Problems with high-order characters

[txsoft]

Using version 5.5v1 (Mac), when exporting data created using Option-Shift, those characters do not export correctly. Anyone know a fix?

[cjaeger]

which character? some are reserved as record/repeat separator.

The Characters involved are:

ASCII 09, 10, 11,13, 29

All others export/import correctly.

[txsoft]

Those are control characters. The problem I'm seeing is with characters above 128, the high-order characters.

[cjaeger]

what exactly are you seeing?

they all export correctly. just try to re-import them - they are identical. However, if you move the export to another platform or format them in another font, you will see different characters - but the ascii values remain the same.

[txsoft]

The character

[cjaeger]

[cjaeger]

if it's a bug, it's probably fixed in 5.5v2

[txsoft]

This is being exported on a Mac for use on Windows. I just had them install 5.5v2 with the same results.

>

[txsoft]

Is there a way to export on the Mac to maintain the correct ASCII code on other platforms? If you enter ASCII code 174 on a Mac, is the result

[BobWeaver]

Yes the characters above 128 are totally different between Mac and Windows. I don't know whether Filemaker is smart enough to automatically translate these characters when you move a native Filemaker file from Filemaker Mac to Filemaker Windows. Is this what you tried when you say you got the same results on Filemaker Windows version? If so, you may have to go searching for some shareware translation utility. You could probably come up with some translation script in Filemaker too if you know all the character codes on both systems.

[cjaeger]

FileMaker Windows will let you choose the character set during text import (csv, tab-delimited, merge). Simply choose "Mac". You cannot specify this on the Mac while exporting, but you can use "Cyclone" or "TEC OSAX" to convert between charsets via AppleScript. (try google search on those keywords + "AppleScript")

You can always export as FileMaker file to maintain charsets when exporting for another platform. SYLK and DBF will get the charset right, but may chop off some chars in your field names + format numbers with a lot of trailing zeros. [1 -> 1.00000000000].

You can also ftp the file with the TEXT, not BINARY, option, so charsets (and line endings) will be converted.

[txsoft]

Thanks for all your help, guys! I think I have the answers I need.