You can set either of two character sets as the default character set for your individual login.

Understand character sets

A character set is a collection of characters that is used by a language. Character sets are actually encoding types for characters. So, when you choose a character set, you're actually setting which encoding type will be used to represent the characters.

Character sets

NOTE: Character set selection is an optional feature that is not enabled by default. To have it enabled in your account, create a case.

The character set that you choose will manage how lists are uploaded and how messages are created. So before choosing a default character set, you should understand the distinction.

• Western Characters - This "extended version" character set (ISO 8859-15) includes characters that are found in most western languages; it accommodates characters such as the Swedish Ö and the Spanish ñ.
• International Characters - This UTF-8 character set includes characters that are found in most western languages plus Asian characters.

NOTE: Custom Fields cannot interpret some of the characters in the International Characters set. Consider using Enhanced Fields instead.

Choose a character set

To choose a default character set:

1. Access the Admin interface.
2. Navigate to Messages > Options > Character Set.

3. Click a radio button to select a character set.

4. Click Submit.

The page refreshes and a confirmation message displays at the top of the page.

The character set that you chose is now your default character set.

NOTE: The default character set can be overridden when uploading a list of contacts. Refer to Character sets when uploading, below, for more information.

Character sets when uploading

When account admins are uploading a list of contacts, they can choose which character set is used by the upload list.

NOTE: This option can be disabled so that admins are unable to choose a character set for the upload and the default character set is automatically used.

To have this option disabled, create a case with our Customer Support team.

Upload character-set options

As shown above, there are a few character-set options available when uploading a list of contacts into your account. These are described below and matched to the option on the Character Set page.