It is not reasonable that Textpad (5.4.2) removes the BOM (initial two bytes of 0xFFFE) from files which contain it. All you have to do is open the file, not change anything, and save it, and the BOM disappears. I have even created a special document class with "Write Unicode and UTF-8 BOM" checked and still the BOM disappears.
My suggestion is simple: if it contains a BOM in the first place, leave it there.
Inadvertent deletion of BOM (0xFFFE)
Moderators: AmigoJack, bbadmin, helios, Bob Hansen, MudGuard