What text editors operate like notepad for Windows but with extra features for a novice?

Question

What text editors are as easy as Notepad for Windows 7, but with the extra features below?

• Advanced Find and Replace functions (replacing line endings would be helpful)
• See control characters in my text
• Add control characters to my text
• Read multiple files at the same time (tabs and side-by-side view)

I would prefer a free program, but can pay a little bit for software if it is really good, maybe USD10.

Answer 1

Try Notepad++. It's free, so you don't lose anything. Furthermore, it's GPL, so if you're interested, you can modify it, it if needed. I did use it before switching exclusively to Mac, and it was really nice. I don't remember hitting any issues. For programming, it offered highlighting and parsing (collapsing etc.). Your requirements:

• Advanced Find and Replace functions (replacing line endings would be helpful): yes. Supports also \n, \t etc., and regular expressions for more complex patterns.
• See control characters in my text: yes, "View -> Show symbol -> Show all characters"
• Add control characters to my text: yes, at least with hexeditor plugin (search for "hexeditor" from that page).
• Read multiple files at the same time (tabs and side-by-side view): tabs yes, and fully customizable. I'm not sure about side-by-side view. Based on this superuser answer, yes: right click on tab and select "Move to Other view".

It's almost as simple as basic notepad, but contains quite a bit of features:

• Syntax Highlighting and Syntax Folding
• User Defined Syntax Highlighting and Folding: screenshot 1, screenshot 2, screenshot 3 and -screenshot 4
• PCRE (Perl Compatible Regular Expression) Search/Replace
• GUI entirely customizable: minimalist, tab with close button, multi-line tab, vertical tab and vertical document list
• Document Map
• Auto-completion: Word completion, Function completion and Function parameters hint
• Multi-Document (Tab interface)
• Multi-View
• WYSIWYG (Printing)
• Zoom in and zoom out
• Multi-Language environment supported
• Bookmark
• Macro recording and playback
• Launch with different arguments