Special Characters Don't Render Properly & Weird Characters Are Inserted In My Entry

[pongli]

 I have 2 issues with Weebly site that started happening more and more lately.

1. Special characters don't render properly on the published site (even if using HTML embed) but appears properly on the editor. Notice: â˜…★★★★  That is supposed to be stars.
   
   
2. Weebly inserts wierd characters in my entry. Notice: you’ and who’, those were not there initially. Those things only appear on the published site.
   EDIT: I also noticed that on this blog page I have Weebly systematically addes those wierd characters in the beginning of the entry. So I have to go back and remove it manually. And it only seems to happen when there's a custom HTML block.
   
    

Here's the thing: Initially everything appears ok. But when I update the entry, all of a sudden those characters appear and the special characters are not rendered anymore. And yes, for the body of the entry I strip formatting (using TX) and I'm pasting from text edit (so no rich text).

The best solution that Weebly's help center could give me is remove the cutom HTML because that is causing the problem. But I need those to be there! Also this problem only seem to happen with blog pages because the same coding works on a standard page.

Anyone encountering the same problem? Any ideas how to fix this?

PS: For now, I have no choice but to remove the custom HTML and use an image for the stars until we figure this out.

[pongli]

Seems like the problem happens when you have 2 custom HTML blocks in the entry.

Anyone has a solution? Can anyone from Weebly address this?

EDIT: Scratch that, same problem. Very temperemental this issue.

[Adam7]

Are you typing these characters yourself or pasting them in, @pongli?

[pongli]

Hi @Adam,

For the special characters (stars) it's an HTML block using HTML code.

When I try to put it in using Mac's character viewer, it's the same result.

As for the body text: I paste them from text edit (so no rich character) and I also strip formatting using Weeby's TX.
This problem seems to occur only when you I insert an HTML block in the entry. And only seem to happen on blog pages. Because other pages with the same code are displayed properly.

What's going on? It wasn't used to be like that.

[Adam7]

It might be simpler to make an image of each possible star rating and use that instead of code. 

[pongli]

Sure. But that doesn't really solve the problem. Because whenever I insert an HTML block in my entries strange characters appear on the body text.

I have other applications where I need an HTML block. Like when I insert a podcast. I can't really use an image for that. Or when the special characters appear within the text such as a separator. Can't use and image for that as well.

It wasn't used to be like this.

[Adam7]

Could you paste the code you're adding here? In the toolbar at the top of the reply field with an icon that looks like </>, which you can use to paste in code.

[pongli]

Here is the code for the stars:

<center>
<font size=4px color=#ff9900><b>&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;</b></font>
</center>

And here is the code for the other HTML block. Note: I created a div class in my CSS called "noLineSpace"

<left>
<font size=2px color=#ff9900 face="Arial">RATING:</font>

<font size=4px color=#ff9900><b>&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;</b></font>

<div class="noLineSpace">
<font size="2"><em>A collection of comic strips based on my real life experiences living and working as a non-black expat in Haiti.</em><br></div>

</font>
</left>

[Adam7]

Try adding double quotes to the code:

<center>
<font size="4" color="#ff9900"><b>&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;</b></font>
</center>

<left>
<font size="2" color="#ff9900" face="Arial">RATING:</font>

<font size="4" color="#ff9900"><b>&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;</b></font>

<div class="noLineSpace">
<font size="2"><em>A collection of comic strips based on my real life experiences living and working as a non-black expat in Haiti.</em><br /></div>

</font>
</left>

[pongli]

Double quotes? You mean as in " "?

" <center>
<font size="4" color="#ff9900"><b>&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;</b></font>
</center> "

[Adam7]

Yes - I'm just wondering if the editor is reading what you're entering incorrectly and is trying to sanitize the code in some way.

[pongli]

It doesn't work. It just shows the double quotes as text.

[Adam7]

Oh, I misunderstood what you meant - don't wrap it all in double quotes. I just meant to add them into the font tag properties, which I did in the code in my other reply.

[pongli]

Same problem @Adam.

[Adam7]

Can you try adding your code in a different browser, @pongli? I used it on a test site and I didn't have any problems on the live site.

[pongli]

That's the first thing I tried. Did it with Chrome, same result. My main browser is Opera. 

EDIT: Also tried with Firefox, same result.

[Adam7]

Hmm... Are you using a non-English keyboard?

[pongli]

I'm using an English keyboard. MacBook Pro 2017.

[ninaframbuesa]

Any plans to fix this? I have the same issue. I edited an old post, and all the special characters looked fine in the editor but got messed up once the post was published. These were special characters from other languages that are needed to spell the words correctly. No matter what I did (copied and pasted from a word document, copied and pasted without formatting from the internet, removed the formatting, changed the keyboard layout to type the correct character) it was always the same: fine in the editor, but incorrect in the final post. This makes the whole post look very unprofessional.

[Adam7]

Do you know which font you are using for paragraph text for your site, @ninaframbuesa?

[ninaframbuesa]

Crimson Text