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bigmac2011

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 12, 2011
17
0
Hi I have attached a photo where I use norwegian letters when I search on google etc, but when using textedit, those letters are displayed like something else. When I save to pdf or print I still have those strange letters. Anyone knows how to change these strange letters to the regular norwegian letters? ( seen in the search field on google in the photo ) I hope someone can help. This is driving me nuts haha
 

Attachments

  • Screen Shot 2021-09-26 at 23.06.23.png
    Screen Shot 2021-09-26 at 23.06.23.png
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usagora

macrumors 601
Nov 17, 2017
4,869
4,451
Hmm, works fine for me. I was able to copy those letters from the web and paste them into a TextEdit document and they appeared normally. I was also able to change to a Norwegian keyboard and directly type those same letters into TextEdit, and they still appeared normally. A plain text document is shown below, but it also works in Rich Text.

Screen Shot 2021-09-26 at 11.14.13 PM.png


Maybe check your text encoding settings under TextEdit > Preferences? Here are mine:

Screen Shot 2021-09-26 at 11.13.38 PM.png
 

bigmac2011

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 12, 2011
17
0
Hi. Thanks for helping. Appreciate it:) I checked and I have the same settings in textedit prefs. In fact I just checked and the same happens for notes as well. I have attached a photo. You can see that on the top of the notes window it actually shows the correct letters. But when I type them they appear strange. So I guess there must be some other settings somewhere? I bought my computer in US but I use the option key like its described at the bottom here: https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Norway_Typing_Æ,_Ø,_and_Å

It did work with no issue for many years before so this is really strange.


Screen Shot 2021-09-27 at 16.02.54.png
 

usagora

macrumors 601
Nov 17, 2017
4,869
4,451
Hi. Thanks for helping. Appreciate it:) I checked and I have the same settings in textedit prefs. In fact I just checked and the same happens for notes as well. I have attached a photo. You can see that on the top of the notes window it actually shows the correct letters. But when I type them they appear strange. So I guess there must be some other settings somewhere? I bought my computer in US but I use the option key like its described at the bottom here: https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Norway_Typing_Æ,_Ø,_and_Å

It did work with no issue for many years before so this is really strange.


View attachment 1849909

Sorry - you didn't hit reply button on my post, so I wasn't notified you had replied until I just manually looked this thread up again (was wondering if someone else had posted)! Have you tried simply copying/pasting the letters in or switching your keyboard to a Norwegian layout under System Preferences > Keyboard > Input Sources (click + button to add keyboard layout) so you can just type the letters in directly (using the two keys to the right of the "L")?

Screen Shot 2021-09-27 at 7.59.47 PM.png
 

bigmac2011

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 12, 2011
17
0
Sorry - you didn't hit reply button on my post, so I wasn't notified you had replied until I just manually looked this thread up again (was wondering if someone else had posted)! Have you tried simply copying/pasting the letters in or switching your keyboard to a Norwegian layout under System Preferences > Keyboard > Input Sources (click + button to add keyboard layout) so you can just type the letters in directly (using the two keys to the right of the "L")?

View attachment 1850439

Thanks for following up, appreciate it:)
Yes it works but it types the exact same strange letters. The difference is only that I can type them inn directly to the right of the L without using option. Anyways I prefer US setup as I use a lot of shortcuts in apps that are designed for US keyboard. When I use option and type the norwegian letters into this reply it seems to work fine... ø æ
So it seems its dependent on the application where it works or not. really strange. Before it worked everywhere so it must be a possible fix somewhere. Maybe if there is a name for these strange s and a letters thats shows up instead of ø and æ i could google them, but when pasting from notes into google they just transform to the correct letters again when pasted. Same happens in this text. very weird indeed :)
 
