Special Characters in JavaScript not displaying properly on website

Question

Hi,

My IE and Chrome browsers are not displaying the French phrases correctly when I go from a French phrase (onload function) to a English phrase (onmousedown function) and back to a French phrase (onmouseup function). When I let up on the mouse of a particular phrase it goes back to French but the special characters for ô and é (which are ô and é ) do not change from the number code to the ô and é. Can anyone tell me why it is doing this and how I can fix it?

Here is my JavaScript code:

 /* 
   Function List: 
   eventSource(e) 
      Returns the source of an event in either event model 

   swapFE(phrase, pnum) 
      Changes a French phrase to the English version of that phrase. 

   swapEF(phrase, pnum) 
      Changes an English phrase ot the Frech version of that phrase. 

   setUpTranslation() 
      Insert the current week's french phrases into document and set up 
      event handlers for the phrases. 
*/ 

//Returns the source of an event in either event model 
function eventSource(e) { 
   var IE = document.attachEvent ? true:false; 
   var DOM = document.addEventListener ? true: false; 
   if (IE) return event.srcElement; 
   else if (DOM) return e.currentTarget; 
} 
//I added the function below to try and make it cross-browser compatible but it did not work....help! 
//function applysetUpTranslation(phrases[i],"click",swapFE(e),false) { 
//if (IE) phrases[i].attachEvent("on"+onmousedown, swapFE(e)); 
//else if (DOM) phrases[i].addEventListener(click,swapFE(e),true); 
//} 


function setUpTranslation() { 
   var IE = document.attachEvent ? true:false; 
   var DOM = document.addEventListener ? true: false; 
   var phrasesContainer = document.getElementById("phrases"); 
   var phrases= phrasesContainer.getElementsByTagName("p"); 

   for (i = 0; i<phrases.length; i++) { 
      phrases[i].number = i; 
      phrases[i].childNodes[1].innerHTML = french[i]; 
      phrases[i].childNodes[1].id = i; 

//childNodes[1] is the second span in the <p> array 
    if (IE) {
        phrases[i].childNodes[1].onmousedown = function() { swapFE(event); }; 
    } else {
        phrases[i].childNodes[1].onmousedown = swapFE; 
    }

    if (IE) {
        phrases[i].childNodes[1].onmouseup = function() { swapEF(event); };  
    } else {
        phrases[i].childNodes[1].onmouseup = swapEF;   
    } 

  } 

} 

//this function changes the French phrase to an English phrase. 
function swapFE(e) { 
       var phrase = eventSource(e); 
       //phrase.innerText = english[phrase.id]; 
       var parent = phrase.parentNode; 
       //childNodes[0] is the number of the phrase +1  
       var idnum = parent.childNodes[0]; 
       //parseInt takes a textstring and extracts it to make a number. Then you will subtract 1 from the number. 
       var phrasenum = parseInt(idnum.innerHTML)-1; 
       phrase.innerText = english[phrasenum]; 
       parent.childNodes[1].style.fontStyle= "normal"; 
       parent.childNodes[1].style.color = "rgb(155, 102, 102)"; 
  } 


function swapEF(e) { 
        var phrase = eventSource(e);
       //var phrase = e.srcElement;  
       //phrase.innerText = english[phrase.id]; 
       var parent = phrase.parentNode; 
       var idnum = parent.childNodes[0]; 
       var phrasenum = parseInt(idnum.innerHTML)-1; 
       phrase.innerText = french[phrasenum]; 
       parent.childNodes[1].style.fontStyle= "italic"; 
       parent.childNodes[1].style.color= "black"; 
} 

Here is the js code with the French array in it:

    var english=new Array();
english[0]="This hotel isn't far from the Eiffel Tower.";
english[1]="What time does the train arrive?";
english[2]="We have been waiting for the bus for one half-hour.";
english[3]="This meal is delicious";
english[4]="What day is she going to arrive?";
english[5]="We have eleven minutes before the train leaves!";
english[6]="Living in a foreign country is a good experience.";
english[7]="Excuse me! I'm late!";
english[8]="Is this taxi free?";
english[9]="Be careful when you go down the steps.";

var french=new Array();
french[0]="Cet hôtel n'est pas loin de la Tour Eiffel.";
french[1]="A quelle heure arrive le train?";
french[2]="Nous attendons l'autobus depuis une demi-heure.";
french[3]="Ce repas est délicieux";
french[4]="Quel jour va-t-elle arriver?";
french[5]="Nous avons onze minutes avant le départ du train!";
french[6]="Habiter dans un pays étranger est une bonne expérience.";
french[7]="Excusez-moi! Je suis en retard!";
french[8]="Est-ce que ce taxi est libre?";
french[9]="Faites attention quand vous descendez l'escalier.";

Thank you so much for your help.

Answer 1

I think you need to use innerHTML for the special characters to get interpreted:

phrase.innerHTML = french[phrasenum]; 

Answer 2

If your HTML/Javascript code files are created so they use Unicode, you should be able to put the ô and é characters in your Javascript and HTML with no problems.