Unicode support in offline family tree software

Question

The offline family tree software I've been using is older than my child and is not transitioning well to the new laptop with its high-resolution screen. (The table of names has a fixed row height which is much too small for anything to be readable at these resolutions.) I'm afraid I'm probably going to need to move to something else, but there are aspects of the choice that the various online reviews and such are failing to address.

In particular, I know that as of a few years ago, Legacy _still_ hadn't implemented Unicode, making it entirely unsuitable for my relatives with names like Rőczey and Sládeček. Is this still the case? Can someone who has the latest version of Legacy (either free or paid) test what it does with long ő and ű?

While I'm at it, what character encodings do Ancestral Quest and RootsMagic offer? Do they choke on ő and ű?

Comments

I have free RootsMagic7 (Essentials or something) and it appears to be ok with your "ő and ű"

You could test it, because it's free, and see how well it answers your need, before deciding anything more.

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I use RootsMagic 6 (full version), on an older PC, and RootsMagic 7 (essentials), on a Windows 10 PC, and they both handle the full complement of diacriticals

Answer 1

J, I have Legacy 9 and just tried putting the name Löwenstein in there and it works perfectly.  Please note that the umlaut I used is not the same as the one you typed here.  The one you typed here only shows up in Legacy as plain o or u, with no umlaut.

EDITED - I just went back and tried Sládeček and it is less than perfect - what shows there is Sládecek

Comments

Gaile, long ő and ű are different from short ö and ü. The short ones are part of the first extension beyond ASCII; the long ones are not. Most software can handle the first extension. You need Unicode support to reliably get the further extensions.

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Sorry, J, I guess I'm showing my ignorance again.  I did not realize that the o and u that you used were not the umlaut ones that I'm used to seeing.  I thought you were using some font that displayed the same thing that way.  Once again, you have extended my education - thank you!

At any rate, at least you have your answer about Legacy.  I just downloaded it and started using it about a month ago, so it should be the most current version.  It looks like it can display some of the characters needed, but cannot display others, so I suppose I'm going to be having problems with it.

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I think Roots Magic handles Unicode (I’m not at home at the moment but I’m pretty sure it handles macrons in Māori) but you can only easily insert Unicode into the notes page. Unicode in the name field needs to be cut and pasted from elsewhere.