Mozilla Localization Editors
To edit resource files in Mozilla software and extensions, you need the appropriate editor that support the following:
- Support UTF-8 file format
- Option for leaving out Unicode signature, BOM (Byte Order Mark, U+FEFF)
- Support escaped Unicode (\uXXXX)
The following table lists some editors and their Unicode support:
| Name | Optional BOM | Escaped Unicode | Platform | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UniRed | yes | yes | Windows | free |
| SC UniPad | yes | yes | Windows | commercial |
| BabelPad | yes | no | Windows | |
| EditPad Plus | no | no | Windows |
UniRed
Get Started with UniRed
Note that UniRed does not detect Unicode font automatically, meaning that if you use English version of Windows, some character may not appear correctly. If so, you need to change the default font:
- Go to Options | General Settings...
- Set Proportional font. If your system has an Unicode font, e.g. Arial Unicode MS, use it. Otherwise, use a font that has the characters you need.
- Click OK
- Go to Options | File Settings...
- In the Fonts tab, change Edit Font to
Proportional
- Click OK
Saving BOM-less UTF-8 Files
To saving a UTF-8 file without BOM (e.g. a .dtd file), in the save file dialog
set Charset to UTF-8
(not UTF-8 (BOM)
). Set
Unicode representation to -
.
Saving/Opening Files in Escaped Unicode Format
To save or open a file in escaped Unicode format (e.g. a .properties or .js file),
in the open/save file dialog set Charset to UTF-8
. Set Unicode representation to \uXXXX
.
Note: you can go to Options | File Settings to set the default settings for .properties, .js, and .dtd files.
Checking the Format of the Current File
To check the format of the current file, open the FIle menu and choose Properties .
SC UniPad
To set file format, open the File menu and choose File Properties . To save a BOM-less
UTF-8 file (e.g. a .dtd file), set Format to UTF-8
and leave Byte Order Mark
unchecked. To save in escaped Unicode format (e.g. for .properties or .js files), set Format to ASCII+UCN(\u)
.
UniPad will automatically detect text format when you open a file.