SSMS Tips and Tricks 7-16: Using encodings when opening or saving files

SSMS has the ability to work with different encodings when you are opening or saving files.

When you use File and Open, note that beside the Open button is a drop-down arrow:

The Open With option leads to this:

 

In that screen, you can choose an existing value or click Add to add another program that you want to use for opening files of that type:

As an example, you might want to use a different XML or JSON editor.

Similarly, when you want to save a file, there is another drop-down beside the Save button:

It leads to this:

In that window, you can choose the encoding to use, and you can also choose the line endings to apply:

You might want to save your file with just Unix line endings (i.e., just a line feed, and no carriage return).

2025-11-19