Code Replacement Question

[Wolvie]

I need a little help with eliminating a character, this one -->   from my code replacement files. The character does not appear in the text file I created.  In the IPTC dialog, the text looks fine and it does not appear there.  I've tried saving the files as UTF-8, Unicode and ANSI and the character shows up in our online system. 

Sample caption:
East Alton Wood River's Isaac Morckel (So.)  leaves the turn neck and neck with Tuscola's Alex Kemp (So.)  ... it should read: East Alton Wood River's Isaac Morckel (So.)  leaves the turn neck and neck with Tuscola's Alex Kemp (So.) 

Last week, the files I made had question marks where the spaces should be.  It appears to be a hidden character.  This only occurs with text strings replaced with code replacement and shows up within imagefolio and Saxo.   How do I eliminate this from showing up?  Suggestions anyone.

[Kirk Baker]

I need a little help with eliminating a character, this one -->   from my code replacement files. The character does not appear in the text file I created.  In the IPTC dialog, the text looks fine and it does not appear there.  I've tried saving the files as UTF-8, Unicode and ANSI and the character shows up in our online system. 

Sample caption:
East Alton Wood River's Isaac Morckel (So.)  leaves the turn neck and neck with Tuscola's Alex Kemp (So.)  ... it should read: East Alton Wood River's Isaac Morckel (So.)  leaves the turn neck and neck with Tuscola's Alex Kemp (So.) 

Last week, the files I made had question marks where the spaces should be.  It appears to be a hidden character.  This only occurs with text strings replaced with code replacement and shows up within imagefolio and Saxo.   How do I eliminate this from showing up?  Suggestions anyone.

What kind of text editor are you using?  If you're on a Mac I recommend TextWrangler and on Windows I recommend Notepad++ or Notepad2.  None of these editors should put strange characters in your text files and all of them support UTF-8 text encoding.

-Kirk

[Wolvie]

Using standard notepad in XP. 

The only possible explanation is a hidden character is being added in the excel spread sheet and is being copied over to the txt file?   

[Hayo Baan]

IIRC, notepad isn't capable of handling UTF-8 files correctly. If you switch to a UTF-8 capable editor, my guess is you won't have the problems you mentioned anymore.

Hope this helps,
    Hayo

[Kirk Baker]

Using standard notepad in XP. 

The only possible explanation is a hidden character is being added in the excel spread sheet and is being copied over to the txt file?   

Probably.  If you get a better editor like Notepad2 or Notepad++ (both of which are free and easily found with a Google search) then you should be able to see these invisible characters and eliminate them.

-Kirk