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French characters

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    French characters

    Hello,

    This is my first message on the forum and I am presently evaluating Alpha 5 using the download trial version.

    I brought some of my .dbf files created in Alpha 4 into Alpha 5 but I notice that the French characters with accents, ie. �, �, �, do not make it. They show only as a comma, for instance, in A5 rather than a "�".

    I am now using an HP laptop made for the US market with Windows XP, with the French keyboard installed by default. The files were originally on a French-built computer with a US copy of Win98 set up to use code page 850 in DOS.

    Would anyone have an idea of what I could do ?

    Thank you,

    RLE

    #2
    RE: French characters

    Robert,

    I am not 100% on this, I am lucky I can handle english :)

    Try changing the font in Alpha5 to one that supports french characters.

    Hope this helps a little and welcome to the Alpha Community.

    Scott

    Comment


      #3
      RE: French characters

      Robert,

      Search this board for threads entitled "accented characters". I live in Montreal where French characters are part of the landscape. I deal with them daily and can assure you that you can work with them.

      Use accented characters in your data but stay away from them in field and object names. For example, do not name a field "�tat" but do type the entry "�p�e" in the weapon field.

      On a related issue, please note that while accented characters and a French keyboard are no problem the same cannot be said for a French codepage.

      As you can see I have a certain amount of hard-won experience with this. Feel free to come back with further questions.

      And I second Scott's welcome.

      Bill
      Bill Hanigsberg

      Comment


        #4
        RE: French characters

        "I brought some of my .dbf files created in Alpha 4 into Alpha 5 but I notice that the French characters with accents, ie. �, �, �, do not make it. They show only as a comma, for instance, in A5 rather than a "�". "


        For help with this conversion consult the documentation on the oem_to_ansi function.

        Bill
        Bill Hanigsberg

        Comment


          #5
          RE: French characters

          Hi William,

          I'm dutch and I have the same problems as Scott.
          In Windows and all applications I can use the french characters, also in A5 in the expression builder. But in the normal fields it is impossible. No one could help me untill now. Can you?

          Greetings, Ren�
          Ren�
          Windows 7, V11

          Comment


            #6
            RE: French characters

            Robert:

            there was a post on the Alpha Four Version 4X board discussing this topic. Ira Perlow provided some functions that may address your situation. The tope was - ��� in an index

            I hope this helps.

            bob adler

            Comment


              #7
              RE: French characters

              Ira's function can be found here:

              http://msgboard.alphasoftware.com/alphaphorum/read.php3?sortby=lastreply&direction=desc&num=11&id=35940&thread=35905#MSG36251

              This enables you to properly index character fields whose data may contain accents.

              Instead of indexing on lastname you index on
              no_accents(lastname)
              which avoids the problem of names containing accents being sorted to the end of the list.

              Bill
              Bill Hanigsberg

              Comment


                #8
                RE: French characters

                Dear All,

                Thank you for your suggestions. It looks like A5 has no problem in accepting French accented keyboard input and the indexing information you have passed to me will be of use to me a little later.

                My concern at this point was importing the .dbf files I have into A5 to help justify acquiring the program.

                I was not able to bring A4 accented character data into A5 using the A5 import genie. However, I was able to convert the A4 files to .db files using Paradox 8, then import them into A5 and the accented characters appear in the data fields. I notice that the Paradox genie asks whether the .dbf file was created in Windows or in Dos, and perhaps that is the difference that preserves the accented characters...

                Thank you for your help,

                Bob Engelhart

                Comment


                  #9
                  RE: French characters

                  Hi all

                  The fact is that I cannot input accented letter in a field either except �. All other letters requiring using 2 keys such as � � � show the letter but not the accent. I use a french canadian keyboard configuration. I'l have to resell my A5V5 unless I can fiend a solution. I used the english version of FileMaker Pro for years without any problems and without any special settins or configuration. Alpha should do something about it, otherwhise they will loose some customers in the international markets.

                  Serge Lavigne

                  Comment


                    #10
                    RE: French characters

                    Just shows the only French Characters are not just in the alphabet.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      RE: French characters

                      Getting alpha4 data containing accents in alpha 5 is really a dos-to-windows conversion issue. Look in the documentation under oem_to_ansi(). Suppose you have a field called name. The conversion would be

                      newfieldnamecontents=oem_to_ansi(name)

                      Bill
                      Bill Hanigsberg

                      Comment


                        #12
                        RE: French characters

                        Serge,

                        I just selected the French keyboard on my machine and was able to enter accented characters into a character field. I did notice that sometimes the keyboard selection reverted to English without warning. Is it possible that this has happened to you?

                        Bill
                        Bill Hanigsberg

                        Comment


                          #13
                          RE: French characters

                          Hi Bill
                          The French AZERTY keyboard is not the same as the French Canadian keyboard. For example, the � uses one key, the right slash key, the � is done by striking the apostrophe key first then the e.

                          Regards

                          Serge

                          Comment


                            #14
                            RE: French characters

                            Hi Serge,

                            Thanks for the new information. I must admit I have not experimented with different French keyboards. The machines at the college arrive on my desk with some sort of keyboard software installed. You just select the one you want. I tried the English and the French and both worked so I thought that was the end of the matter. Silly me.

                            I'll look into this but only next week as I have to head for Toronto tomorrow.

                            Bill
                            Bill Hanigsberg

                            Comment


                              #15
                              RE: French characters

                              You can access the french characters in any windows based program by holding down the "alt" key and typing in a code on the numeric keypad.

                              Example: alt + 0232 = �; alt + 0233 = �

                              You can access any accented character and other characters such as the reg. mark �, copyright � with a standard keyboard.

                              Hope this will help you out.

                              Gerald

                              Comment

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