TextTool

TextTool is a batch tool that can detect and convert the Unicode encoding type of multiple files. It detects whether each file is encoded by UTF8/UTF16/UTF32 and whether it has a BOM (byte-order mark).

How to use it?

You can directly drop files into the main window area, or import files through Open... or Search... of the File menu on the toolbar, then the software will detect the Unicode encoding type for all imported files. It may take a longer time for detecting larger files. If it cannot be determined whether the file has a specific Unicode encoding, the Encoding field in the main window will be left empty.

System Requirements

• Windows 10 64-bit or higher
• .NET Desktop Runtime 9.0 x64 (https://dotnet.microsoft.com/zh-tw/download/dotnet/9.0)

File search

You can use the Search window to search files in the specified folder. Select the files in the search result area and click the Import files button to import them into the main window for detecting the encoding.

Search syntax

The Search name field supports the following syntax:

• Operators:

  Syntax	Definition
  space	AND
  |	OR
  !	NOT
  < >	Grouping
  " "	String brackets

• Wildcards:

  Syntax	Definition
  *	Matches zero or more characters
  ?	Matches one character

Note

When using the string brackets, the operators space, |, !, <, and > between the left double quote " and right double quote " are treated as ordinary characters.

Everything API integration

This software also integrates Everything API to search files, which can provide a faster search speed. You can additionally install Everything and run it in the background, then the Search window will automatically use Everything to retrieve search results.

Encoding convertion

You can use the Convert to... menu in the right-click menu to convert the encoding of file to a specified Unicode encoding. The software will ask you if you want to overwrite the original file or save it with the original name appended by a suffix in the original folder.

For those files with unknown encodings, use More... to open Convert encoding window, then select a proper Source encoding and a Destination encoding to perform the convertion. You can preview a partial of the convertion result in the Result preview area of convert encoding window.

Note

Since the font family currently used in this software does not contains all Unicode characters, some Unicode characters may not be displayed in the Result preview area.

Customize the right-click menu

You can add custom file processing commands into the right-click menu by following the steps below.

• First create config.ini under the same folder of this software, the config.ini should be saved by using UTF-8 encoding.
• Add one or more [Command] section in config.ini, each command starts with [Command] followed by the following syntax:
  • title
    The command name, it can be any text.
  • path
    The executable file path. The path without left and right double quotes " is also accepted. It can be a relative path if the file can be found in the PATH environment variable.
  • prearguments
    The execution arguments. When executing the command, the selected file name will be appended after the execution arguments.
  • batch
    Use 1 to enable the command for multiple selected files, otherwise 0.
  • wait
    Use 1 to indicate that the command can process the next selected file only after it completes the processing of current selected file, otherwise 0.
  • refresh
    Use 1 to indicate that the selected file information should be refreshed in the main window after running the command, otherwise 0.

The following example can be used for opening multiple selected files by notepad.exe.

[Command]
title = Notepad
path = notepad.exe
batch = 1

Caution

Be careful to use batch! Some applications may become unstable or even crash when called frequently in a short period of time.

Note

wait is only meaningful when it is used with batch or refresh, use it if you want to wait for the command to complete the operation on each file and exit.

Note

You can use refresh to refresh the information of the selected file (including re-detect the encoding) if the command would overwrite the files, in particular if it would change the file encoding.

Special thanks

This project includes the components/libraries of the following projects:

• andrewlock/StronglyTypedId
  https://github.com/andrewlock/StronglyTypedId
• AutoItConsulting/text-encoding-detect
  https://github.com/AutoItConsulting/text-encoding-detect
• CommunityToolkit/dotnet
  https://github.com/CommunityToolkit/dotnet
• DragonSpit/HPCsharp
  https://github.com/DragonSpit/HPCsharp
• voidtools/Everything
  https://www.voidtools.com/support/everything/sdk/
• Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) (dotnet/wpf)
  https://github.com/dotnet/wpf

This project also uses the NuGet packages from the following projects:

• CommunityToolkit.HighPerformance (CommunityToolkit/dotnet)
  https://github.com/CommunityToolkit/dotnet/tree/main/src/CommunityToolkit.HighPerformance
• CommunityToolkit.Mvvm (CommunityToolkit/dotnet)
  https://github.com/CommunityToolkit/dotnet/tree/main/src/CommunityToolkit.Mvvm
• DragonSpit/HPCsharp
  https://github.com/DragonSpit/HPCsharp
• Microsoft.Bcl.HashCode (dotnet/maintenance-packages)
  https://github.com/dotnet/maintenance-packages/tree/main/src/Microsoft.Bcl.HashCode/src
• Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp (dotnet/roslyn)
  https://github.com/dotnet/roslyn
• Microsoft.CodeAnalysis (dotnet/roslyn)
  https://github.com/dotnet/roslyn
• Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection (dotnet/runtime)
  https://github.com/dotnet/runtime/tree/main/src/libraries/Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection
• Sergio0694/PolySharp
  https://github.com/Sergio0694/PolySharp