To Bach - Compatibility

The To Bach utility requires Windows (2000 or later). Older operating systems have poorer support for character sets and will exhibit a few problems, particularly with the ŵ and ŷ characters.

Also, there are still older or less capable software packages that don't support the ŵ and ŷ characters. This problem is due to limitations in the ASCII character set, which doesn't include support for ŵ and ŷ. More recent software applications (but not all of them) use Unicode, which does include these characters. Sometimes, a software package will provide you with the option of using ANSI or Unicode (sometimes referred to as UTF-8).

For example, Notepad (installed as part of Windows) will allow you to type the ŵ and ŷ· characters, but won't save them by default (unless you change the encoding from ANSI). This is a common problem, so be sure that your software will save your work correctly before typing large amounts of text.

Your selection of font will also affect how these characters are supported. Standard fonts such as Arial or Times New Roman are made for functional use and support 99% of Unicode characters. More fancy designer fonts tend to support a more limited range of characters.

Other packages will replace the ŵ and ŷ by w or y, or simply show a ? instead.

This situation will improve with time as software producers improve the range of characters they support. If you have software that doesn't support these characters, let us know what doesn't work so we can keep track.