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Why aren’t the special characters I added to the translation files rendered correctly in my HMI?

Symptom​

You have exported translations using the Translation Manager. However, after translating and importing them again, you notice that special characters such as ç that were displayed correctly within those files now appear to be corrupted in your HMI.

Explanation​

In Case You Didn't Know: It’s Unicode All the Way Down

HELIO uses Unicode to display a wide range of characters, making it possible to work with languages that use non-Latin scripts.

To display special characters in HELIO, the translation files must be encoded using UTF-8. By default HELIO expects those files to be encoded using UTF-8 and also generates them in this format. However, when editing these files using a text editor, some editors may overwrite the default encoding of the translation files generated by HELIO.

Resolution​

When Using the JSON Format​

When editing translation files in JSON Format using an editor like VS Code, Wordpad, etc., make sure that you save these files with the correct UTF-8 encoding.

Tip: How to Set the Right Encoding

This depends on your operating system as well as the editor you are using. As a highly reliable editor, we recommend VS Code, where the encoding is always visible in the bottom bar and can easily be changed from there.

When Using the CSV Format​

Make sure to use a program that will save modifications to the CSV files using UTF-8 encoding. Usually apps like Microsoft Excel allow you to set the encoding in the Save As dialog.