Character entity display in IE

Luki_be · February 7, 2010, 10:30pm

Hi,

i’m using character entities on some links and just noticed IE7 and IE8 don’t display them. Now, i could have sworn that they displayed it fine. Either i have gone bunkers or missed it in testing.

Could somebody take a peep or is it normal behavior for IE7 and IE8? IE6 however does seem to display it fine.

page

Raffles · February 7, 2010, 11:24pm

If you mean the diagonal arrows, IE8 is displaying them just fine for me.

And BTW, it’s “bonkers”.

Luki_be · February 7, 2010, 11:47pm

So i guess IE7 also? Strange, on my box they don’t show up: they are displayed as a small empty rectangular box.

Man, can’t believe i wrote bunkers lol (even not being a native English/American lol)

Raffles · February 8, 2010, 12:09am

It could be because the symbols you’re using aren’t supposed to be supported by HTML4 (#x261E isn’t in the list). Nevertheless, the fact they appear for me in IE8 would seem to make that point moot. I’m using Vista - maybe that makes a difference. What are you using?

Do all the symbols in this list appear for you? If not, then it’s not to do with your webpage – rather, with your computer. They all appear for me in IE8.

Luki_be · February 8, 2010, 1:24am

k, here’s the sitrap:

i use IEtester for developing so i have IE7 installed on my box; otherwise IEtester does a bonker on me

Test results: IE7 live: most form the list don’t show up. IE8 on IEtester: same result. OS:XP

But i could have sworn they did because i usually test each page. And the strangest thing is that IE6 seems to display them.

To be sure: i use them on the skipnav and the rest of the links (indicating e.g. external links like the sitepoint reference).

At my end they end up like small empty rectangular boxes

gary_turner · February 8, 2010, 4:59am

If you get the little square boxes, it’s because the particular font you’re using doesn’t include the entity in its character set. Try setting a different font family.

cheers,

gary

Mittineague · February 8, 2010, 7:58am

Using Firefox 2 (I know, I’m stuck with an old OS for the time being), I see a hand with a pointing finger for ☞ which is OK. But what’s NOT is, I see a question mark (not a box) for ➚

This makes the links look like

Worth reading

 Gordon &#10138;
 Paul &#10138;
 Ryan &#10138;
 Sitepoint Css Reference &#10138;

Not Good.

Maybe instead of using unicode for “special” characters that might not be displayed depending on what’s available to the browser, you could use a small image instead?

Luki_be · February 8, 2010, 10:25am

Though Opera, Chrome, Safari… displays them?

Luki_be · February 8, 2010, 10:27am

Mittineague:

Using Firefox 2 (I know, I’m stuck with an old OS for the time being), I see a hand with a pointing finger for ☞ which is OK. But what’s NOT is, I see a question mark (not a box) for ➚

This makes the links look like

Worth reading
 Gordon &#10138;
 Paul &#10138;
 Ryan &#10138;
 Sitepoint Css Reference &#10138;
Not Good.

Maybe instead of using unicode for “special” characters that might not be displayed depending on what’s available to the browser, you could use a small image instead?

FF3 shows everything as intended on my box. About the image, yeah that’s the usual solution but i wanted to try something different.

On the other hand, i got a PM saying that IE7/8 displays them fine on that members box… so it’s strange…

AutisticCuckoo · February 8, 2010, 10:59am

Opera, at least, will switch to a different font if the specified one doesn’t contain a required glyph. You can customise which font(s) to use under Tools / Preferences / Advanced / Fonts / International Fonts.

I assume Chrome and Safari have similar algorithms, but I do think IE is somewhat lacking in this department. At least IE7 and older; I have no experience of IE8.