TFBCON2003 (Content)

Since different computers interpret extended (8-bit) ASCII in different ways, the only "safe" characters to include in your messages are the standard (7-bit) ASCII ones. These are the ones printed on an American keyboard, so things like accented characters, which take special key combinations, are not allowed. You may be able to type (or paste) these into the entry form, and even though they may even appear correct to you when you view the results, there is no guarantee that they will look right to someone on another type of computer. They may appear as completley different characters to someone else, thus making your message unreadable to them.

The only sure way to include things like accented characters in your messages is to use HTML mode together with the HTML entities for these characters. For example, if you want to include "é" in your message, you should type "é".

Most accented letters are produced in a similar way: the name of the entity you must is is formed from the letter to be accented followed by the name of the accent (or an abbreviation). Upper- and lower-case letters can both be handled this way. Here are some examples:

é		é
è		è
É		É
ô		ô
ü		ü
ç		ç
ñ		ñ

See the HTML entity table for a complete list.

Some other useful entities include:

–		–
—		—
‘		‘
’		’
“		“
”		”

For a really complete list with lots of references, see (the bottom of) the complete HTML 4.0 entity list.

TFBCON2003 Web Pages Created: 21 Sep 2003 Last modified: Sep 22, 2003 8:59:20 AM Comments to: dpvc@union.edu

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