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I've been using Flash for a few years now and I've recently (5 months+) started using CS5 package.
My query is how do I successfully embed accented latin characters into a "classic" dynamic text field in my compiled Flash movie that are called from an external text file. I've searched the various forums online and all the methods demonstrated have not worked.

What I've done so far is to to select my dynamic text field, click on "Embed" within the PROPERTIES area, choose the font and the weight, then add any of the foreign characters and/or glyphs to the "Also include these characters:" area then finish up and compile. When I run my SWF file, the glyphs and accented fonts are missing but all the other typical Latin characters show up.

I tried this same method in CS4 (because we have an old Mac in the office too), and almost the same thing happened except instead of completely missing out the glyphs and fonts, it showed a box (almost like an image placeholder) instead.

What am I doing wrong?

Mr. Benedict
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2 Answers2

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I've found that I have to add Basic Latin and the extended Latin sets from further down the list, to ensure the standard accented characters from French appear correctly.

Also make sure that your chosen font does support the full range of characters you require by opening it in Character Map (windows).

shanethehat
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  • Thanks for looking into this. I am using a Mac and the equivalence of Character Map is Palettes on the Mac. To do this, you need to open a program like Text Edit (Note pad on Windows), the click EDIT and select SPECIAL CHARACTERS just to see if the glyphs or chars are supported at all. – Mr. Benedict Jun 29 '11 at 14:43
  • So assuming that you've now checked and the required characters are available, you'll need to experiment with embedding different character sets until you find the combination that fulfils your requirements. For safety's sake you should use a standard system font like Helvetica or Arial first, then when all the characters are displaying switch back to your fancier fonts. – shanethehat Jun 29 '11 at 14:46
  • Agreed. I am using Arial. I also tried Helvetica which gave the same results. I managed to solve it but I cannot post an answer to my own question, at least not for another 8 hours. The solution in the end is to save the text file as a Unicode (UTF-8). I'm typed a whole spiel but the site won't let me post it. Cheers pal. We solved it. – Mr. Benedict Jun 29 '11 at 14:56
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ANSWER:

The above suggestions by @shanethehat are correct so thanks again ShaneTheHat however, if the following is not in place, it will simply not work.

SOLUTION:

Ensure that your external file being loaded dynamically is also supported; in my case a text file. To ensure a text file is supported when loading text with foreign characters into a dynamic text field in Flash, make sure you save it as a UTF-8 Unicode.

METHOD:

Whilst in Text Edit, click FILE > SAVE AS, name your file and at the bottom of the Save As dialoue box, you will see "Plain Text Encoding" with a drop down list next to it, click the drop-down and choose "Unicode (UTF-8)" and then save it.

Viola! Problem solved!!!

Mr. Benedict
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