New
#1
'characters in Unicode format...saving an ANSI encoded text doc
When saving a notepad (.txt) file, I'm seeing the 'Notepad' prompt saying 'C:\blah, blah, blah This file contains characters in Unicode format which will be lost if you save this file as an ANSI encoded text file' blah, blah, blah.
What Googling this didn't tell me, nor did tediously looking at every character in the file (not finding anything not on my keyboard), I went ahead and saved the file (regardless of the prompt) and still every time I tried 'control + s', clicked 'file>save' or even 'file>save as', the same prompt appeared.
I was about ready to give up, when it crossed my mind. I'd copy-pasted a 'date created' from one of my text files properties general tab. And when I re-read the saved file's characters for the pasted 'date created', I saw a "?" mark ahead of the day date ('?Monday').
I removed the darned thing and saved the document, and I think it again prompted me of that darned Unicode thing.
I re-read the pasted characters again and found yet another "?" mark, this time ahead of yet another following segment of the pasted 'date created'. After a few times of deleting the "?" mark, the file finally saved w/o the darned prompt.
I think I've run across this maybe a half dozen times over the years and finally surmised and resolved this issue, ie; Windows usually never does and even Google sometimes doesn't tell us crap like this.
I don't know what's more insulting, buying a pc w/o being afforded the $2 platform's installer CD-ROM, buying the $150 CD-ROM and finding it so badly scratched, discolored and stained w/no means to get my money back or even a replacement disc (long story but true), find so much MS 'bloat'ware (I'd use another term for it, but I don't want to be blacklisted) on my over-priced OEM machines and finding instead that MS never has enough room or time to either finish writing the program (help menu's that actually are intuitive and heaven forbid, interfaced help with hover notes (which it seems MS created out of necessity and has never followed thru on either one), but just like everything else they foist on us, MS consistently writes software w/bugs and other wise fails to either 'road test' it and/or assure it actually works out of the box.
Can you tell I'm so peeved at how exacerbating that even the simplest of things are seen in these infernal machines, and MS gets away with it. But then so did O.J.
Oh well, serves me right for ignoring the alternative (Linux, a stable platform that I'm guessing does a better job at most everything MS fails at).