How Encoding Auto-Detect Works and What to Do When It Fails
Key points
- Check the detected encoding
- Change the reading manually
- Convert once it looks right
Convert Text Encoding guesses the encoding from the start of the file and its byte patterns.
Steps
- Choose the file and read the "Detected:" line
- If it is garbled, pick another "Current encoding"
- When the preview looks right, convert
Short files are easy to misjudge. Check the preview and choose manually if needed.
Use "Convert Text Encoding (Fix Garbled Text)" (free)
Tools that go well with this
- Convert CSV and JSON: Convert between CSV and JSON instantly.
- Convert CSV to Excel (.xlsx): Convert a CSV to an Excel (.xlsx) file.
- Remove and Tidy Line Breaks in Text: Tidy line breaks in text copied from PDFs and elsewhere.