8. A method for handling text using a code page that is different than a native code page used in a document into which the text is pasted, comprising the steps of: (a) producing a piece table by scanning characters comprising the document to develop an array of character positions and an array of data records, said characters in the document being referenced in the array of character positions by a sequence of character position coordinates, said array of character positions being divided into a plurality of pieces, each piece comprising characters of text that are disposed adjacent to each other in the document and which have common properties; (b) including in each record of the array of data records: (i) a file number for a corresponding piece of the array of character positions, said file number indicating a file in which the characters referenced in the piece are stored; and (ii) a file position in said file where said characters are to be found; (c) producing a file control block for any file that is opened to paste text into the document, said file control block including code page identifier data indicating a default code page for the text stored in said file, and thus, for the text referenced by any of the pieces; (d) providing a data block for each file that is opened to paste text into the document, said data block including a specifier for an exception code page to be used for any run of text in the file that has a different code page than the default code page for the file in which the run of text is stored, so that the default code page for the file in which the run of text is stored and the data block for the run of text are checked to determine the code page to be applied to all of the characters in said run of text; and (e) when the code page used by any run of text to be displayed is different than the native code page, translating the code page for the characters in the run of text to be displayed to the native code page using a closest available mapping, said code page for the run of text being retained if the document is saved to a file, thereby ensuring that a reference to the code page for any text pasted into the document is not omitted from the file to which the document is saved.
8. A method for handling text using a code page that is different than a native code page used in a document into which the text is pasted, comprising the steps of: (a) producing a piece table by scanning characters comprising the document to develop an array of character positions and an array of data records, said characters in the document being referenced in the array of character positions by a sequence of character position coordinates, said array of character positions being divided into a plurality of pieces, each piece comprising characters of text that are disposed adjacent to each other in the document and which have common properties; (b) including in each record of the array of data records: (i) a file number for a corresponding piece of the array of character positions, said file number indicating a file in which the characters referenced in the piece are stored; and (ii) a file position in said file where said characters are to be found; (c) producing a file control block for any file that is opened to paste text into the document, said file control block including code page identifier data indicating a default code page for the text stored in said file, and thus, for the text referenced by any of the pieces; (d) providing a data block for each file that is opened to paste text into the document, said data block including a specifier for an exception code page to be used for any run of text in the file that has a different code page than the default code page for the file in which the run of text is stored, so that the default code page for the file in which the run of text is stored and the data block for the run of text are checked to determine the code page to be applied to all of the characters in said run of text; and (e) when the code page used by any run of text to be displayed is different than the native code page, translating the code page for the characters in the run of text to be displayed to the native code page using a closest available mapping, said code page for the run of text being retained if the document is saved to a file, thereby ensuring that a reference to the code page for any text pasted into the document is not omitted from the file to which the document is saved. 12. The method of claim 8, wherein the data block includes: (a) a byte indicating the default code page used for text in the file does not apply to a specific run of text; and (b) a plurality of bytes indicating the exception code page used for said specific run of text.