Localized text .XML files : accents

[Alanus]

Localized test files are stored in the following folder : C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Assets\XML\Text

I have noticed that characters with accents, used in many languages but English, are represented by their ASCII equivalent (e.g. & # 233; for é).

As I did a quick fix of one of the files in French, I did it first by using natural language, i.e. using characters with accents.
I used the file "as is", i.e. without changing all such characters by ASCII codes.

It works fine !

My question : do we really need to use ASCII codes, or is it just for those not having the adequate localized keyboard ?

[ghen]

Well of course, using ASCII codes means it will work in any situation, so its much more useful for such a huge distribution like a game release. ASCII is built into the OS, so anything that has a code will display on any setup no matter what languages are installed.

[Alanus]

I would expect characters with codes ranging from 128 to 255 to be standardized (Unicode Latin-1), so not requiring to be inputed in the source .xml by their code.

[Soph]

You can use this to translate easy all sentences with :

http://www.lexilogos.com/clavier/unicode.htm

eg:
you wrote : Vous avez été éliminé
it translate: Vous avez & # 233;t& # 233; & # 233;limin& # 233;

[Alanus]

Soph : thanks for the link.

I have made a quick search for character converter tools that could handle files. I haven't found freeware so far, but I'll try
Text Pipe Pro.