TechNote

Unicode issues in HomeSite/HomeSite+ 5.5

The following Unicode issues have been discovered with Macromedia HomeSite 5.5 and HomeSite+ 5.5.

It is not possible in HomeSite to set the charset to theUTF-8 code page and therefore, UTF-8 saved files with double byte characters are not displayed correctly in the Edit tab. This is logged as Macromedia issue 47134.
WorkAround: If you have a web document that you've developed in HomeSite and would like to add Unicode characters to the document but are unable to due to HomeSite's lack of a Unicode character set, you can use Notepad to insert the Unicode characters in your document. This workaround is for Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003 operating systems. Code pages for the languages that you are using must be installed on your machine before proceeding. You can install the code pages via Control Panel > Regional Options. Develop your web document in HomeSite and save as Unicode; leave the document open in HomeSite. Windows 2000 only (this step can be skipped for Windows XP or Windows Server 2003): Open the document in Notepad and change the Format-Font to Arial Unicode MS or Lucida Sans Unicode. Input Unicode characters either by typing directly in Notepad or copy and paste from a browser, etc. into Notepad. Save the file in Notepad: File > Save. Switch to HomeSite and, when prompted to reload file, select"Yes." In HomeSite, select the Browse tab. The Unicode characters should now display correctly. IMPORTANT: This file should not get saved directly in HomeSite again. If saved in HomeSite, all the Unicode characters will be displayed as ??? in the browser. Therefore, after step 5, make changes and save the file in Notepad.

If dynamic web pages that have been saved in HomeSite as UTF-8 are served on Unix, Linux, or Mac OS X servers, the Byte Order Mark (BOM) will be displayed on the rendered page. This is logged as Macromedia issue 53857.