title: Can jQuery convert ASCII and Unicode characters?
body: <p>We have some ASCII and Unicode characters which we want users to use when they are imputing text into a Form’s text and textarea fields.</p>
  
  <p>For example,</p>
  
  <pre><code>$SpecialCharacters = array(
      'single quotes'=&gt;'&amp;#039;',
      'double quotes'=&gt;'&amp;#034;',
      'copyright'=&gt;'&amp;#169;',
      'registered'=&gt;'&amp;#174;',
      'trademark'=&gt;'&amp;#8482;',
  );
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>We are using jQuery UI Drag and Drop to move the selected non-standard character from the toolbar to the input field. That works fine.</p>
  
  <p>However, when the data is saved to the MySQL database (using PHP) and returned, the non-standard characters return in a malformed encoding.</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>User inputs: <code>bill.onthebeach™</code></li>
  <li>Returned page displays: <code>bill.onthebeachâ¢</code></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Everything is UTF-8 encoded.</p>
  
  <p>So I'm thinking this should solve the problem:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>User inputs: <code>bill.onthebeach&amp;#8482;</code></li>
  <li>Returned page displays: <code>bill.onthebeach™</code></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>The question is, Is there a jQuery function or plug-in that will convert non-standard characters to their encoded forms?</p>
  
  <pre><code> ™ =&gt; &amp;#8482;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Or, Does the problem lie elsewhere? If so, what’s the solution?</p>