Trademark and other symbols display improperly in IE

MinnesotaCory · Post by **MinnesotaCory** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 2:05 pm

I've recently discovered that some symbols are displayed improperly by Internet Explorer. I nailed down one of them (the apostrophe) by doing a global search and replace to eliminate any non-standard characters I may have pasted or imported from Word.
I tried doing the same thing for the trademark symbol and it still displays as Ã¢â€žÂ¢ in IE. Everything renders properly in Chrome and Firefox, but we're an IE office.
I've tried manually entering the character codes ™ and ™ with no luck. Is it bug report time? Any suggestions for a workaround? I'd rather not replace â„¢ with <sup>TM</sup> .

lacastle · Post by **lacastle** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 2:18 pm

Does this also happen if you use the Flare editor to insert a quick character for the TM?
On the main menu, Insert > Character > Trademark, or click the -a- icon ("Quick Character") at the top of the topic editor and choose Trademark from the drop-down menu.

MinnesotaCory · Post by **MinnesotaCory** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 2:35 pm

Sorry, I didn't make it clear. That was my first attempt, to do a search and replace from the current character to the quick character I inserted elsewhere in the document. It still displays incorrectly in IE. This appears in output (IE only) and in the flare preview window (IIRC this also uses the IE engine).
-Cory

MinnesotaCory · Post by **MinnesotaCory** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 2:51 pm

As a test I inserted characters from the Insert>Character menu. Here is what it looks like side by side with the preview window:

Special Character Example.png

I can confirm it renders the output in IE exactly the same as the preview window.

Post by **rob hollinger** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 4:17 pm

What version of IE are you using?
OS and language of OS?
If you view the source of that topic, can you tell us whats listed at the top?
Should look something like this:

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<html xmlns:MadCap="http://www.madcapsoftware.com/Schemas/MadCap.xsd" MadCap:lastBlockDepth="2" MadCap:lastHeight="417" MadCap:lastWidth="1231">

MinnesotaCory · Post by **MinnesotaCory** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 9:18 am

Tested on IE 8 running on WinXP also IE9 running on Windows 7. Both show the problem. Language would be US English.
Here's the pre-header code block:

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<html xmlns:MadCap="http://www.madcapsoftware.com/Schemas/MadCap.xsd" MadCap:lastBlockDepth="5" MadCap:lastHeight="1011.667" MadCap:lastWidth="1561">

Post by **rob hollinger** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 12:08 pm

What version of Flare are you using?
Can you post the code from the topic?
Here is the code from my topic:

Code: Select all

    <body>
        <h1>Topic Title</h1>
        <p>Delete this text and replace it with your own content.</p>
        <p>Â©</p>
        <p>Â®</p>
        <p>â„¢</p>
        <p>Â°</p>
        <p>One</p>
        <p>â€¢</p>
        <p>â€¡</p>
        <p>â€¦</p>
        <p>â€“</p>
        <p>â€”</p>
        <p>Â±</p>
        <p>â‰¥</p>
        <p>â‰ </p>
        <p>Â¢</p>
        <p>â‚¬</p>
        <p>Â£</p>
        <p>Â¥</p>
        <p>Company</p>

    </body>

MinnesotaCory · Post by **MinnesotaCory** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 12:17 pm

Flare 7.1
Here's the topic I created to test the problem:

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<html xmlns:MadCap="http://www.madcapsoftware.com/Schemas/MadCap.xsd" MadCap:lastBlockDepth="2" MadCap:lastHeight="385.6667" MadCap:lastWidth="1600">
    <head>
    </head>
    <body>
        <h1>Special Character Test</h1>
        <p>â„¢</p>
        <p>â€¦</p>
        <p>Â¢</p>
        <p>Â©</p>
        <p>Â®</p>
        <p>â€¢</p>
        <p>Â°</p>
    </body>
</html>

MinnesotaCory · Post by **MinnesotaCory** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 10:50 am

I tested the issue using a sample project and all characters display fine. I made sure to apply the same skin, just in case.
I also tested this with another project that used the original (malfunctioning) project as a template. This also displays all characters correctly. Any lead on this issue would be great.
-CK

Post by **rob hollinger** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 12:16 pm

I would suggest you contact support at this point.
They will want to see the topic and stylesheet and hopefully be able to find the problem.

https://www.madcapsoftware.com/bugs/submit.aspx

Dinnit · Post by **Dinnit** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 9:07 am

Just to report that I have also spotted the problem today when checking a build. Anywhere the copyright symbol is used I now have Ã‚. Using Windows 7, IE8 and Firefox 5 - same in both browsers.
Also reported to support.

Post by **rob hollinger** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 11:17 am

MinnesotaCory wrote:I tested the issue using a sample project and all characters display fine. I made sure to apply the same skin, just in case.
I also tested this with another project that used the original (malfunctioning) project as a template. This also displays all characters correctly. Any lead on this issue would be great.
-CK

What fonts are being used?

