The reason for this blog post:
In the last few months we saw several Installations of Dynamics NAV (including SwissSalary of course) with issues regarding incorrect special characters like àéèöüž etc.

The problem: 
The operating systems regional settings were simply wrong... (or left to default to be precise)



The correct system locale should be:

- German (Switzerland) or
- French (Switzerland) or
- Italian (Switzerland)

English (United States) uses Code Page 437 while Switzerland uses Code Page 850.

But... Dynamics NAV is now Unicode! 
Well ... Yes and No.

While the newer NAV Versions use the .NET Framework you can get Unicode through new C/AL Functionality... but because of backwards compatibility Microsoft decided not to touch the old stuff.

For instance File.Write still writes MS-DOS encoded files by default.

Same with the Dev.-Environment ... if you import our SwissSalary FOBs with 'English (United States)' settings you will see....


... because of the Code Page mismatch.

Impact
Wherever you import or export data ... you might end up with special characters not displayed correctly.

So please check your regional settings. Thanks!