How can I edit Unicode text in Notepad++?

How can I edit Unicode text in Notepad++?

Sometimes I edit English text that includes Unicode characters. For some reason, on my PC, Notepad++ converts Unicode characters to ???'s thereby corrupting the text and losing all that data. I'm looking for a way to edit such text, while preserving Unicode characters. I'm using Consolas as my Font. If the font doesn't have all those characters, why should I lose the data when I copy the text out of Notepad++ (via Windows' clipboard)?

Asked by: Guest | Views: 328

Total answers/comments: 4

Comments display order:

Guest [Entry]

"If the file is actually encoded in Unicode, Notepad++ should detect it automatically. The Consolas font works well for me. You can try one of these two menu options:

Encoding -> Encode in UTF-8
Encoding -> Convert to UTF-8

I'm pretty sure the first one will do what you want."

Guest [Entry]

"There are good news and bad news.

Good news: Notepad++ supports Unicode (at least from what I can gather).

Bad news: Apparently Unicode support is only on Windows XP.

I actually do not have a Windows machine in front of me. From what I remember, there is an Encoding menu under the Format menu somewhere. The encoding for Unicode is actually most commonly UTF-8.

Here is a 'pretty' picture of Unicode support in Notepad++,"

Guest [Entry]

On the top menu select the Encoding then choose Encode in UTF-8 or Encode in UTF-8 Without BOM then you can edit text in Unicode encoding.

Guest [Entry]

"This worked:
Settings → Style Configurator → Font Style → (Font name: Times New Roman, Enable global font) → Save & Close
This, in addition to:
Encoding → UTF-8
The original question asks to edit Unicode text. If this means the Unicode characters should be rendered as well as being editable then not only does one need to choose the proper encoding, such as UTF-8, but one must have a font that renders the UTF-8 encoded characters.
Various fonts have been mentioned. The font that appears to render the greatest range of Unicode characters is Times New Roman. For example, try to render the service mark character ℠ in the other mentioned fonts."