Notepad You can convert the character encoding of a file through the encoding option in the Save As dialog box. The steps for use are as follows: 1. Open the text file; 2. Click "File" > "Save As"; 3. Select the required formats such as UTF-8, ANSI, Unicode, etc. from the "Encoding" drop-down menu; 4. Save the file. The default encoding depends on the Windows locale. If you turn on garbled code, it may be caused by encoding mismatch. You can judge the original file encoding by opening "Save As" again to view the current pre-selected encoding. UTF-8 is suitable for web pages and code files, ANSI is suitable for old systems, Unicode (UTF-16) is used for Windows internal and non-Latin texts, pay attention to the difference between UTF-8 or not. Notepad limitations include the inability to convert in batches, the lack of support for manual reselecting encoding, and rare encoding formats. At this time, you can consider using tools such as Notepad or VS Code.

Notepad isn't the most powerful text editor out there, but it does have some handy features — especially when it comes to handling different character encodings. If you've ever opened a text file and seen weird symbols or garbled text, it's probably because of an encoding mismatch. Here's how you can use Notepad to convert between common encodings like UTF-8, ANSI, Unicode, and more.

How to check and change encoding when saving a file

When you open or save a file in Notepad, you can choose the encoding format from the Save As dialog. This is the main way Notepad lets you convert encodings:

• Open your text file in Notepad
• Click File > Save As
• In the "Encoding" dropdown at the bottom, you'll see options like:
  • ANSI
  • UTF-8
  • Unicode (UTF-16LE)
  • Unicode big endian (UTF-16BE)

Choose the one you need, then save the file under the same or a new name.

A quick tip: The default encoding depends on your Windows region settings. For example, Western Europe usually defaults to ANSI (often Windows-1252), while others might default to UTF-8 these days if you're on a newer version of Windows.

What encoding did the file originally use?

Notepad doesn't always tell you what encoding a file was saved in — it tries to guess. That's why sometimes you open a file and see nonsense characters.

One trick to figure this out is to open the file, then go to File > Save As again without making any changes. The current encoding will be pre-selected in the dropdown.
For example:

• If it shows "ANSI", the file was likely created in a legacy format.
• If it shows "UTF-8", it's using modern encoding that supports most languages.
• If you open a file and see Chinese characters showing up as boxes or question marks, it might actually be saved as UTF-8 but opened as ANSI — try resaving with the correct encoding.

This method isn't foolproof, though. If Notepad misguesses the original encoding, there's no built-in way to force reopen the file with a specific encoding — unlike more advanced editors like Notepad .

When should I use which encoding?

Choosing the right encoding depends on what you're doing:

• UTF-8 : Best for web pages, code files (like HTML, CSS, JS), and general-purpose use. It supports almost every language and keeps file sizes small for English text.
• ANSI : Still used by some older programs. If you're editing a config file for a legacy system, it might expect ANSI.
• Unicode (UTF-16) : Used mainly in Windows internals and some Microsoft Office files. Larger file size than UTF-8, but better for non-Latin scripts if you're working heavily in them.
• UTF-8-BOM vs No BOM : Some tools react differently to UTF-8 with or without a byte order mark (BOM). Web browsers usually handle both fine, but scripts (like Python) might have issues with BOM.

If you're not sure, UTF-8 is usually safe unless you know the file needs to work with a specific program that requires another format.

Limitations of using Notepad for encoding conversion

While Notepad gets the job done for basic conversations, it has its limits:

• You can't batch convert multiple files at once
• No option to reopen a file with a different encoding manually
• Doesn't support less common encodings like Shift-JIS or GBK

For more advanced needs, consider using Notepad , VS Code, or other editors that offer full encoding control and detection.

That's about all you can do with Notepad itself. It's simple, built-in, and good enough for basic tasks — just don't expect too much beyond that.

The above is the detailed content of How can I use Notepad to convert text between different character encodings?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!