[thelist] Db special characters (multilingual again)
Susan Wallace
susanhw at webcastle.com
Fri Jan 18 11:16:56 CST 2002
Greetings!
Following up with a different slant on the multilingual database support
topic, I need some suggestions for dealing with converting a database.
The original data was entered into FileMaker Pro (v.5) on a Mac, and needs
to be imported to a MSFT SQL Server 7 database (NT4).
The records in this database contain extended characters for Publisher
names, etc. No matter how it is saved out of File Maker, the special
characters are lost. And as soon as the file is saved out of Filemaker, I
had the person sending it check the file and the characters are not
retained even at that step.
I do not have a Mac, or a current copy of Filemaker, so all I have done has
been by talking to others on the phone asking them what options are
available for exporting. The procedure has been for them to export the data
to a text based file, and send it to me. I tried importing it into Access,
I tried reading it from a raw text file, but every time the characters are
lost. (And aren't even in the original file - all those lovely little boxes
that indicate something is wrong) I have verified that my database field
is set to accept Unicode.
I have tried to find out what effect (if any) a Mac font would have had on
the data being entered and if that played a part, could the font be changed
in Filemaker to something universal (Arial unicode?) without having to
re-enter all the names?
Having said that - I *do* realize that a "database" is essentially a big
text file, but from what I read and was told by folks who use FMP, that
program somehow retains formatting.
I looked through the company site for Filemaker, and did several google
searches, but nothing touched on this issue.
Suggestions?
TIA!
Susan Wallace
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