How to format large JSON file easily on Windows via Notepad++

In this tutorial, we will show you how to format large JSON files very easily on Windows operating system using Notepad++ universal editor with proper JSON plugin.

Notepad++ is a free source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several programming languages. Running in the MS Windows environment, its use is governed by GNU General Public License.

Notepad++ is based on the powerful editing component Scintilla, Notepad++ is written in C++ and uses pure Win32 API and STL which ensures a higher execution speed and smaller program size. 

Solving :

[ Watch on YouTube : TODO Url ]

Step 1 : Download and Install Notepad++

Download and install Notepad++ editor from official website : 

https://notepad-plus-plus.org/downloads/

Step 2 : Run Notepad++ app on Windows

Start your freshly installed ( or already installed ) Notepad++ editor app on your operating system ( I am using Windows )

Step 3 : Open Plugins Admin dialog

- In the top menu bar, click on the "Plugins" menu item

- In the popup list, click on "Plugins Admin..."

Step 4 : Find and Install JSON Tools 8.4 Notepad++ Plugin

- Type "JSON" in the Search field of  the "Plugins Admin" dialog

- Find JSON Tools 8.4 plugin by Mark Olson

- Enable the checkbox for JSON Tools 8.4

- Click the "Instal" button in the bottom right corner of the window

Step 5 : Explore JSON Tools plugin in Notepad++ menu 

- Locate the newly installed plugin in the Notepad++ menu bar 

(typically located at the top of the window) 

- Navigate to Plugins -> JsonTools to explore the available commands and features

Step 6 : Format large JSON file using Notepad++ JsonTools

Now let's do some work ;)

- Open a large json file. I used this : 

https://github.com/json-iterator/test-data/blob/master/large-file.json

- Plugins -> JsonTools -> Pretty-print current JSON file

or press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + P

Hooray ! Our formatted large JSON file is awesome !

Step 7 : Explore the JsonTools plugin files

Now, let’s satisfy our curiosity and explore the JsonTools plugin's local files.

- In menu click "Plugins -> Open Plugins Folder ... "

- Now go inside "JsonTools" folder 

As we can see JsonTools plugin is DLL file 

A DLL (Dynamic Link Library) is a file in Windows containing reusable code and data 

- Now let's go into "translations" folder. 

As we can we it consist of .json5 config file for each supported language.

JSON5 is an extension to the popular JSON file format that aims to be easier to write and maintain by hand (eg for config files).

- Now let's check out the content of  the japanese.json5 translation file. 

Sugoi (すごい) ! ;)

- Final folder to explore is "testfiles" of JsonTools pluign

As we can see - here are the json test files for plugin. Awesome!

Now we now that creator tested his staff.

Well Done

We made it ! We found an easy offline solution to format large JSON files.

This allows us to improve security by NOT sharing JSON data with data collection online tools.

Awesome!