General

It is increasingly common for non-residents to purchase property in Scotland, often as investments, and an increasing number of Scottish residents were not born here. With foreign names and addresses, you are more likely to encounter foreign characters such as the German letter "ß" (sharp 's') or diacritical marks (accents (e.g. " é "), çedile, ümlaut etc) added to letters included in a person's name and/or address. We must, where possible, reflect these in the application record and the title sheet record so that our records correctly reflect the information supplied to us in the application for registration.

In some cases, these marks and foreign characters will enter our systems directly, for example via an Advance Notice for a DW that has been submitted electronically. However, in most cases intake staff and/or settlers should follow the guidance provided below in order to generate the characters that are included in the ISO/IEC 8859-1 character set which is supported by RoS IT systems.

The table below gives the 4-digit code numbers necessary to create the characters illustrated above each code. To generate the character you require, first position the cursor at the desired insertion point in the relevant field in the LRS. Next, press and hold down the ALT key on your keyboard (found immediately to the left of the space bar) and then type in the 4-digit number code using the number keys situated to the right hand side of your keyboard. The desired character will appear at the insertion point when you release the ALT key if you have entered a valid code.

Note that you MUST use the number keys situated in the pad to the right hand side of the keyboard to enter a valid code: if you use the number keys that are situated above the letter keys on your keyboard, nothing will happen.

Characters that are not supported by this character set will need to be replaced with their plain letter equivalents, such as replacing Ž with Z, or Ş with S.