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.

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. — DwB, Aug 08 '11 at 17:00
i don't have htmlTidy installed, it's supposed to come with Notepad++ — Rory, Aug 08 '11 at 17:07
Wow, this is almost a year old and it's still happening. HtmlTidy should be a plugin instead. — jcollum, Jul 17 '12 at 19:26

score 149 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 06 '19 at 02:40

149

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.

edited Apr 06 '19 at 02:40

Peter Mortensen

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answered Aug 08 '11 at 16:59

Rory

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@Rory - 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? – chobo2 Apr 13 '12 at 18:04
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@chobo2 - Download and install the latest notepad++ (v6.1.1 as at today) from http://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!) – Chris Apr 22 '12 at 13:39
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Above comment by Chris worked for new Notepad++ 6.1.5 as well. – Michael K Jul 12 '12 at 15:58
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Works with my 6.1.x version as well, but only the ANSI version: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11591532/notepad-6-1-x-and-htmltidy – Horst Walter Jul 23 '12 at 23:04
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Remember to `restart` Notepad++ – Ujjwal Singh Oct 17 '12 at 16:57
Downloading the Older Version of NotePad++ and copying the Config folder over to the C:\Program Files\Notepad++\plugins did the trick Thanks! – Ben_Coding Feb 13 '13 at 20:54
I had to copy the tidy folder to "C:\Users\MyUserName\AppData\Roaming\Notepad++\plugins\config" – Robert Tanenbaum Oct 01 '13 at 19:41
On win7 remember to run 7zip as administrator to be able to write into notepad++ install dir – slonik Jan 24 '15 at 11:45
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. – David Robson Feb 12 '19 at 13:12
looks like this link still works: http://download.tuxfamily.org/notepadplus/archive/5.9/ – FtLie Mar 05 '22 at 19:18

score 22 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 23 '18 at 07:05

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

score 15 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

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).

Link changed to http://download.tuxfamily.org/notepadplus/archive/5.9/ — ariel, Aug 09 '21 at 16:25

score 9 · Answer 4 · edited Jan 14 '17 at 15:24

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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.

edited Jan 14 '17 at 15:24

user136036

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answered Nov 02 '12 at 10:13

Saeb Amini

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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. – Simon Elms May 20 '13 at 05:21
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@SimonTewsi For XML you need to install the XML Tools plugin. – Thad Guidry Feb 03 '15 at 16:30
Install fails in Notepad 7.2.2 – user9645 Jan 13 '17 at 16:11
Updated version can be found here: https://github.com/geoffmcl/NppTidy2 – user136036 Jan 14 '17 at 12:35

score 4 · Answer 5 · edited Apr 06 '19 at 02:42

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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.

edited Apr 06 '19 at 02:42

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jul 24 '12 at 02:36

alfie

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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. – alfie Jul 24 '12 at 02:54

score 2 · Answer 6 · edited Apr 06 '19 at 02:45

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

edited Apr 06 '19 at 02:45

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jun 04 '13 at 23:41

user1892034

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score 0 · Answer 7 · edited Apr 06 '19 at 02:43

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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.

edited Apr 06 '19 at 02:43

Peter Mortensen

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answered May 01 '13 at 13:38

idodido

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Notepad++ htmltidy - unable to find libtidy.dll

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