diff --git a/doc/nano.texi b/doc/nano.texi
index f19d237c..1737acbc 100644
--- a/doc/nano.texi
+++ b/doc/nano.texi
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@
 @settitle nano
 @c %**end of header
 
+@documentencoding UTF-8
+
 @smallbook
 @set EDITION 0.4
 @set VERSION 2.8.5
diff --git a/doc/nanorc.5 b/doc/nanorc.5
index 565401f0..32568d85 100644
--- a/doc/nanorc.5
+++ b/doc/nanorc.5
@@ -271,7 +271,7 @@ Disallow file modification.
 .B set whitespace "\fIstring\fP"
 Set the two characters used to indicate the presence of tabs and
 spaces.  They must be single-column characters.  The default pair
-for a UTF-8 locale is "\fB»·\fR", and for other locales "\fB>.\fR".
+for a UTF-8 locale is "\fB\[Fc]\[md]\fR", and for other locales "\fB>.\fR".
 .TP
 .B set wordbounds
 Detect word boundaries differently by treating punctuation