# Text encoding & escapes > Browser-only file conversion. Selected files are processed on this device and are not uploaded to a conversion server. Source: https://localconverter.tech/text-encoding Change a text file’s character encoding or convert text with Base64, URL encoding and HTML entities. Choose the exact operation and, for character-set conversion, the original and destination encodings. Use it for interoperability or inspecting escaped values, while checking that text content and meaningful characters survive the conversion as intended. ## Useful tasks - Convert a Windows-1252 text file to UTF-8 - Decode a URL-encoded value - Convert HTML entities back into readable text ## Steps 1. **Provide the original text**: Upload a supported text-like file or enter text in the page. Use the original bytes when correcting a file encoding rather than an already mis-decoded copied version. 2. **Choose the operation**: Select character encoding, Base64 encode/decode, URL encode/decode or HTML entity encode/decode. These operations solve different representation problems, so choose the one that matches the source. 3. **Set relevant encodings and run**: For character encoding, select the actual input and desired output character sets. Run Create result; unrepresentable characters in a character-set conversion cause an error instead of silent substitution. 4. **Verify the text in context**: Download the output and inspect accented letters, non-Latin characters and punctuation in an editor using the intended encoding. Test escaped values in their expected context before reuse. ## Settings - **Operation**: Choose operation according to the result you need. Available choices: Change character encoding; Encode Base64; Decode Base64; URL encode; URL decode; Encode HTML entities; Decode HTML entities. The initial selection is Change character encoding. - **Input encoding**: Choose input encoding according to the result you need. Available choices: UTF-8; UTF-16 LE; UTF-16 BE; Windows-1252; Windows-1256; Shift JIS. The initial selection is UTF-8. - **Output encoding**: Choose output encoding according to the result you need. Available choices: UTF-8; UTF-16 LE; UTF-16 BE; Windows-1252; Windows-1256; Shift JIS. The initial selection is UTF-8. ## A legacy CSV as UTF-8 text A CSV export is known to use Windows-1252 and contains accented names. Choose character encoding, Windows-1252 input and UTF-8 output. Inspect the downloaded text for correct names and punctuation, then import it with explicit UTF-8 settings in the destination application. ## Check the result Choose a file or enter text where available. Review the settings, create your result and download the new copy. Choose the original encoding correctly. Unrepresentable characters are rejected when converting between character sets. Open the saved output in the app or workflow where you plan to use it. Check one representative result before repeating the same settings with more files. The original files stay unchanged. ## Limits - Files are processed on this device. Browser memory and engine-specific limits apply. Save results before reloading. - Choose the original encoding correctly. Unrepresentable characters are rejected when converting between character sets. - Upload one file with a combined size of at most 100 MB. The completed output must fit within 200 MB. - Pasted text and uploaded text have operation-specific UTF-8 byte limits. Productivity tools accept up to 1 MiB (1,048,576 bytes); non-ASCII characters can use several bytes each. If a file is selected, it takes priority over pasted text. - Selections and completed jobs stay available while you navigate inside this tab. Use My files to revisit results. Reloading or closing the tab clears the workspace; download results you want to keep first. ## Questions ### Can the tool automatically identify the source encoding? The character-conversion workflow asks you to choose the input encoding. Selecting the wrong one can produce incorrect characters even when conversion completes, so use source documentation or a known-good original to determine the actual character set. ### What happens if the output character set lacks a character? The tool checks whether the selected destination encoding can represent the decoded text and rejects conversions that lose characters. Choose a suitable encoding such as UTF-8 when the intended text cannot fit within a more limited character set. ### Is Base64 an encryption method? No. Base64 changes a byte representation into ordinary encoded text and is reversible without a secret key. Use it for a destination that expects that syntax, rather than treating the output as protected or confidential content. ### Are URL encoding and HTML entities interchangeable? No. URL encoding escapes text for a URL-component representation, while HTML entities represent characters in HTML text. Choose the operation expected by the receiving context and avoid repeatedly encoding an already escaped value unless that is intentional. ### Does Text encoding & escapes upload files to another service? Processing runs in this browser, on your device. Files and pasted input are not uploaded to a conversion server. The website and required engine assets must load first; large operations depend on available device memory. ### Can I continue after changing pages? Selections and completed jobs stay available while you navigate inside this tab. Use My files to revisit results. Reloading or closing the tab clears the workspace; download results you want to keep first. ## Related guides - [Clean CSV & delimiters](https://localconverter.tech/clean-csv.md) - [JSON · XML · TOML · YAML](https://localconverter.tech/structured-data.md) - [Format & validate data](https://localconverter.tech/format-data.md) - [File checksum](https://localconverter.tech/file-checksum.md) - [JSON to CSV](https://localconverter.tech/json-to-csv.md) - [JSON to TSV](https://localconverter.tech/json-to-tsv.md)