By default, when you open a file in File Compare/Merge, it uses the system-dependent default encoding for the loaded file. The file character set encoding is displayed on the Status Bar, in two or three boxes (one for each pane). Initially, these boxes display the text Enc:Default when the files are opened. You can change this encoding for each file in the File Compare/Merge panes.
To apply a character encoding to a file
This opens the Charset Selection dialog box which displays a list of character sets.
If you selected a valid character set, the file immediately switches to that character set.