endolith

Apache version 1.3.37 (Unix)
MySQL version 4.1.22-standard-log
PHP version 4.4.6

Well, something in your environment is NOT handling utf-8 “just fine” – otherwise you wouldn’t be here asking…

Everything is just fine as far as my personal computer displaying Unicode. I can see Chinese, Greek, Math, Arabic, Hebrew, Cyrillic, etc. Ubuntu and Firefox are very good about this. The problem is with WordPress or the server that WordPress is running on.

Are you using the wysiwyg thingy or is it turned off?

Yes, I am generating these with the Insert custom character button with an Ω on it.

Is this a brand new WP install or was it an upgrade? If upgrade did it work before/ever?

This does not work on my standard install, which has been upgraded several times, and it also does not work on a fresh install that I just created.

When I create custom characters using the tool in the WYSIWYG editor, they display fine, but when I press Save, they are converted into question marks.

On a brand new fresh install, if I copy and paste these characters into the Post box:

& ” ¢ € £ ¥ © ® TM ‰ µ · • … ′ ″ § ¶ ß
‹ › « » ‘ ‘ ” ” ‚ „ < > ≤ ≥ – – ¯ ‾ ¤ ¦
¨ ¡ ¿ ˆ ˜ ° – ± ÷ ⁄ × ¹ ² ³ ¼ ½ ¾ ƒ ∫ ∑
∞ √ ≈ ≠ ≡ ∏ ¬ ∩ ∂ ´ ¸ ª º † ‡ À Á Â Ã Ä
Å Æ Ç È É Ê Ë Ì Í Î Ï Ð Ñ Ò Ó Ô Õ Ö Ø Œ
Š Ù Ú Û Ü Ý Ÿ Þ à á â ã ä å æ ç è é ê ë
ì í î ï ð ñ ò ó ô õ ö ø œ š ù ú û ü ý þ
ÿ Α Β Γ Δ Ε Ζ Η Θ Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν Ξ Ο Π Ρ Σ Τ
Υ Φ Χ Ψ Ω α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο
π ρ ς σ τ υ φ χ ψ ω ← ↑ → ↓ ↔ ◊ ♣ ♥ ♦

I get these after pressing Save:

& ” ¢ € £ ¥ © ® TM ‰ µ · • … ? ? § ¶ ß
‹ › « » ‘ ‘ ” ” ‚ „ < > ? ? – – ¯ ? ¤ ¦
¨ ¡ ¿ ˆ ˜ ° – ± ÷ ? × ¹ ² ³ ¼ ½ ¾ ƒ ? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ¬ ? ? ´ ¸ ª º † ‡ À Á Â Ã Ä
Å Æ Ç È É Ê Ë Ì Í Î Ï Ð Ñ Ò Ó Ô Õ Ö Ø Œ
Š Ù Ú Û Ü Ý Ÿ Þ à á â ã ä å æ ç è é ê ë
ì í î ï ð ñ ò ó ô õ ö ø œ š ù ú û ü ý þ
ÿ ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

Is your database your local database?

I don’t know what that means.

Do you have control over it or is it hosted for you?

WordPress was installed by Fantastico on cPanel. I have as much control over it as cPanel gives.

Do you know if IT can handle utf-8 characters?

Do I know if a database can handle UTF-8 characters? I don’t know what you’re asking.

Ok I followed these directions to create a .htaccess file

http://wordpress.org/support/topic/132667?replies=30#post-610645

and I can insert images and type “convert (from” now. How bizarre.

Which .htaccess file?

The “convert (from” is entirely plain text. I tried it on two different installations on my domain (main and test) and had the same problem.

The 403 error stops if I am editing from http://www.domain.com instead of http://domain.com

Any ideas?

Should I report this as a bug?