Since I start using the new Windows Live Writer as my offline blog editor, I have not had any issues. I have post few reviews about this awesome Free software that made my blogging life easier. Windows Live Writer Review – Round Two.
Now I just got one issues that has something to do with the Chinese characters. I post a new entry to my WordPress blog and find that all Chinese characters became a question mark.
It means that the publish process has converted the Chinese characters incorrectly. Since UTF-8 is used as the standard encoding, the problem is either on WordPress or on Live Writer. After I post the question on Joe Cheng’s Live writer blog, I got the answer back from him shortly. You can find Joe’s blog post here. FINALLY! Writer Beta 2!
So the problem is this. Non-ASCII characters render incorrectly on UTF-8 encoded blogs. So here is the answer to correct this issues.
Open your Start menu -> Run -> type “regedit” to open the system registry editor. Be careful, do NOT mess around with the editor.
Find the registry HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Windows Live Writer\Weblogs\. It should look like this.
You should see your blog list under the Weblogs. If you have more than one blog you published with Live Writer, you can select one of them and find the one for WordPress, which you have problem with. Look for the HomePageUrl and find your blog.
Once you find the blog you have problem with. Click on the ManifestOptions. On the right panel, you should see characterSet. Make sure the data is UTF-8.
In the left panel, click on the UserOptionOverrides. In the right panel, look for characterSet. If it doesn’t exist. Right click on the white space and click New -> String Value. Name the value characterSet and leave the value empty.
After all, it should look like this.
Close the registry editor and re-open your Windows Live Writer. Publish a new Chinese blog entry. You should be able to post non-ASCII characters blog from now on. This will also work on any non-English language as well. As long as your WordPress blog is default to UTF-8 encoding.
Terrence,
I see that you have visited my blog. I figured that you would find it eventually and I am glad you did. I would like very much if you could check in from time to time and comment with some useful advice. I’m looking for people like you to help make this ambitious goal a reality.
365 Days
http://onemansgoal.blogspot.com
Will I Succeed? We’ll find out in a year…
Hey .. thanks for visiting ..
I am sure you will success …
Thanks for the post. It solved my problem. I am starting a Chinese version of my site but sucked with the very same problem. Tried other blog desktop tools, they all work well but other features such as image process and storing are not as good as Live Writer. Glad I didn’t give up and find your post. It works! Just a side fact, the string key in register is case sensitive. I got that wrong at first try.
Moxie:
Thank you for stopping by. I am glad that it solved your problem. I can’t wait to see your Chinese blog. Please keep me post.
Great information. Was tearing out my hair since it didn’t work with non english characters. Had upgraded WordPress and Live writer at the same time and was not sure where the problem was. You saved my day. Thanks
PatrikF:
I am glad it helps. I was struggling with it as well. The more I use Windows Live Writer, the more I like it. If you happen to have issues with your memory usage, check out my other Windows Live Writer related posts.