I have a number of string tables for different languages and noticed that when I import a string table or update an entry in InstallShield certain characters in some of the tables are changed to a different character by InstallShield. For example, if I type Español it changes it to Espanol in my Korean string table, and changes it to Espa?ol in my Chinese string table. However, for the other 11 string tables the ñ character is displayed properly. Korean characters and Chinese characters can be displayed in their respective string tables just fine. It's an InstallScript MSI project in IS 2009.
I realize that this is probably a Unicode related issue that could be solved by upgrading to IS 2011, but I really want to know why this automatic conversion happens only for certain languages. It seems like if special characters work OK for most string tables it should be able to work for all of them. Anyone have any idea?
InstallShield 2009 converts to ANSI strings when importing your strings into a project. Therefore, Unicode values that cannot be represented in the target ANSI code page get garbled. In the newer versions of InstallShield, this conversion does not occur because Unicode strings are now stored in project files. See the Support for Unicode topic under the New Features section in InstallShield 2010 Release Notes for more information about this change.
I did not really understand how the encoding for different languages was handled but I think now I see. Since the Korean and Chinese languages target different ANSI code pages it would make sense that the same special character may be converted differently for each language.
