I am having difficulties explaining this one.

my hopes are that some one in this forum has seen this before. I appreciate any guidance offered.

I have created a script that creates .txt files from my FM database. each record is named after the record number xxxxxxx.txt . A little html scripting is then added for my import to my ecommerce web site. the text files look great but when the *.txt files are loaded on to the web, the mysterious "ÿþ" characters appear before my text.

I have been trouble shooting this problem now for several weeks. with no success. below is an example of my FM created text file: (this is exactly what FM makes for me)

##################################################

TV/Radio/Lantern with Weather Alert

F E A T U R E S

• 5" solid state UHF/VHF black and white television, Powerful halogen spotlight and AM/FM/weather band radio with Automatic Storm Alert warning alarm

• 7 channel NOAA weather frequencies warn of dangerous weather conditions and emergency information

• 120 volt AC and 12 volt DC power adapters included

• Built in hand crank provides back-up power for all radio functions and LED area light

#################################################

Now if i copy and paste this information into a new *.txt file or create a new text file from scratch, loading to the web is no problem what so ever. I ma only having this problem with the FM created files. ?

Has any one seen this type of behavior before?

could i be creating my exported files wrong.

Please put your heads together and let me know if you have any ideas. I don't want to manually create 25,000 files every month.

Thank you all for viewing my post and an extra THANKS to anybody who could help.

pryjda,

I'm going to make an assumption that you are using EXPORT FIELD CONTENTS rather than the regular everyday export function (File > Export Records...). I've experienced similar "weirdness" when using Export Field Contents and pushing the output to an Active Server Page (ASP). I *think* this happens because Export Field Contents uses the UTF-16 format (unicode) whereas the regular export is UTF-8.

You *may* be able to overcome the problem (if you are indeed using Export Field Contents) by choosing the plain old Export Records instead.

Thank you for your help.

actually i guess i could trace this back, my field contents is actually created by 2 steps

Here is my my field calculation:

"" & description_headline & "

" & "¶" &

"" & description_subhead & "

" & "¶" &

"" & description_internet & "

" &

If(IsEmpty(description_features); ""; "F E A T U R E S

" & "¶" & "" & description_features & "")

Here is my export script:

Loop

Set Varriable [$path; value:"servername/directory/directory/"& ITEM_INFO::ROITNO & ".txt"]

Export Field Contents [iTEM_INFO::HTML4infor Copy; "$path"]

Go to Record/Request/Page [Next; Exit after Last]

End Loop

Thanks again

Well, although i was not able to get an export . recodes to work for me, i have devised a plan to work arround.

What i have done was created a simple .bat file to automatically convert these Unicode files to ASCII files. Using DOS to convert the files for me all in a batch.

c:>chcp 1252

"active code page: 1252

TYPE localhostdirectoryrecordnumber.txt > localhostdifferentdirectoryASCIIrecordnumber.txt

Thanks a lot to Ted for pointing me in the right direction. I never knew where to stard.