Vista - Word Processing problem? :S

Um yeah basically whenever i open a notepad file such as homework from a disc i have, it comes up with lots of random symbols for example:

Êþº¾ 2�
à
?
@

A ß
B
ß
C ß
D ß
E ß
F ß
G
H
I
J
K
L
M ß
N ß
O ß
P ß
Q ß
R ß
S ß
T ß
U ß
V ß
W ß
X ß
Y ß
Z ß
[ ß
\ ß
] ß
^ ß
_ ß
` ß
a ß
b
ß
c ß
d ß
e ß
f ß
g ß
h
i
j?ÅÂ�\(õÃ
k
l
m
1
?
1
n
o
1
p
q
r
ß
s
t
ß
u
1
v
w
x
y
ß
z
{
|
}
~

€
�
‚
ƒ
„
…
†
‡
ˆ
‰
Š
‹
Œ
�
Ž

�
�
‘

’
“

”
•

–
—
˜


Now is there any way of preventing this from happening? something im missing maybe? Because also whenever I try to type scriptss for a program i use they don't work, whereas ones i get from the internet with all the wierd symbols in do. I would love to change this as it is highly irritating and annoying.

Hi, joshni, and welcome to the forums.

Can you be more specific? What are the scripts for, and what OS?

Looks like documents created in some word processing program you don't have at home. Notepad just shows what is there, control and formatting symbols included.

But he said they were scripts - and most scripting languages are straight ASCII, IIRC....

notepad isnt the best application to use as it can only handle plain ascii text. It looks like theres lots of formatting codes in there. Is it a word document?