Unicode from Variable?

[Scott Rossi]

Recently, Devin Asay wrote:

>> Anyone know if it's possible to set the unicodeText of a field to data
>> contained in a variable?  So far all the examples I've found involve
>> setting
>> the unicodeText from an external binary file, or setting the
>> unicodeText of
>> one field to the unicodeText of another.
> 
> Yes, you can do this. All you have to do is make sure that the
> variable contains valid unicode text, then do:
> 
> set the unicodeText of fld "babel" to varFullOfUnicode
> 
> It works with custom properties, too.
> 
> set the unicodeText of fld "babel" to the uniStoredText of me
> 
> As Mark said, if it's not already uni-encoded you have to run it
> through uniencode() first.

I guess I'm not understanding when text should or should not be "encoded".

I have an external text file which was saved as UTF-16 that is read into a
variable.  I am trying to find lineOffsets of various strings in the
variable text, but so far I keep getting values of 0 (not found).  I have
tried using "set the useUnicode to true" before reading the variable (and
without) and still get 0.

If I first place the text in a field (set the unicodeText of fld xyz to url
("binfile:" & tFile)), I am able to find the offsets.

So do I need to do anything to the variable text first?  Encode?  Decode?
Something else?

Man this stuff takes a lot of time....

Thanks & Regards,

Scott Rossi
Creative Director
Tactile Media, Multimedia & Design