> _How can I make all these letters appear correctly?_ I can think of two options : 1. Convert the file to **UTF-8**. – This is what I recommend. 2. Configure VS Code to auto-detect the most proper encoding. The second option is preferable _if you **never** want to change the encoding of any files_. ### Option 1. Convert the file to UTF-8 The acronym **ANSI** stands for [American National Standards Institute][Link-01]. The problem with **ANSI** encoding is that – although the name suggests that it's following a standard – it is _conditional_ on what natural language the text is written in. In the case of Swedish/Scandinavian, or even _all_ Western European (Latin) languages, "**ANSI**" encoding means the code page **Windows-1252**. <sup>1</sup> ### 1a. Make VS Code use the correct encoding In VS Code, instead of looking for **ANSI** encoding, look for **Windows-1252**. I clicked **UTF-8** > _Reopen with Encoding_, and VS Code displayed "**Western (Windows 1252)** Guessed from content" as its top suggestion. [![VS Code correctly guesses the encoding is Windows 1252.][1]][1] [1]: https://i.imgur.com/p9fmHFg.png "VS Code correctly guesses the encoding is Windows 1252." <sup>^ click to enlarge</sup> VS Code correctly guessed the encoding **Windows 1252**. If you _don't_ want to change the encoding, you're now all set and done. Otherwise, it remains to _convert_ the file to **UTF-8** encoding. ### 1b. Convert to UTF-8 The status bar now displays **Windows 1252** instead of **UTF-8**. Click on **Windows 1252** and then on _Save with Encoding_ : [![Click Windows 1252 > Save with Encoding.][2]][2] [2]: https://i.imgur.com/Z6vfC7f.png "Click Windows 1252 > Save with Encoding." Now click on "**UTF-8** utf8" : [![Click on **UTF-8**.][3]][3] [3]: https://i.imgur.com/vINaahp.png "Click on **UTF-8**." This _converts_ the file's non-ASCII characters to **UTF-8** _and_ encodes the file as **UTF-8**. ### Option 2. Configure VS Code to auto-detect the encoding If you _don't_ want to convert to **UTF-8**, and if you experience this problem every time you open another file – you may prefer to set VS Code to _always_ auto-guess the encoding. To achieve this, you need to enable the **Auto Guess Encoding** feature of VS Code. Press <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>,</kbd> (comma) and paste or type `autoGuessEncoding`. <sup>2</sup> Check the box where it says : "When enabled, the editor will attempt to guess the character set encoding when opening files. This setting can also be configured per language. Note, this setting is not respected by text search. Only Files: Encoding is respected." <sup>3</sup> [![Check the box if you want VS Code to auto-guess the encoding.][4] ][4] [4]: https://i.imgur.com/Q7nkR2x.png "Check the box if you want VS Code to auto-guess the encoding." ### 3. The confusion about what "ANSI" encoding means Searching the internet, trying to find out what "ANSI" means in the context of encoding, will likely cause confusion. You might encounter that ANSI is ["a misnomer"][Link-08], which is true but not of much practical help. I believe that what clears up the confusion is to realize that when Microsoft writes "ANSI" in the status bar of `notepad.exe`, it typically means **Windows-1252**. For other natural languages, "ANSI" means the code page **Windows-125x**, where **x** is number 0-8, as shown in the table below. Other well-known text editors, such as [Notepad++][Link-09], have picked up this convention and also write "ANSI" in the status bar. **Windows-1252** is sometimes called **code page 1252** or **CP-1252**. Likewise for the other code pages. |**ANSI** encoding|Language/Alphabet| -|- Windows-1250|Slavic languages – Latin alphabet (e.g. Polish) Windows-1251|Slavic languages – Cyrillic alphabet (e.g. Ukrainian) Windows-1252|Western European languages (French, German, Scandinavian, Spanish, Swahili …) Windows-1253|Greek Windows-1254|Turkish, Latin Azeri, and Latin Uzbek Windows-1255|Hebrew Windows-1256|Arabic, Farsi, Urdu Windows-1257|Baltic languages: Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian Windows-1258|Vietnamese ## References * ["ANSI" stands for American National Standards Institute][Link-01] * [ANSI codes listed by language][Link-02] * [ANSI Character Sets][Link-03] * [Microsoft official encoding information][Link-04] * [Windows emulation code pages | Wikipedia][Link-05] * [Macintosh emulation code pages | Wikipedia][Link-06] * [The default settings in VS Code][Link-07] * [Wikipedia refers to ANSI encoding as "a misnomer"][Link-08] * [Download page for Notepad++][Link-09] --- <sup> <sup>1</sup> For a list of what "ANSI" _could_ mean, see the table in Section 3. <sup>2</sup> On macOS, press <kbd>⌘</kbd> instead of <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>. For Linux users, "ANSI" typically means Windows-1252 – just as on Windows. For macOS users, try to see what VS Code suggests as _Guessed from content_. Or else have a look at [Macintosh emulation code pages at Wikipedia][Link-06]. <sup>3</sup> See [the default settings in VS Code][Link-07]. </sup> [Link-01]: https://www.cogoport.com/shipping-terms/american-national-standards-institute-ansi-108 [Link-02]: https://www.science.co.il/language/Locale-codes.php [Link-03]: https://www.science.co.il/language/Character-sets.php [Link-04]: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.text.encodinginfo.getencoding?view=net-6.0 [Link-05]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_page#Windows_emulation_code_pages [Link-06]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_page#Macintosh_emulation_code_pages [Link-07]: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/settings#_default-settings [Link-08]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows-1252 [Link-09]: https://notepad-plus-plus.org/downloads