diff --git a/Lib/idlelib/IOBinding.py b/Lib/idlelib/IOBinding.py
index 17c196db31d..729f29bf8ce 100644
--- a/Lib/idlelib/IOBinding.py
+++ b/Lib/idlelib/IOBinding.py
@@ -178,7 +178,7 @@ def writefile(self, filename):
         self.fixlastline()
         try:
             f = open(filename, "w")
-            chars = self.text.get("1.0", "end-1c")
+            chars = str(self.text.get("1.0", "end-1c"))
             f.write(chars)
             f.close()
             ## print "saved to", `filename`