Document Character Encodings

What They Are

An HTML file can be expressed in any of a variety of character encodings, where a character encoding is a system for mapping characters to numeric values.

Unicode — and, specifically, UTF-8 — is the recommended encoding for new HTML content, and is the encoding thatTypeMetal uses when creating a new HTML file. Unicode was designed to replace all existing character encodings, by providing a single, universal encoding in which all of the world’s languages can be expressed.

Non-Unicode Encodings

Sometimes you will encounter existing HTML files that use encodings other than Unicode. (For example, the “Shift_JIS” encoding that’s used for Japanese text.)

TypeMetal can open these files, but isn’t always able to save them in their original encoding. When you open an HTML file whose encoding isn’t Unicode, TypeMetal checks whether it will be able to write the file back to disk in its original encoding. If it can’t, TypeMetal will prompt you to allow it to change the file’s encoding, using a sheet on the document window that looks like this:

Click the “Close” button to close the file, and prevent TypeMetal from making any changes to it.

Click the “Save as UTF-8” button to give TypeMetal permission to change the file’s encoding to UTF-8, which lets TypeMetal keep the file open for editing (since it will now be able to save any changes you make).

No actual changes are made to the file until the first time TypeMetal saves edits to it. If you close the file without making any edits, it will remain in its original encoding.