Force FP client to use Codes for ASCII char's above 127?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mike Hanby
  • Start date Start date
M

Mike Hanby

Does anyone know of a way to force Frontpage 2003 create pages that are
UTF-8 safe?

Basically, I have an Apache web server that's got the default char set
to UTF-8
AddDefaultCharset UTF-8
with this setting, my frontpage pages display ? (question marks) for
text such as copyright symbols and apostrophe's.

I can change the server to
AddDefaultCharset ISO-8859-1
but I'd prefer to leave the server unchanged.

I can also substitute © and ' for the copyright and apostrophe
manually, but that's gonna be a major pain (especially when I get the
novice office staff editing the pages).

So, my question, is their a way to get FrontPage 2003 to automatically
insert the "HTML 4.0 Entities" when a character like an apostrophe is
typed into the FrontPage design editor?

Thanks,
Mike
 
Have you tried adding this to the head section of the page and then check it when using standard
characters??

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">

--
Steve Easton
Microsoft MVP FrontPage
95isalive
This site is best viewed............
........................with a computer
 
That does not work, Steve.
The charset defined in the HTTP headers over-rides the charset defined in
the page.
Even worse, if the symbols are entered as references, such as & # 1 6 3 ;
or
& c o p y ; (I've spaced the characters so that OE doesn't show the
symbol) then reformatting HTML will convert them back into the ASCII
representation.

The apostrophe, on the other hand, works the other way - an apostrophe (')
in the code will be changed to & # 3 9 ; by reformatting the HTML.
 
Steve Easton said the following on 01/19/2005 12:19:
Have you tried adding this to the head section of the page and then check it when using standard
characters??

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
Click to expand...
Yup, I just put that in, uploaded it, viewed it and the copyright still
shows up as a ? mark.

I did a View Source, and in the source the copyright symbol is in the
source. Odd.

If I view the file locally (i.e. not serving it up using Apache) the
page looks fine.

It just seems like FP would have an option to store special characters
using their codes.
 
There is only one way I have found, but it is impractical and, IMO, over the
top.
Surround any paragraph or section of text containing a symbol with a HTML
mark-up webbot.
Example:
<p><!--webbot bot="HTMLMarkup" startspan -->This costs & #163;
12.00<!--webbot bot="HTMLMarkup" endspan --></p> (the space between & and #
should be removed - OE might display the £ symbol instead of the entity
characters.

I do not think any novices will remember this, and the paragraph disappears
in design view as well.

The symbols have to be hand typed in code view, and, without the webbot,
reformatting the HTML will replace the entity with the ASCII character.

Some good news - reformatting the HTML (Code view, right click anywhere,
choose reformat HTML) will replace apostrophes with the entity & #39;
 
I just tried this, and Ronx is correct. I manually entered & c o p y;
in code view. I saved it, uploaded it, then viewed the source on the
server and © is now in the code, not & c o p y ;

Grrr, now this leads me to an additional problem:
1) How do I get FP2003 to leave & c o p y; intact in the code
2) My original question, is it possible to force FP to use the codes
rather than the actual symbol?

Thanks,
Mike

Ronx said the following on 01/19/2005 14:32:
 
Anyone have an answer on how to configure FP2003 to:
1) How do I get FP2003 to leave & c o p y; intact in the code
rather than it automatically replacing it with ©
2) Is it possible to force FP to use the codes
rather than the actual symbol for ASCII characters above 127?

Mike Hanby said the following on 01/19/2005 15:12:
 
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