Encoding

  Images and photos can be correctly displayed on all kinds of environments. They look the same, whatever you use Windows or Linux, notebook computer or smart phone, Microsoft Office Picture Manager or Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Word or OpenOffice, IE or Firefox. Character, which consists of letter, symbol, and number, is quite different. It is not based on pixel on screen. In different environments, the same character appears in different shapes. Characters look like amoebas. Encoding uses a standard method to fix the characters, so that characters can be used on the Internet and all kinds of hardware and software. The purpose of encoding is to exchange. Similar, the purpose of money is to exchange. You can use money to buy products and services to enjoy your life. Alternately, you can use money to invest on baby companies or stocks. You should not hide money under your bed and never use it.

  Encoding works on the background. A computer has to recognize the encoding first and then display the words correctly. Sometimes, the computer cannot decide which encoding it should use due to the complex of human languages. Then, you should select a correct encoding by hand. Most of the time, you just have to choose ASCII, local encoding or UTF-8.

  ASCII is US dollar while UTF-8 is Eurodollar. ASCII is widely used, and it is the default encoding of most documents. Eurodollar is used to solve the problem of different currencies. Similar, UTF-8 is used to solve the problem of different European languages. Local encodings are local currencies in other countries and regions. 

  You can easily change the encoding. In Windows Notepad, [File]--[Save as], in the list box, you could choose the ASCII or UTF-8. They are all most the same, if all the words are English. The file will be a little larger if you choose UTF-8. Similarly, Eurodollar is a little expensive then US dollar. It cannot display correctly if your file contains non-English words, when you use the ASCII encoding.
 
  ASCII: It can only support and display the characters, which are the direct keys on your keyboard. It cannot support other letters or symbols. For example, ©®™Ω cannot be supported. They will be lost. The lost characters will be replaced by interrogation mark “?”. That is the reason many emails and documents has these strange symbols. Besides, you cannot recovery them. 

  Local Encoding: It fully supports and can fully display the local letters and symbols, except for English. However, it cannot support other languages. Still, they can be lost the characters of other languages. 

  UTF-8: It is excellent encoding. It fully supports all the characters in the world. No characters can be lost. That is reason many international Websites use this encoding. Besides, its speed is the fastest. It means that you can use the fastest speed to open a file if its encoding is UTF-8. However, it cannot 100% guarantees that all the characters can be displayed. 

 This is the drop-down box of Windows Notepad. In Notepad, [File]--[Save as], there are four encodings inside. Here ANSI is the nickname of ASCII.      
                    
  This image shows the encoding box in Microsoft Word, when you insert a .txt file, [Insert]--[File]. Microsoft Word has many local encodings inside except for UTF-8. 
  
    You should attach .txt files instead of writing emails inside directly, if you are not sure whether your clients can see them correctly:

  1.In Windows Notepad, [File]--[Save as] to change the encoding into UTF-8 first. 
  2.Write your content inside and save it.
  3.Attach the .txt file and send it to your clients.
  4.If your clients cannot see the content, they can use Microsoft Word: [Insert]--[File]. Then, select the local encoding. 

  This method helps you and clients avoid using Web pages. Your clients do not have to read your contents through the Web page of mailbox. Then, the encoding of the files keeps remaining in the .txt files. Encodings cannot be changed. At present, it is the best method to transmit correct characters in different machines.

  If you cannot see the words of some Web pages, you can try:

  1.In your browser, change the encoding of the Web pages into UTF-8. 
  2.In Windows Notepad, [File]--[Save as] to change the encoding into UTF-8 first. 
  3.Copy the words and paste in the Windows Notepad.
  4.In Microsoft Word, [Insert]--[File], insert the .txt files inside Microsoft Word, and then select the local encoding.


  IE, FireFox, Opera and other browsers also have many local encoding except UTF-8: [View]--[Encoding]

  Definitely, you cannot 100% succeed. Still, many characters cannot be seen finally. This is the natural fault of Web pages. Similarly, you cannot 100% make money through investment.