I doubt if *any* of Bill D's characters came out on my browser the way he saw them.

You *don't* want to just paste PC or Mac special character into what you're writing - use the HTML special-character notation instead (what that site calls "name codes"), or make sure your software is doing it for you.

Bil''s attempt at writing "schoen" the German way came out as s-c-h-caret-n on my screen. This is the standard HTML way: schön.

A lot of things simply won't work with simpleminded web-forum software. Beyond French and German, you're pretty much screwed.