, why do I always find Notepad++ plugins so frustrating!

I'm using Notepad++ 5.9.3 on Windows 7 x64.

Wilkes

If you have htmlTidy installed, just do a file find starting at c:\ (or the drive on which you have it installed). You probabaly don't want to move the dll, just copy it. – Victorie

i don't have htmlTidy installed, it's supposed to come with Notepad++ – Wilkes

Wow, this is almost a year old and it's still happening. HtmlTidy should be a plugin instead. – Trichroism

Answer 1

Oh, it looks like it's something annoying with plugins not being included in 5.9.3, but being included in earlier versions. See post here.

The solution is to download the 5.9 ZIP file from here, then copy the plugins\config folder to the Notepad++\plugins folder.

Wilkes

@Wilkes - I have version 5.9.6.2 (UNICODE) but when I try what you suggested by downloading 5.9 and then copying the config folder into the plugins folder it does not seem to work. Has something else changed? – Willywilly

@Willywilly - Download and install the latest notepad++ (v6.1.1 as at today) from notepad-plus-plus.org/download ... then from npp.5.9.bin.zip (linked to in Rory's comment above) copy the contents of the ansi\plugins\Config\tidy\ folder into:(notepad++ install dir)\plugins\Config\tidy - finally, restart notepad++ (Sorry for all the edits, I managed to really screw up my comment!) – Peroxy

Above comment by Chris worked for new Notepad++ 6.1.5 as well. – Nucleoside

Works with my 6.1.x version as well, but only the ANSI version: https://mcmap.net/q/56460/-notepad-6-1-x-and-htmltidy – Kosciusko

Remember to restart Notepad++ – Informer

Downloading the Older Version of NotePad++ and copying the Config folder over to the C:\Program Files\Notepad++\plugins did the trick Thanks! – Krasnoff

I had to copy the tidy folder to "C:\Users\MyUserName\AppData\Roaming\Notepad++\plugins\config" – Murrah

On win7 remember to run 7zip as administrator to be able to write into notepad++ install dir – Veg

On Windows 10 with NotePad++ version 7.6.2, the "tidy" folder goes here: C:\ProgramData\Notepad++\plugins\NppTextFX\Config (I had to create the directory). I used the Unicode version. Thanks for the pointers. – Bacteriophage

looks like this link still works: download.tuxfamily.org/notepadplus/archive/5.9 – Sawyers

Answer 2

After searching around, I found that you don't have to download Notepad++ v5.9.

TextFX with HTML Tidy can be downloaded from here.

Copy the NPPTextFX folder to the Notepad++ plugins\Config directory (such as C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\plugins\Config), rename it to tidy, then restart Notepad++.

---

TextFX is no longer being developed, see this page.

This plugin has no maintainer and wants one; please see TextFX's Future

Seiden

Answer 3

For those still searching for libtidy.dll. It appears that version 5.9 of Notepad++ is no longer available for download (at least there is no link on the downloads page and making a educated stab at a URL of http://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/v5.9.html returns a 404).

There is a 'dll' link on the HTML Tidy SourceForge page (http://tidy.sourceforge.net/) dated 2006; but it returns a DNS error.

Google did return a hit on a site called "DLL Me," but I'm not going to download anything from a site that sketchy; so as of this writing: no libtidy.dll to be found.

--edit-- Finally found a link directly out of the TuxFamily distro server: npp.5.9.bin.zip (thanks @noah).

Idyllist

Link changed to download.tuxfamily.org/notepadplus/archive/5.9 – Assumptive

Answer 4

As an alternative, you can use the HTML Tidy 2 plugin, which is based on Tidy HTML 5. It works with the latest Notepad++ version.

You can install it using the plugin manager, or manually by grabbing the latest version and extracting the contents into your Notepad++\plugins directory.

An updated version of the plugin can be found Here.

Flummery

Doesn't seem to work out of the box. Every XML document I've tried it on has thrown an error, despite the XML being valid. – Wreathe

@SimonTewsi For XML you need to install the XML Tools plugin. – Doorkeeper

Install fails in Notepad 7.2.2 – Promiscuity

Updated version can be found here: github.com/geoffmcl/NppTidy2 – Beyrouth

Answer 5

It doesn't look like the libTidy.dll functionality was actually removed, just coopted by NppTextFX.

I enabled it in my installation of Notepad++ v6.1.5 by installing TextFX Characters via Plugin Manager. Two things happened after that: 1. NppTextFX.dll was copied in (Notepad++ install directory)\plugins\ directory and; 2. TextFX menu item is enabled between Run and Plugins, which now has the TextFX HTML Tidy option.

Also, there's no difference between the ANSI and Unicode versions of libTidy.dll in npp.5.9.bin.zip. I ran both through WinMerge.

Nygaard

I still had to find a copy of npp.5.9.bin.zip based on previous comments for a working copy of libTidy.dll, so yeah, that is a prerequisite. – Nygaard

Answer 6

You can download this file from here and put this file in this path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\plugins\Config\tidy

Commissary

Answer 7

I found the best option ever for this:

In Notepad++ 6.3.2, enable the "TextFX Characters" plugin from the "plugin manager".

That is all.

Paresh