HTML Characterization?

[bassa]

Hello!

A small detail has always eluded me.

When I create websites, I use Dreamweaver.

I have noticed that Dreamweaver creates special ways of visualizing foreign letters between CODE VIEW and BROWSER VIEW.

For example, here in Denmark we have 3 special letters; Æ, Ø and Å.

When I type in one such letter in the Design View in Dreamweaver, the letter is transformed into something else when I look at the Code View.

Here's an example, as I've prepared two different code layouts of how it looks. Below is the footer that appears on all of my webpages:

Dreamweaver's automatic transformation


<!-- Footer Start -->
<div id="footer">
Fr&oslash;s&oslash; K&oslash;kkenfornyelse &middot; Oldenvej 7 &middot; 3490 Kvistg&aring;rd<br/>
Tlf.: 4917 7728 &middot; Fax: 4917 7738 &middot; E-mail: <a href="frank@froso.dk" class="footerlink">info@froso.dk</a></div>
<!-- Footer End -->

My own custom change in the code itself (changed back from Dreamweaver's method)


<!-- Footer Start -->
<div id="footer">
Frøsø Køkkenfornyelse &middot; Oldenvej 7 &middot; 3490 Kvistgård<br/>
Tlf.: 4917 7728 &middot; Fax: 4917 7738 &middot; E-mail: <a href="../frank@froso.dk" class="footerlink">info@froso.dk</a></div>
<!-- Footer End -->

So, the letter "Ø" is changed into "&oslash;" and so on.

My question is this; Is this something I should even bother paying attention to, or does it simply not matter at all?

Currently, I am handcoding the changes so that the CODE itself has the "Æ", "Ø" and "Å" letters, instead of the transformed "&oslash;" conversions.

Is it necessary for me to change the CODE, or do I simply just leave it alone and let Dreamweaver handle the special character conversions?


Cheers,
Bassa

[traq]

those are necessary for web browsers to correctly interpret and display the "special" letters - just like if you type "&" in your code, it will display incorrectly - you have to write "&amp;".
Don't "correct" them; they're not mistakes.

[bassa]

Thanks! :)

[Twey]

That's not actually true. &amp; must be escaped, but ø is not in any way special in HTML, and if your character encoding is set up properly, you can (and should, since it saves space and makes the source much more readable) input them directly.

DreamWeaver is truly a horrible page-generator, and it causes far more problems than it's ever solved. I'm assured by djr33 that with suitable training and beating it can become a reasonable HTML editor, but I think the effort far outweighs the benefit over writing your pages yourself.