Designing Web-Based Training: How to Teach Anyone Anything Anywhere Anytime

11.8. DISPLAY AND PRINT AS INTENDED

Web pages used internationally require attention to a few technical details to guarantee that they display and print the same for all learners.

11.8.1. Use escape sequences for high-ASCII characters

Even though your word processor or HTML editor will let you type in accented letters and other high-ASCII characters, use escape sequences instead. High-ASCII characters are characters other than these:

a b c d e f g h I j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

~ ! @ # $ % /\ & * () _ + { } I : " < > ? ' - = [ ] \;,, . /

Escape sequences are sequences of characters used to display special characters.

Although you can specify all characters by their numeric code, these characters will display correctly only on systems using the standard ISO Latin 1 character set. To find a list of the named and numeric codes, search the Web for iso8859.

Some word processors substitute escape sequences when they save documents as HTML and some do not. Test a sample before you assume all is well.

11.8.2. Define character sets with meta-tags

You want learners to read your text as you wrote it, not as a garbled mess that looks like encrypted e-mail from Mars. You must make sure the browser displays the page using the right symbols for letters and numbers. In the head section of the HTML file, use meta-tags ...