Force UTF-8 on every document opened in Notepad++

6

I want every document that I create or open in Notepad++ to always (no matter what) be encoded in UTF-8. It seems, that either I'm missing something or this is not possible.

In Settings > Preferences... > New Document > Encoding I have UTF-8 without BOM selected in the list plus Apply to opened ANSI files checked as well. I'm using version 6.7.4.

Everyhing is fine, when I create a new file directly in Notepad++. Then, yes, it has UTF-8 w/o BOM encoding set by default. But, when I select New > Text Document in Windows Explorer, create a new empty text file and then double click it, it opens in Notepad++ with ANSI encoding by default.

What is wrong? For me, option Apply to opened ANSI files seems to be not working at all.

trejder

Posted 2015-02-07T13:45:41.857

Reputation: 8 427

1Perhaps you need to realize that (what Windows incorrectly calls) ANSI and UTF-8 are identical if your text doesn't contain any actual explicit UTF-8 characters. So if Notepad++ opens it and detects its character endoding, it doesn't really matter if it's UTF-8 or "ANSI" if the file is pure ASCII (as in, for instance, English text, or usually, source code). – tripleee – 2015-03-02T07:58:57.563

Answers

4

Nothing is wrong. It is just, how Notepad++ is working. Files are actually saved as UTF-8 w/o BOM.

Whenever an ANSI-encoded text file is opened in Notepad++, editor displays its correct encoding (ANSI). However, after actually saving that file, it will be saved as UTF-8 w/o BOM, if Apply to opened ANSI files option is checked. To verify this, one must create a new text file in the Windows Explorer, open it in Notepad++, change contents, save and reopen. It will be recognized as encoded in UTF-8 w/o BOM.

Tip: There's a fairy easy way to force Windows Notepad to always save files in UTF-8:

It requires some tweaks in Windows registry, but allows you to have all files always encoded in UTF-8, no matter, what editor you're using.

trejder

Posted 2015-02-07T13:45:41.857

Reputation: 8 427

I was really excited but then your link didn't work. Maybe you were linking to something similar to this? http://superuser.com/a/872848/74576

– Ryan – 2016-08-19T19:06:20.157

@Ryan Link in my answer works for me, however target page opens up very slowly. I have added both link to make sure future readers reach information, they're seeking for. – trejder – 2016-08-27T19:29:16.093

Fails for me, I think. I have a file containing Unicode characters. It displays as pairs of hex digits instead of the Unicode. The status line says "Windows (CR LF) UCS-2 LE BOM". I want to see it in Unicode glyphs. – David Spector – 2019-10-03T16:52:01.830

Asked: 2015-02-07T13:45:41.857

Viewed: 12 547 times

Active: 2016-08-27T19:28:35.087