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download changes special characters (2 posts)

  • Started 15 years ago by Isahrai
  • Latest reply 15 years ago from Scott McGuire
  • Isahrai Member

    I just installed the Fetch version 5.3 on a new Macbook with OS X version 10.5.5. I have used Fetch on previous Macs with no problems but this time when I download a text file that has special characters coded into it (for accents, tildes, etc), the codes is changed to jumbled garbage. I tried downloading the files directly from my website's Cpanel and they downloaded fine. Is there a setting on Fetch I might have mis-clicked this go around to cause this problem? Half of my websites are in

    Thanks in advance for any advice.

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi,

    Fetch 5 does not make any changes to text files when it downloads them, except possibly to adjust the line endings (the places that indicate where a new line of text begins); this does not affect accented characters, however.

    Some background that will be helpful in understanding what is probably going on: There are a variety of different methods that can be used to store accented characters in text files. These methods are called "character encodings" or "text encodings." A frequently encountered problem is that when you open your text files in a text editor, it displays them in the incorrect encoding. (Some text editors will try tricks to guess the correct encoding, but many times it is impossible to guess correctly.) This is a display problem; it does not mean the files are damaged or corrupted, it's just that the text is being displayed incorrectly. Many text editors have a way for you to change the encoding the text files are displayed in, so that your files are displayed correctly.

    So the most likely the problem is the program you are using to view the text files on the new Macbook is not displaying the characters correctly because it is using the wrong encoding for the files.

    Which program are you using to view the files in? We will try to provide some advice about what to do to fix the problem so that your files appear correctly.

    My guess is that your website's Cpanel was detecting the correct encoding and thus displaying the files correctly.

    (Were you using Fetch 4 on the previous Macs? Fetch 4 actually had a setting that would attempt to translate text files from one encoding to another as it downloaded them. This may be why you did not see the problem before. Fetch 5 does not have such a setting; as I said, it leaves the text files unmodified.)

    Thanks,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 15 years ago #

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