Ampersands

[D_Hailsham]

Why do ampersands (& symbol) appear as "&amp" in the preview?

I had inserted a long URL in a post and wanted to make sure it worked properly, so I clicked on Preview and then on the URL. A browser page opened, displaying an error message. I eventually traced this to the fact that ampersands were coming up in the preview as "&amp", giving a nonsense URL.

This does not happen in the actual post, after you have pressed "Submit". Very confusing - and wasted half an hour of my time.

 

[Steve]

Perhaps something to do with the forum software using "&" as part of the script? Not sure, but I'd think it must differentiate between an "&" in a post, and an "&" in its script.

 

[D_Hailsham]

Perhaps something to do with the forum software using "&" as part of the script? Not sure, but I'd think it must differentiate between an "&" in a post, and an "&" in its script.

Possibly. But shouldn't the "Preview" be what it says, i.e you see what the post will look like when you press the Submit button?

 

[Steve]

I like that word anyway. Ampersand.

 

[potshot]

& is the proper HTML code (the internet language for browsers) for &

 

[DIYnot]

The ampersand problem in the preview is related to the code tag problem. It is on my hitlist.

 

[RF Lighting]

Any chance you could make the "ohms" symbol work whilst you're at it?

 

[DIYnot]

I'll look into it. Do you mean like a bbcode button for the ohms symbol?

 

[RF Lighting]

I was meaning the ohms sign from windows character map.

The forum allows you to use symbols such as ² and ™ but the 'ohm' symbol appears as this - Ω

It shows as the proper symbol in the post a reply box.

Thanks

 

[RF Lighting]

Hello admin

Can I request that you also have a look at getting the "delta" symbol to work whilst you're doing the ohms sign.

Delta currently appears as Δ

 

[D_Hailsham]

Delta currently appears as Δ

The problem, as Admin will be already aware, is that this site does not use the complete Unicode character set but a subset ISO8859-1.

"&#916" is the Hex code (2326 in decimal notation) for Delta in Unicode, but ISO8859-1 only goes up to &#FF (255 decimal).

If the complete Unicode character set was used, you would be able to select any symbol - but that would double the storage space required on the DIYnot servers.

Maybe special characters could be added in a similar way to Emoticons, so they are selected from a custom DIYnot list, rather than using Windows Character Map.

 

[DIYnot]

This has now been resolved:

ΔΩ

 

[RF Lighting]

Thank you

 

[Spark123]

Is there a key shortcut to insert capital omega (ohm sign), similar to ALT + 0178 brings up ² ?