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

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, in your account, to represent the characters.

Character sets in Communications Enterprise

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 in your Communications Enterprise account. 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 the default and will be used when uploading lists and creating messages in your account.

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 Communications Enterprise account. These are described below and matched to the option on the Character Set page.