MinnesotaCory · Post by **MinnesotaCory** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 11:34 am

I use Calibri for nearly everything on the site. I tried changing my <p> style to Georgia and had the same problem.
I have a support ticket pending.

Post by **rob hollinger** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 1:27 pm

I think we figured it out.

In each browser, you can set the encoding. If your browser is not set to UTF-8, you will see the characters.
Click View > Encoding and see which encoding you have set.
Change it to UTF-8 and the characters should display correctly.

MinnesotaCory · Post by **MinnesotaCory** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 1:53 pm

That was one of the first things I checked. See image:

Unicode.png

The bullet list item below the View menu is supposed to be Schwan'sPay(tm). I find/replace away the curly quotes, but I need the TM to function as it does on my other site.

Another note for today, I copied the stylesheet from the broken project to another project that is working just fine. The problem did not follow the stylesheet.

Waiting on my support reply...

Post by **rob hollinger** » Mon Jul 18, 2011 10:31 am

If using a MasterPage that contains Meta tags, be sure to include the following additional meta tag:

Code: Select all

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />

MinnesotaCory · Post by **MinnesotaCory** » Mon Jul 18, 2011 4:28 pm

I don't know why this would have changed, but adding the Meta tag fixed the problem.
Thanks Rob!

Post by **rob hollinger** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 10:37 am

There is one more cause for certain situations.
If you are seeing Characters like apostrophes and asterisks getting surrounded by weird characters, the cause can be due to having the BOM turned off.
In this situation its the use of ASPX pages on a webserver.
To turn BOM back on:
1) Open the registry editor (type regedit in the windows run window)
2) Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\MadCap Software\Flare) Right-Click on the right, and select New | String Value
4) Name the string value SaveXmlWithBom
5) Double-click the value and enter True into the Value Data field
6) Re-Launch Flare and generate WebHelp. All generated files will have the BOM inserted

curlynshort · Post by **curlynshort** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 3:03 am

Was there a solution to this?

We're seeing the same problem in some of our WebHelp projects.

The problem does not occur if we open the help by double-clicking the main file, but it does occur when a user clicks the help link to get help for the application.

techwriter31 · Post by **techwriter31** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 5:35 pm

I also had a similar problem several months back after inserting a Google Translate script in the source code of my Master Page:
http://forums.madcapsoftware.com/viewto ... 828#p85490

Post by **rob hollinger** » Mon Jan 21, 2013 2:27 pm

Have you turned the Byte Order Mark (BOM) back on following the instructions above?
Once that is done, you need to relaunch Flare and rebuild the outputs.

curlynshort · Post by **curlynshort** » Tue Jan 22, 2013 1:38 am

rob hollinger wrote:Have you turned the Byte Order Mark (BOM) back on following the instructions above?
Once that is done, you need to relaunch Flare and rebuild the outputs.

Yes, sorry for having overlooked this before. It worked!

Thanks.

danroberts · Post by **danroberts** » Wed Sep 24, 2014 10:38 am

I'm having the same problem in my published WebHelp output in IE only, and I've had to resort to use of a graphic for the copyright symbol. Does anyone have a solution?

The symbol displays properly the first time the page is displayed, but if you navigate away and return, it is accompanied by ^A. This does not occur if the html file is opened directly in IE as an independent file. It only happens when viewing the WebHelp project.

Thanks!
Dan Roberts

techwriter31 · Post by **techwriter31** » Fri Sep 26, 2014 1:03 pm

danroberts wrote:I'm having the same problem in my published WebHelp output in IE only, and I've had to resort to use of a graphic for the copyright symbol. Does anyone have a solution?

The symbol displays properly the first time the page is displayed, but if you navigate away and return, it is accompanied by ^A. This does not occur if the html file is opened directly in IE as an independent file. It only happens when viewing the WebHelp project.

Thanks!
Dan Roberts

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Trademark and other symbols display improperly in IE

Trademark and other symbols display improperly in IE

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Re: Trademark and other symbols display improperly in IE

Re: Trademark and other symbols display improperly in IE

Re: Trademark and other symbols display improperly in IE

Re: Trademark and other symbols display improperly in IE

Re: Trademark and other symbols display improperly in IE

Re: Trademark and other symbols display improperly in IE

Re: Trademark and other symbols display improperly in IE

Re: Trademark and other symbols display improperly in IE

Re: Trademark and other symbols display improperly in IE

Re: Trademark and other symbols display improperly in IE

Re: Trademark and other symbols display improperly in IE

Re: Trademark and other symbols display improperly in IE

Re: Trademark and other symbols display improperly in IE

Re: Trademark and other symbols display improperly in IE

Re: Trademark and other symbols display improperly in IE

Re: Trademark and other symbols display improperly in IE

Re: Trademark and other symbols display improperly in IE

Re: Trademark and other symbols display improperly in IE

Re: Trademark and other symbols display improperly in IE

Re: Trademark and other symbols display improperly in IE

Re: Trademark and other symbols display improperly in IE

Re: Trademark and other symbols display improperly in IE