TextEdit UTF8 v.s. UTF16

I am updating some old html, using TextEdit, can somebody explain to me the differenct between TextEdit UTF8 and UTF16? Which is better for continued use in the future. Things sure seem to be getting more and more complicated.

I'm on a 27 iMac Late 2013 Model and running Sierra 10.12.6, no I'm not running High Sierra, I usually wait at least until .2 or .3 versions before I upgrade...

I'm also looking at "BBEdit". I am not really all that good with code, just cobbled together some pages for my photography portfolio years ago and now I am getting back into photography and want to update the old stuff.

And just to combine all my TextEdit questions in one place, is that a bad thing? Should I use different messages for each question?

I keep getting message when I go to save TextEdit files.
"TextEdit--WARNING--DOCUMENT is on a volume that does not support permanent version storage"
I am saving to my iMacs hard drive. I never got these warnings before upgrading to Sierra...

Greg

The difference between UTF8 and UTF16 is frankly too complicated to get into unless you understand coding/CS principles. You should, however, stick with UTF8 for your HTML pages.

Where on your iMac are you trying to save the file? That error will come when you try to save a networked drive accessed over AFP, NFS, SMB.

As far as editor goes, you really should use a editor that's designed to deal with HTML files. TextEdit is too generic and simple. BBEdit is a paid software, Sublime Text is another paid and well respected editor. I use Atom which is free and allows you to add plugins to deal with a variety of files.

Things sure seem to be getting more and more complicated.

Click to expand...

Nope, not if you stick with the standard. Unicode UTF-8 is the standard used when saving text files on a Mac (or a PC). It sounds like you're trying to save text files using another standard (perhaps UTF-16) which is why you're getting the error. Sierra or High Sierra has nothing to do with it.

Thanks guys for your responses, sounds like UTF-8 is what I will set up for then.

The warning was with a UTF-16 file but I have gotten it with other not UTF-16 text files I was saving also...



Greg