Strange characters when pasting from Word in our Java application

Question

We have a Java application that is facing character encoding problems when pasting from Word into one of its text fields. This only happens in IE8, and I assume previous versions of IE. The Java replaceAll filters that I originally added to fix this problem work in all the latest browsers. IE8 problem.

Example problem:

double quotes are inserted from Word into the text box. After saving the entry, quotation marks are converted to the characters below. After each new save, the characters change, and their number increases.

First save: double quotes

Second save: à ¢ ÂÂœdouble quotesà ¢ ÂÂ

Third save: à  ¢ à Ã, ÂÂ, double quotesࢠÃ, ÃÃ, Â

Fourth save: ƒÃÃÃ, ¢¢¢Ãƒ,,, double, double quotesƒÃƒÃ, ¢¢ÃƒÃƒ,,, Ã, ÃÃ, Ã, Â

Therefore, quotation marks and apostrophes are our main problem. We would also like the bullet lists to work well in this text box.

Answer 1

Microsoft Word does not use standard double quotes ("), they use double quotes, which change their" direction "and look like this:" ". Quotes of formatted quotes are very different from ordinary double quotes and will not display the same if put in normal text box.