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Question

Notepad Does Not Display Logic Symbols

Mar 25, 2018 10:46AM PDT

When I create a UTF-8 Notepad file and try to enter logic symbols into it, whether by pasting them in from Word, or using ALT+code, Notepad displays either a square or wrong chars, not the symbols.

What could be causing this and how can I fix it?

Thanks.

Funny thing is it WAS displaying correctly but stopped for no obvious reasons.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
TRUE.
Mar 25, 2018 10:52AM PDT

Notepad is going to be ASCII so it has limitations. I can't explain how it worked before.

No matter, there are plenty of Unicode Notepad replacements so why spend more than 10 seconds on this? Again, not supported so you may not get a good answer.

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I tried
Mar 25, 2018 10:57AM PDT

Well, I did try a replacement and had the same problem.

Which suggests that the problem may not be with Notepad, but Windows 10. If so, what in it could be responsible and what can I look into to find out?

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Save as Unicode and then open it again and hope.
Mar 25, 2018 11:09AM PDT

Notepad classically is for 8 bit characters. Since this relegates us to very few font maps, this is how it should work.

Be aware this has been kicked around for over a decade. My view is that for 8 bit characters we can use Notepad that came with Windows. Anything else and we use other editors.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_programs/default-utf-8-encoding-for-new-notepad-documents/525f0ae7-121e-4eac-a6c2-cfe6b498712c for example.

Yes, Notepad does Unicode now but I would not trust it.

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Did set Notepad to save UTF8 files -- did not solve problem
Mar 25, 2018 11:30AM PDT

I am using Notepad that came with Windows.

I did what the link included says and when I opened the UTF-8 file and tried to insert
the logic symbol it displayed the UK pound sign.

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Re: Unicode
Mar 25, 2018 11:46AM PDT

Can you give a few examples of such codes, like
8704 = ∀ = for all
(I used the &#....; notation to show the symbol here on the site)

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Code 8804
Mar 25, 2018 11:59AM PDT

I tried the GT AND EQ (>=) symbol with the code 8804.

Either pasting it in from Word or ALT+8804 displays a UK pound sign.

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Re: Unicode
Mar 26, 2018 11:42AM PDT

I wouldn't call that a logic symbol, but a mathematical symbol. But that's not important. ANd 8804 is not "gt and eq" but "less than or equal to", but that's not important either.

You're making it yourself quite difficult. Just type the document in Word and save it as text file in UTF-8 character set. No need for Notepad then at all. Word is a fine Unicode editor.

But if you really need Notepad (but why?), no problem. Just open that utf-8 text file and you'll see the ≤ again.

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Did not work either
Mar 26, 2018 12:12PM PDT

No, that does not work.

When I try to save a Word file with symbols as text, it asks whether I want to preserve the symbols, or save it as a .DOC file. If I save it as text, I get question marks and parentheses instead of the symbols.

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Re: does not work
Mar 26, 2018 12:36PM PDT
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Did not expect that to work.
Mar 25, 2018 12:08PM PDT

Notepad is a dinosaur. I guess you are new to fontsets. Unicode might have worked along with selecting the font ahead of the paste.

To me this is asking too much of users today. Use a better editor.

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Other editors don't work either
Mar 26, 2018 12:16PM PDT

Pls note that I reported I tried another text editor and it does not display the symbols either.

What I've done is by trial and error I pasted all the symbols I need from various web pages and those from some pages were displayed in Notepad, while others were not. There is no pattern.

BTW, somebody advised to use Notepad, you say not to.

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In your case, I wrote not to.
Mar 26, 2018 12:27PM PDT

It appears you didn't grasp the various save file types and other concepts. Let's hope someone figures out why you are having issues.

And I didn't write it but LibreOffice should be fine since Word works.

Post was last edited on March 26, 2018 12:31 PM PDT

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I have a workaround
Mar 26, 2018 1:05PM PDT

Well, I think that nobody is able to figure this out.

That's why I found a workaround by trial and error pasting.

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No need for a work-around
Mar 26, 2018 1:11PM PDT

See my post above.
And let me assure you I figured it out myself. Save as text, choose other and select UTF-8. That's easy.
I only searched for (and found) Microsofts instructions on the net so I didn't have to explain the steps myself

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Most of us
Mar 26, 2018 1:12PM PDT

Want solutions that work every time. If you are having to try over and over. How could this be good?