How do I stop TP opening the same file multiple times?

[mr-b]

Quite often I find myself opening the same text file multiple times by mistake. I put this mainly down to the taskbar TP icons saying "Textpad" and then the full path to the file which of course gets truncated so that only "TextPad- [D:\Data ..." is visible, rather than the file name - but I can't see any way to change that.

So I start editing a file, then return later and double-click the file again and edit this new version.
After this the other textpad app prompts me to reload the file. I've no idea which option I should take then nor how to sort out the mess. Inevitably though I end up losing some of my changes.

How do I stop Textpad opening the same file multiple times i.e. so it just brings the existing app/file back into the foreground?

[bveldkamp]

You can do that if you allow only one instance of TP to run. Apparantly TP doesn't check too see if other instances opened a particular file already.

Remove the checkmark before "Allow multiple instances to run", in Configure > Preferences > General.

[mr-b]

Tx Berend for the suggestion.

However unfortunately I don't want multiple files to open in a single instance of TP, since that way it's even harder to see from the Taskbar how many files I have open at once! Plus I'd be forced to switch between them inside of TP all the time.

[bveldkamp]

Yeah it's one or the other. Maybe you can post this to the Enhancement Suggestions forum.

[Ed]

I may have missed the point here. But with only one instance of TP allowed to run it won't open the same file twice, but if you attempt to it will just switch to the already open file with a message in the status bar "This file is already loaded."

Ed

[ben_josephs]

I don't want multiple files to open in a single instance of TP

[Ed]

How true! But I wonder if mr-b has come across the "Document selector" as in View>Document Selector. If he has then it may be just what he wants.