Notepad2 is a free and open source text editor for Microsoft Windows, released under a BSD software license. It is based on the Scintilla editor component, and has a variety of features designed to make it a better alternative to the standard Windows Notepad. Notepad2 also supports Unicode, but by default it is set to use ANSI instead of UTF-8. This can be a problem if you need to edit files that contain Unicode characters, as they will be displayed incorrectly. Fortunately, it is easy to change Notepad2's default encoding to UTF-8.
In order to change Notepad2's default encoding to UTF-8, you must first open the Notepad2 program. Once Notepad2 is open, click on the \Options\ menu, which can be found at the top of the window. This will display a drop-down menu, with the \Settings\ option at the bottom. Click on this option to open the \Settings\ window.
In the \Settings\ window, you will see a list of settings that can be modified. Scroll down this list until you find the setting for \Default Encoding\. By default, this setting will be set to \ANSI\, but you can change it to \UTF-8\ by clicking on the drop-down menu and selecting the appropriate option. Once you have made the change, click on the \OK\ button to save your changes.
Once you have changed the default encoding to UTF-8, all new documents that you create with Notepad2 will now be saved in this format. If you open existing documents that were created in ANSI encoding, they will still be opened in the ANSI encoding, but you can easily change this by clicking on the \File\ menu, selecting \Open\, and then selecting the \UTF-8\ option in the \Encoding\ drop-down menu.
This change will ensure that all of your documents are saved in the UTF-8 encoding, which will allow them to properly display Unicode characters. It is important to note that this change will not affect documents that were previously saved in ANSI encoding, as they will still open in the ANSI encoding.
In conclusion, it is easy to change Notepad2's default encoding to UTF-8 in order to ensure that all of your documents are properly displaying Unicode characters. By following the steps outlined above, you can easily make this change in just a few moments.
