diff --git a/product/Formulator/Field.py b/product/Formulator/Field.py
index d554b97bb2ca41ca16cc348f56f331fc0c6194cf..f9dc8fa77d7c8f48f5cc4850fe84e891f639d917 100644
--- a/product/Formulator/Field.py
+++ b/product/Formulator/Field.py
@@ -449,6 +449,8 @@ class Field:
           return obj.method_name
         elif obj_type is TALESField.TALESMethod:
           return obj._text
+        elif obj_type is unicode:
+          return obj.encode('utf-8')
         return str(obj)
       return ''.join(map(getSearchSource,
                          (self.values.values()+self.tales.values()+