User Guide

Performance and Flash Player 119

Using System.useCodepage in your code forces the SWF file to use the system’s code page

instead of Unicode.

Only use this process in the following situations: when you are loading non-Unicode encoded text

from an external location and when this text is encoded with the same code page as the user’s

computer. If both these conditions are true, the text appears without a problem. If both of these

conditions are not true, use Unicode and a Unicode escape sequence to format your text. To use

an escape sequence, add the following ActionScript on Frame 1 of the Timeline:

this.createTextField("myText_txt", 99, 10, 10, 200, 25);

myText_txt.text = "this is my text, \u00A9 2004";

This ActionScript creates a text field, and enters text that includes a copyright symbol (©).

You can make a SWF file use the operating system’s code page, which is controlled by the

useCodepage property. When Flash exports a SWF file, it defaults to exporting Unicode text and

System.useCodepage is set to false. You might encounter problems displaying special text, or

text on international systems where using the system’s code page can seem to solve the problem of

text incorrectly displaying. However, using

System.useCodePage is always a last resort. Place the

following line of code on Frame 1 of the Timeline:

System.useCodepage = true;

Caution: The special character displays only if the user’s computer has the character included in the

font that is being used. If you are not sure, embed the character or font in the SWF file.

The following table contains a number of commonly used Unicode escape sequences.

Character description Unicode escape sequence

em-dash (—)\u2014

registered sign (®) \u00AE

trademark sign (™)\u2122

Euro sign (€)\u20AC

backslash (\) \u005C

forward slash (/) \u002F

open curly brace ({) \u007B

close curly brace (}) \u007D

greater than (<) \u003C

less than (>) \u003E

asterisk (*) \u002A