Character sets and Unicode

Each language has its own alphabet with own characters and special characters. Unicode is a universal standard character set with which all characters in all of the world's writing systems can be encoded and displayed.

With the Database Wizard, the administrator defines whether specific special characters or - using Unicode - all special characters are displayed on your computer.

In particular, addresses may require special characters to enable users to enter names, places, addresses and so on with the correct characters and display them correctly.

• Fields with special characters are displayed correctly in all views in the dossier, the dashboard and so on.
• When searching for data, all special characters for letters are included. If you are searching for a word containing e, the respective special characters such as é, è and ê are included in the search.
• Fields with special characters can be used for filter conditions and in the Address Wizard.
• Special characters may also occur in input help options.
• Unicode characters are also included in Word documents when you use the Microsoft Word add-in.

If you want to enter characters that are not on your keyboard, you have two options.

Entering single characters

• The first option is for entering single characters. Find out the character value or decimal code of the character you want to enter. Press ALT and enter the character's decimal code using your keyboard's numeric keypad.
• For more information, open the Windows Explorer online help and search for Character map.

Changing your keyboard's default language

• In the Windows taskbar, click Start and select Control Panel.

The exact names of the following functions vary, depending on the version of your operating system.

• Search for the regional and language settings.
• Open the keyboard settings.
• Under Default input language select the desired language.

You can now enter characters in this language using your keyboard.