Character Encoding of File Differences Reports

BC2 logo BC version 2 only

What character encoding does Beyond Compare save report files in?

Beyond Compare's File Differences Report command generates report files (plain text) in the same character encoding as the left side file.

For example, if the left side file is ANSI, the report generated will be ANSI.  If the left side file is UTF-8, the report will be generated in UTF-8.

Problems opening UTF-8 statistics report in Microsoft Excel

If you generate a statistics report from the comparison of UTF-8 files, the resulting comma separated value file will be UTF-8 encoded.  If you double-click the .csv file in Explorer to open it in Excel, it will not open as UTF-8 and the file will not display correctly.

Excel 2003:  If you use the File | Open command, it will give you the option to declare the file UTF-8 to open it correctly.

Excel XP/2002:  The File | Open dialog doesn't provide an option to open a file as UTF-8.  Instead, open the file in Notepad.  Do a File | Save As and save the file as ANSI.  The ANSI version of the report should open correctly.