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Is it the browser or the html? The html looks like this: <td><h6>€ 114.00</h6></td>
I could change all mention of Euros to '114.00 Euros' and not use the symbol code - but I like the symbol.
ps: no problem with the pound symbol.
€
You'll really need to find out what browser they're using....
Nick
Can anyone say if € or € work for almost all browsers? or what the best general alternative is?
I'll find out about this specific browser (could take a few days to find out - the person isn't contactable often) - my real concern is that it works on most browsers. I was under the impression that € was a general standard.
Is it me that needs to learn a better standard or can I tell the other person that they have a rare problem and its not worth changing the website for.
Nick
Windows platforms will also understand € although that can't be guaranteed to work on all platforms, since this is outside of the standardized 7-bit encoding.
If the visitor has a browser that won't render the € entity, the chances are that he or she won't have a font installed that includes the euro character.
Note that some browsers on some platforms won't display the entity, but a ? sign. This is most often the case with numerical entities.
The number of people this affects is vanishingly small, though, and getting smaller all the time. There are one or two things you can do:
1. You can put, somewhere prominently on the page, something to the effect of "All prices in euros". If you can do that -- i.e., if all the prices on the page really are in euros -- you don't need to put the euro sign in at all.
2. You can use the internationally-recognized three-letter abbreviation EUR. Although this might not be understood by Americans and Brits, it will be understood by most Europeans who, until the beginning of this year, were constantly changing money and seeing these abbreviations. Other abbreviations include: GBP for the British pound, USD or US$ for US dollars, YEN for Japanese yen.
3. You can ignore the issue altogether, if it doesn't affect too many people.
I'm waiting to hear which platform and browser the person uses. I will probably keep € and maybe add a note about all prices in Euros too.
If pressed for limited use, one approach you can take is to use a title attribute assigned to a span or use a definition list:
<span title="Euro 114.00">€ 114.00</span>
Definition List:
<dl title="All prices are given in Euros">
<dt title="Euro 114.00">€ 114.00</dt>
<dd>Description of product - Definition Lists are great!<dd>
</dl>
It might even aid accessibility in some cases.
I just saw papabaer edit out his code bloat. :)
Bob Baumel's page Using Special Characters on Web Pages: Cross-Platform Considerations [home.earthlink.net] explains why there are problems with Microsoft Windows characters outside the Latin-1 set [home.earthlink.net]. Also have a look at Jukka Korpela's The euro sign in HTML (and in some other contexts) [cs.tut.fi] document.
to the <dl><dt><dd> example and and left the span in place. Always a "quick previewer" and an even faster "clicker" I noted the results and said "Hey... wait a minute!" ;)
Hmmm, I don't want perfection (ie works for absolutely everyone = dull), I want professional quality (ie looks good and works for most).
Is there general agreement that € works for almost all?
Luma - THANKYOU
for the most comprehensive set of links anyone could possibly need for the Euro symbol and related subjects. Once again the members of WMW amaze me :)
Hmmm, I don't want perfection (ie works for absolutely everyone = dull), I want professional quality (ie looks good and works for most).
Is there general agreement that € works for almost all?
For the time being, I would still use EUR. It's not just about the screen, some printers have also problems with the euro symbol. The more professional the site, the less experimental they'll act.
[edited by: luma at 2:26 am (utc) on July 11, 2002]
