Thanks, that's exactly what I wanted. I wander though why the documentation suggests the use of list-coding-systems which does not exist. <Robinows(a)aol.com&gt; wrote in message news:1be.1aa6fe6f.2b4f2905＠aol.com... In a message dated 1/9/2003 12:05:25 PM Eastern Standard Time, yadin(a)pitt.edu writes: Thanks, but how do I execute coding-system-list? if I do M-x coding-system-list it does not work! Apparantly it's not interactive. You could execute it in a scratch buffer, but I suggest you research further. How about C-x b (describe bindings) Searching the buffer for "coding-system" gives me: C-x C-m F set-default-buffer-file-coding-system C-x C-m c universal-coding-system-argument C-x C-m f set-buffer-file-coding-system C-x C-m p set-buffer-process-coding-system C-x C-m t set-terminal-coding-system Type C-x C-m F and you will be prompted for a default coding system. Hit the space bar and you'll get a completions buffer. Is that what you want?