OfficePower and the Euro

The character set used by OfficePower does not include the Euro character. TeamWARE Group have been monitoring proposals for inclusion of this character in the ISO 8859-1 character set on which the OfficePower character set is based. In view of the ISO decision to instead introduce a new character set 8859-15 to include the Euro symbol, and objections to previous proposals to replace the current "Generic Currency Symbol" (which looks like a circle with four spikes - ¤ ) with the Euro symbol (which looks like a capital C with two horizontal lines - € ), Teamware Group decided not to change the OfficePower character set in OfficePower 2000.

Instead, an add-on package is now available which lets users print the Euro symbol within documents produced in OfficePower-Word. This package can be used with OfficePower 2000 or any version of OfficePower/Xtra. Go to our Printing the Euro Symbol page for full details - you can also download the package from this page.

Those of you that have versions of Microsoft Office and Windows that support the Euro symbol using Microsoft's proprietary character sets can use these with OfficePower 2000 (or OfficePower/Xtra) now. Word documents containing the Euro symbol can be stored in or mailed via OfficePower without losing the symbol.

Additionally, OfficePower users who need to make reference to the Euro can use the official three character abbreviation EUR. If you need an interim SINGLE character to represent the Euro symbol, we recommend you use the Generic Currency Symbol, with an appropriate footnote.

In OfficePower Word, you can generate the Generic Currency Symbol using the key sequences: CombCh,X,O or CombCh,X,0. (CombCh is F11, and the X and O characters have to be in UPPER case).

An alternative approach, used in documents produced by the European Commission as a substitute character string in environments that do not support the Euro symbol, is to use the four character string "euro", with the final "o" replaced by the Generic Currency Symbol.

This substitute is readable now, but ensures use of a unique string which can subsequently be easily replaced when the document is transferred to an environment which does support the Euro symbol.

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