# Bug: HTML character references allowed in MathJax in preview but not on save

Here are some numeric character references outside MathJax (entered as &#x266F; + &#x266D; = &#x266E;):

♯ + ♭ = ♮

and inside MathJax ($&#x266F; + &#x266D; = &#x266E;$):

$&#x266F; + &#x266D; = &#x266E;$

The latter renders properly in the preview, but is broken once I save. This makes my suggestion for using curly quotes not work.

• You should probably specify that your (bug) is to request that character references work, period. Right now a not-very-helpful fix to your not-quite-completely stated bug could potentially be fixing the preview so that it breaks there too... :) – Willie Wong Feb 24 '12 at 8:40
• Well, the fact that that the preview and the saved version are inconsistent is the bug. Making character references work everywhere would be a feature-request. :) – Rahul Feb 24 '12 at 8:54
• Oh, and I am surprised that mathjax does not have $\sharp$. (Edit: wait, it does!) – Willie Wong Feb 24 '12 at 15:58
• @Willie: There was $\sharp$ and $\#$ but the latter stopped working lately. (Edit: Oh, it works. Jerks.) – Asaf Karagila Feb 24 '12 at 19:43

You can use MathJax's \unicode extension to get the same effect. E.g.,
$\unicode{x266F} + \unicode{x266D} = \unicode{x266E}$

$$\unicode{x266F} + \unicode{x266D} = \unicode{x266E}$$