See if 'cp1252' works for you. http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&threadm=m3el758usc.fsf%40mira.informatik.hu-berlin.de&rnum=1&prev=/groups%3Fq%3Dwindows%2Bcodec%2Bgroup:comp.lang.python%2Bauthor:Martin%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26selm%3Dm3el758usc.fsf%2540mira.informatik.hu-berlin.de%26rnum%3D1 Laura Creighton