If you consider yourself pretty good with [tag]HTML[/tag], you probably know just enough to be dangerous. Most of us can change the size and color of text, create paragraphs, maybe even create a decent table, and get our self-hosted photos to show up on our [tag]eBay[/tag] listings or websites. Have you ever run into a situation though, where the character you wanted to display is not on the keyboard? For example, if you're writing a recipe for your site how would you display the temperature? Like this: 350 degrees F ? or rather like this: 350° F ? Or if you'd like to add a trademark sign? A big floppy TM doesn't look nearly as cool as this ™ right?
Approximately 56% of eBay users are outside the United States. Many [tag]international[/tag] buyers use characters in a little different way than we do here in the U.S. Getting the characters right for them shows attention to detail, and shows you'll go to a little extra work to make sure things are right. Take a little time here, and you may reap lots of benefits as a seller.
Want a code? Just [tag]ascii[/tag].
They're called ASCII Characters. That's an acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. "Asky" is not so much of a mouthful. There is a bunch of pages that give waaaayyy more information than you probably want on the topic. There are only a handful of these special characters you may want to use on eBay. I will try to give you the common codes instead of every imaginable character ever created. Then I'll show you how it should look in HTML. So here is first the description, then the character, then what you need to insert in your HTML to create it.
Business symbols:
[tag]Copyright sign[/tag] © = ©
[tag]Registered sign[/tag] ® = ®
[tag]Trademark sign[/tag] ™ = ™
[tag]Currency Symbols[/tag] and [tag]Fractions[/tag]
[tag]Cent[/tag] sign ¢ = ¢
[tag]Euro[/tag] sign € = €
[tag]Yen[/tag] sign ¥ = ¥
[tag]Pound[/tag] sign £ = £
Dollar sign $ = $
One half ½ = ½
One quarter ½ = ¼
Three quarters ¾ = ¾
International Alpha Characters
Inverted exclamation ¡ = ¡ This is used before an exclamation in Spanish.
Inverted question mark ¿ = ¿ Used before a question in Spanish.
Any letter with a tilde ñ = ñ Just change the letter in the code from n to a or A or whatever you need and the formula stays the same.
Using [tag]Special Characters[/tag] in Your HTML
Now that you know what code creates the characters, how will it look in your html itself? It's easy. If I was writing a recipe, a portion of it may look like this in your browser:
Preheat oven to 350° F
Add 2½ Tablespoons oil
Your actual HTML to make it look like that is:
Preheat oven to 350
°F
Add 2½Tablespoons oil
That's it. Just type the code for the special character right where you want it to appear. These characters are not tags that need to be opened and closed with < and >. Just make sure you use the colon at the end of the code or it won't appear correctly.
It does matter.
Using the proper characters makes a difference in the way people perceive you as a seller. On eBay, lots of sellers throw things together and they lose credibility when they look sloppy. If you take just a little time to learn to make your listing stand out as different, it may be just the thing that swings the buyer toward your listing when all other things are equal.
Great Resources for ASCII [tag]HTML Codes[/tag]
http://www.ascii.cl/htmlcodes.htm In English and Spanish
Wikipedia has a ton of information on this subject here.
[tags]ascii codes,symbols,upside down exclamation point,tilde[/tags]
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1 comment so far ↓
Hey Steve,
Great article with very helpful information. I have been going to the character map to get these, but have printed them off, stuck them on my monitor and will be good-to-go in the future!
Ku-dos!
Sharon Ware
http://www.DandelionConsulting.com
Certified Business Consultant and
Education Specialist Trained by eBay
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