website HTML problem

[Starman]

I want to know what and why it is happening when I copy/paste some written
material into my website's HTML edit. It seems anything with commas or
quotation marks, seems to, once I've saved my edit, come up as weird
characters online. It's hard to explain, but I have to go through word by
word correcting it, saving the edit, before it is fixed and finally coming
out the way it is suppose to. Why could this be happening? I have a CSS
format happening if this helps with trying to rectify problem.

 

[Blinky the Shark]

I want to know what and why it is happening when I copy/paste some written
material into my website's HTML edit. It seems anything with commas or
quotation marks, seems to, once I've saved my edit, come up as weird
characters online. It's hard to explain, but I have to go through word by
word correcting it, saving the edit, before it is fixed and finally coming
out the way it is suppose to. Why could this be happening? I have a CSS
format happening if this helps with trying to rectify problem.

Crystal ball broken. Provide URL.

 

[Jim Moe]

I want to know what and why it is happening when I copy/paste some written
material into my website's HTML edit. It seems anything with commas or
quotation marks, seems to, once I've saved my edit, come up as weird
characters online. [...]

You are likely copying characters that do not belong in a website's
character set. This is a common beginner's problem.
Quotes in written material are often a matched pair. It is possible to
get these in HTML as well but requires using special escape sequences. For
unmatched double quotes (opening and closing look the same) use """.
Search the web for other quote combinations.
I am not sure why commas are a problem. I did not know there are
"special" commas. But I suspect the problem is the same.

[...]I have a CSS
format happening if this helps with trying to rectify problem.

CSS has nothing to do with character sets and representation.

 

[Starman]

Thanks Jim. Any ideas as to what websites I can peruse for further
information regarding what you've outlined?

I want to know what and why it is happening when I copy/paste some written
material into my website's HTML edit. It seems anything with commas or
quotation marks, seems to, once I've saved my edit, come up as weird
characters online. [...]

You are likely copying characters that do not belong in a website's
character set. This is a common beginner's problem.
Quotes in written material are often a matched pair. It is possible to
get these in HTML as well but requires using special escape sequences. For
unmatched double quotes (opening and closing look the same) use """.
Search the web for other quote combinations.
I am not sure why commas are a problem. I did not know there are
"special" commas. But I suspect the problem is the same.

[...]I have a CSS
format happening if this helps with trying to rectify problem.

CSS has nothing to do with character sets and representation.

 

[Jim Moe]

Thanks Jim. Any ideas as to what websites I can peruse for further
information regarding what you've outlined?

<http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/utf8-t1.html>

 

[sparty1984]

where are you copying the data from?

if it is coming from something like Word or Excel, you are probably
getting some hidden special format characters.

one way to check it is to paste into an editor that can display hex
values.

 

[Starman]

Jim,

had a look at this, kinda above me technically but I can say that the
characters that are coming up on my site are the following:

[Æ] , [æ] , [?]...

So how do I rectify?

 

[Mark Parnell]

Deciding to do something for the good of humanity, Starman

I want to know what and why it is happening when I copy/paste some written
material into my website's HTML edit. It seems anything with commas or
quotation marks, seems to, once I've saved my edit, come up as weird
characters online.

Sounds like you're most likely copying it from Word or something.
Microsoft use a number of invalid characters in a lot of their programs.
When you try and use those same characters on the web, the results are
unpredictable at best.

 

[Jim Moe]

had a look at this, kinda above me technically but I can say that the
characters that are coming up on my site are the following:

[Æ] , [æ] , [?]...

So how do I rectify?

Use your search and replace function after copying to the web page file.
These are the special codes your word processor uses for quotes and
commas. There nothing you can do directly.
Another option is to save the original as a text file, then copy/paste
from there.

 

[Starman]

Yes I've copied it from a HTML file as well as a Word. doc file. So if I
save it as a Text file as Jim suggest, will this help with rectifying the
problem?

 

[Starman]

Jim,

Pardon my ignorance but what is a "search and replace" function?

had a look at this, kinda above me technically but I can say that the
characters that are coming up on my site are the following:

[Æ] , [æ] , [?]...

So how do I rectify?

Use your search and replace function after copying to the web page file.
These are the special codes your word processor uses for quotes and
commas. There nothing you can do directly.
Another option is to save the original as a text file, then copy/paste
from there.

 

[Mark Parnell]

Deciding to do something for the good of humanity, Starman

Yes I've copied it from a HTML file as well as a Word. doc file. So if I
save it as a Text file as Jim suggest, will this help with rectifying the
problem?

Possibly. I'm not sure what Word does with those characters if you save
as plain text. Copying and pasting into Notepad doesn't fix it, so
saving as text may not either.

Search and replace would likely be your best option.

 

[Beauregard T. Shagnasty]

Jim,

Pardon my ignorance but what is a "search and replace" function?

I don't use Word, but in OpenOffice it is called "Find and Replace" and
it is on the Edit menu.