4 replies to this topic

[Piotr]

There are issues in displaying Polish characters in Roots Magic despite using UTF character set. The issue appears wherever HTML is used as output of text. The control string I've used to test it is "ąśężźćńół", which are all the additional letters used in the Polish alphabet. Those letters are properly saved to the database when entered on edit screens and properly displayed in nearly all the fields, lists and reports as far as I could tell, but not in the HTML display fields.

 

This is mainly visible in the Citation Manager. After entering this text into all possible fields, you get something like:

Footnote: ĄA�ęA1AoćA�A3A�.

Short Footnote: ĄA�ęA1AoćA�A3A�.

Bibliography: , ĄA�ęA1AoćA�A3A�.

 

Source text:
ąA�ęA1AoćA�A3A�

Source comments:
ąA�ęA1AoćA�A3A�

 

Research notes:
ąA�ęA1AoćA�A3A�

Detail comments:
ąA�ęA1AoćA�A3A�

 

Source Edit screen suffers from the same issue on the Citation tab. In order to be able to read larger portions of text, I need to actually edit the source and go into the master text and detail text tabs, reading them in the editable fields, which display those characters properly. I've seen this issue for quite some time; it is by no means new. Let me know if I need to do anything else to help you replicate and fix it. I have seen a similar issue reported and fixed for certain German characters, but not for Polish specifically, so just letting you know in case nobody else has seen it before.

 

Here is the link to a screenshot.

[Renee Zamora]

Are you on a PC or Mac?  What version of RootsMagic do you have under Help>About RootsMagic. I tested using the Individual Summary saved as an HTML file and the characters were just fine. What report were you saving as an HTML file? What browser are you using to open it with?

[Piotr]

I use a PC version of Roots Magic, 7.5.4.0. And the issue is not with any reports; those are indeed ok even on my PC. It is with Citation Manager fields and a few other similar fields, e.g. in Source Edit screen. Just take a look at my linked screenshot and you will immediately see what I am talking about. When you right click on any of those text fields and select Properties, it says that it is an HTML document embedded within the form. I guess you use HTML to display large, read-only text fields. Only this internal HTML seems to have issues with a few Polish characters (not report generation). I use a Polish version of Windows 10 on my PC, if that helps at all.

[Renee Zamora]

I copied your text "ąśężźćńół" and am not seeing this on the Edit Source screen. It probably your Polish version of Windows that is displaying that. Can you try changing the region and language setting to English UK or United States to see if its displayed differently.

 

If you are copying text then maybe there is some other formatting in the way. Under Tools>Program Options>General check the box "Use plain text when pasting to notes". Maybe that will make a difference. 

[Piotr]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I had to go into regional settings and change an administrative setting called "language for programs not supporting Unicode". Only this one, nothing more. Previously, it was Polish. After changing it to English (US), all the Polish characters display properly. So in order for you to see this issue, you would have to go into your regional settings and change this language to Polish (if you have such a choice). It does not change the interface language, date formats or anything like that. It seems to change the character set for some software only. So far I don't see any difference anywhere else but Roots Magic. It does require system restart to take effect though.

 

That leads me to think that there might be some slight issues with RootsMagic Unicode support if it requires me to change the system setting, but the priority is much lower than I thought given there is a workaround. The only time it might be an issue is if I come across a program which does not like the English setting there. So far so good though.