I'm having a huge problem with creating ASCII art, and it has an unusual twist to the problem, which is why I hope maybe someone may be able to tell me what the problem I'm facing is.

I play a game called Second Life, if anyone has heard of it, not sure. Really I have a business there where I make real money, by cashing in the game money I make on the game. The business I have is a "gesture" business as they call it on Second Life. What I and my friend do on the game is make "gestures" that are ascii art we create. Basically, people buy the gesture and when they press the preview button on the "gesture" it automatically shows the ascii art we created out in the games chat area for all to see. Why people buy this is another subject, but believe me, it sells lol.

I have two issues I've been dealing with for months now, and I cannot find help or an answer anywhere.

#1: If I create ascii symbols created by using the "alt" key and certain series of numbers, for example, a heart, a music symbol, etc, I start creating it on my desktop in notepad, where I can see the symbols fine when displayed. Once I copy and paste them into game, I cannot view them, they just look like little black blobs. Even if I do it directly in game and not in notepad first, I still cannot view them. The frustrating thing is, everyone else can see for example the heart I created, when all I see is well..a little black blob on my monitor screen lol.

#2 If I create actual ascii art, say a picture of of a cat I do myself, I dont use a converter. One of two things happens. When I display it in the game, it looks perfectly lined up for me, yet when someone else looks at it, its completly NOT lined up, but I cannot see that because it looks fine on my monitor. So I'm always having to pass the ones I create to my friend for him to fix for me because I cannot view them right in the game.

Does ANYONE know or have any ideas what the problem could be? I know this is a strange strange issue but I've been trying to figure it out myself for months and I cannot seem to fix it. Any suggestions would be helpful...ty so much in advance!!!