Here are instructions for setting the default character set in Netbeans to UTF-8 (in Windows):

  1. Go to C:\Program Files\netbeans-x.x\etc
  2. Open netbeans.conf in Notepad.
  3. On the netbeans_default_options add: -J-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8. (make sure to put it within the quotation marks)
  4. Project properties -> Build -> Compiling ->
    Additional compiler options) text box.- add: -encoding UTF-8
  5. You can also check to make sure that you have increased the memory allocation for Netbeans by looking at the netbeans_default_options line. The default max is 128MB. We have increased this to 256MB.

References:

http://wp.uberdose.com/2007/05/07/netbeans-and-utf-8/

http://www.techienuggets.com/Comments?tx=619