Last edited:

usagora

macrumors 601
Nov 17, 2017
4,869
4,451
Thanks for following up, appreciate it:)
Yes it works but it types the exact same strange letters. The difference is only that I can type them inn directly to the right of the L without using option. Anyways I prefer US setup as I use a lot of shortcuts in apps that are designed for US keyboard. When I use option and type the norwegian letters into this reply it seems to work fine... ø æ
So it seems its dependent on the application where it works or not. really strange. Before it worked everywhere so it must be a possible fix somewhere. Maybe if there is a name for these strange s and a letters thats shows up instead of ø and æ i could google them, but when pasting from notes into google they just transform to the correct letters again when pasted. Same happens in this text. very weird indeed :)

I still think this must be a text encoding issue. Try this:

1. Open a new TextEdit document and type those two letters (æ and ø), which of course will show up incorrectly.
2. Save the document and close it.
3. In TextEdit, go to File > Open.... (or press command + o)
4. Select the file you just saved but don't open it yet.
5. Click on the Options button at the bottom and for Text Encoding, select Unicode (UTF-8), then click the Open button

Do the letters display correctly now? If not, try typing them again using the option key method and see if they display correctly.
 

bigmac2011

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 12, 2011
17
0
I still think this must be a text encoding issue. Try this:

1. Open a new TextEdit document and type those two letters (æ and ø), which of course will show up incorrectly.
2. Save the document and close it.
3. In TextEdit, go to File > Open.... (or press command + o)
4. Select the file you just saved but don't open it yet.
5. Click on the Options button at the bottom and for Text Encoding, select Unicode (UTF-8), then click the Open button

Do the letters display correctly now? If not, try typing them again using the option key method and see if they display correctly.
Hi I just tried this, but nothing changes. The Letters stays weird. I also tried to type them again with option key method, but same thing, just the weird letters again. Thanks for your time helping. I hope there will be a solution. This problem is really annoying now as I cant write any norwegian documents on this macbook right now so hoping for a fix:)
 

usagora

macrumors 601
Nov 17, 2017
4,869
4,451
Hi I just tried this, but nothing changes. The Letters stays weird. I also tried to type them again with option key method, but same thing, just the weird letters again. Thanks for your time helping. I hope there will be a solution. This problem is really annoying now as I cant write any norwegian documents on this macbook right now so hoping for a fix:)

Have you tried using Pages instead?

Or of course Microsoft Word if you have Microsoft Office installed.
 

bigmac2011

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 12, 2011
17
0
Have you tried using Pages instead?

Or of course Microsoft Word if you have Microsoft Office installed.
No I havent. I dont think this will work with my OS? I use open office, but most of the time only textedit.
 

usagora

macrumors 601
Nov 17, 2017
4,869
4,451
No I havent. I dont think this will work with my OS? I use open office, but most of the time only textedit.

I don't know which version of macOS you're running, but just there's a download button on the page I linked you to, so it wouldn't hurt to try. Also, do the letters in question appear properly in Open Office? If so, why not just use that instead of TextEdit?
 

bigmac2011

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 12, 2011
17
0
I don't know which version of macOS you're running, but just there's a download button on the page I linked you to, so it wouldn't hurt to try. Also, do the letters in question appear properly in Open Office? If so, why not just use that instead of TextEdit?
 

usagora

macrumors 601
Nov 17, 2017
4,869
4,451
@bigmac2011 You quoted me in your previous post but did not add your own words. I'm sure you meant to post something in response, but I don't see it.
 

bigmac2011

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 12, 2011
17
0
@bigmac2011 You quoted me in your previous post but did not add your own words. I'm sure you meant to post something in response, but I don't see it.
Hi Sry. I was multitasking and the text I wrote disappeared:). Im on Mavericks 10.9.5. Yes open office seems to work. I have noticed more issues though. When I receive an email with norwegian characters, the strange ones appears. So I have issues with notes, textedit, email and I also noticed something yesterday. When Im purchasing shipping online and want to print the label it changes to strange characters when downloaded, and also prints out that way. So I have to use a pen to correct the letters on the packing slip afterwords. Very annoying haha. Thanks for following up, appreciate it:)
 
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