How can I make Notepad to save text in UTF-8 without the BOM?

Question

I have a CSV file with special accents and save it in Notepad by selecting UTF-8 encoding. When I read the file using Java, it reads the BOM characters too.

So I want to save this file in UTF-8 format without appending a BOM initially in Notepad.

Otherwise, is there a built-in class in Java that eliminates the BOM characters that present at beginning, when reading the contents in a file?

Answer 1

1. Use Notepad++ - it is free and much better than Notepad. It will help to save text without a BOM using Encoding → Encode in UTF-8 without BOM:
   
   Notepad++ v6 and olders:
   
   Notepad++ v7+:
   

2. When I encountered this problem in Java, I didn't find any library to parse these first three bytes (BOM). So my advice:

   • Use PushbackInputStream(in, 3).
   • Read the first three bytes
   • If it's not BOM (EF BB BF), push them back
   • Process the stream as UTF-8

Answer 2

I just learned from this Stack Overflow post, as @martin-geisler points out, that you can save files without the BOM in Windows Notepad, by selecting ANSI as the encoding.

I'm assuming that for more advanced uses this won't work because the resulting file is probably not the end encoding wished, but actually ANSI; but I tested and confirmed this works to save a very small .php script without BOM using only Notepad.

I learned the long, hard way that Windows' Notepad is not a true editor, although I'd like to point out for others that, despite this, it is misleadingly called up when you type "editor" on newer Windows machines, at least on one of mine.

I am currently using Emacs and other editors to solve this problem.