In Depth: Unicode Logfile

Auto PeakTrace™ 6 (Windows version only) offers support for processing files located inside folders containing unicode characters (non-English), plus the ability to output unicode logfiles. This allows the logfile to be output in Unicode, rather than ASCII text. Under normal circumstances, any Unicode characters will be rendered as a “?” in the logfile (Figure 1), but with this option selected, the logfile will display the Unicode path characters (Figure 2).

Log file output path with the Unicode folder name shown as question marks, with unicode logfile off — **Figure 1:** The log file of a run where the selected input and output folder were in unicode, but *unicode logfile* was toggled off.

Log file output path with the Unicode folder name displayed correctly, with unicode logfile on — **Figure 2:** The same file as in Figure 1, but output with *unicode logfile* toggled on.

Considerations

Ensure that the program used to open the log file is capable of displaying text in Unicode. Most Windows applications can display Unicode characters.
If you are processing files and selecting input and output folders with English-only characters it is advised that you don’t use this feature. Unicode characters can cause some downstream applications that parse the logfile to break. The default is off by default.