MineAcademy Docs

Appearance

Using the Right File Encoding ​

All MineAcademy plugins use UTF-8 encoding. Using the wrong text editor or encoding will corrupt non-English characters, emojis, and color codes.

Recommended Text Editors ​

NEVER USE WINDOWS NOTEPAD OR WORDPAD

These default Windows editors do not handle UTF-8 encoding properly and will likely corrupt your configuration files.

For Windows Users ​

Notepad++ is highly recommended:

  • Lightweight and fast
  • Properly handles UTF-8 encoding
  • Free and open-source

When using Notepad++:

  1. Open your configuration file
  2. Check the encoding in the top menu in "Encoding" tab
  3. Make sure it shows UTF-8 (without BOM) or UTF-8
  4. If it shows another encoding (like ANSI), change it by selecting:
    • Encoding → Convert to UTF-8

Notepad++ encoding settings

For macOS and Linux Users ​

Sublime Text is recommended:

  • Automatically detects encodings
  • Clean interface
  • Available on all major platforms

Sublime Text on macOS

Visual Studio Code is also excellent:

  • Free and open-source
  • Built-in YAML support
  • Shows encoding in bottom-right corner

Troubleshooting Encoding Issues ​

If You See Garbled Text ​

If your configuration shows corrupted characters like §6 instead of color codes or symbols:

  1. Make sure you're using a recommended text editor
  2. Verify the file is opened and saved with UTF-8 encoding
  3. Try regenerating the configuration file by:
    • Backing up your current file
    • Deleting it and restarting your server
    • Copying your settings to the freshly generated file

For Server Startup Issues ​

If your server displays encoding errors at startup, try adding this Java flag to your startup script:

-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8

Example startup command: ​

bash
java -Xmx4G -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 -jar server.jar nogui

Java startup parameters with UTF-8 flag

Testing Your Configuration ​

After editing, you can verify your YAML syntax with these online tools:

These will catch syntax errors before they cause problems on your server.

Persistently Garbled Text

On some systems, unicode characters may still appear as garbage despite correct encoding. This is an OS limitation — stick to basic characters or use escape sequences like \u2764 for ❤.