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Why does Firefox not display symbols and diacritic marks correctly in html pages

  • 6 replies
  • 3 have this problem
  • 8 views
  • Last reply by ender21

ender21
ender21
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I reset my profile because of a problem displaying a particular web page.

I am now using the reset profile. Using this profile Firefox does NOT correctly display symbols and diacritic marks in my html pages. Such pages were correctly displayed in my old profile. They are pages containing text in French and Spanish.

Examples: é «

Why aren't the symbols and marks displaying correctly in a brand new profile when they displayed correctly in my old profile.

I reset my profile because of a problem displaying a particular web page. I am now using the reset profile. Using this profile Firefox does NOT correctly display symbols and diacritic marks in my html pages. Such pages were correctly displayed in my old profile. They are pages containing text in French and Spanish. Examples: é « Why aren't the symbols and marks displaying correctly in a brand new profile when they displayed correctly in my old profile.

Chosen solution

Thanks. The pages are on my computer. They are notes and bookmarks which I have created as html pages so that I can view them in my browser and open links in them.

I will look into the matter of putting a meta tag in the pages. I have no knowledge of that.

Thanks for your help.

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All Replies (6)

user66338
user66338
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What is View > Character Encoding set to? In my installation it's set to UTF-8.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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The default encoding is usually set to Western (ISO-8859-1) to be used when the server doesn't send an encoding and no encoding is specified otherwise.

Which encoding is used on the pages that aren't displaying properly?

Note that if the server sends an encoding and a different encoding is specified via a meta tag on BOM (Byte Order Mark) in the file that Firefox will always use the encoding send by the server.

  • Tools > Page Info > General
ender21
ender21 Question owner
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Thank you both. The view coding was set to the default. I have now changed it to Unicode (UTF-8) and the pages display correctly.

cor-el
cor-el
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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It would be best to fix this on the server or with a meta tag in the file(s) if the server doesn't send an encoding rather than changing the default encoding in Firefox as this can cause problems on other web pages that rely on a western or windows encoding and may show "?" instead.

ender21
ender21 Question owner
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Chosen Solution

Thanks. The pages are on my computer. They are notes and bookmarks which I have created as html pages so that I can view them in my browser and open links in them.

I will look into the matter of putting a meta tag in the pages. I have no knowledge of that.

Thanks for your help.

ender21
ender21 Question owner
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I have implemented the meta tag suggestion. Thanks again.