Index: src/java/org/apache/poi/hpsf/Property.java
===================================================================
RCS file: /home/cvspublic/jakarta-poi/src/java/org/apache/poi/hpsf/Property.java,v
--- src/java/org/apache/poi/hpsf/Property.java		1.20
+++ src/java/org/apache/poi/hpsf/Property.java	
@@ -170,9 +170,12 @@ 
      * @param length The dictionary contains at most this many bytes.
      * @param codepage The codepage of the string values.
      * @return The dictonary
+     * @exception UnsupportedEncodingException if the specified codepage is not
+     * supported.
      */
     protected Map readDictionary(final byte[] src, final long offset,
                                  final int length, final int codepage)
+    throws UnsupportedEncodingException
     {
         /* Check whether "offset" points into the "src" array". */
         if (offset < 0 || offset > src.length)
@@ -202,19 +205,23 @@ 
             long sLength = LittleEndian.getUInt(src, o);
             o += LittleEndian.INT_SIZE;
-            /* Read the bytes or characters depending on whether the
-             * character set is Unicode or not. */
-            StringBuffer b = new StringBuffer((int) sLength);
-            for (int j = 0; j < sLength; j++)
-                if (codepage == Constants.CP_UNICODE)
-                {
-                    final int i1 = o + (j * 2);
-                    final int i2 = i1 + 1;
-                    b.append((char) ((src[i2] << 8) + src[i1]));
-                }
-                else
-                    b.append((char) src[o + j]);
-
+            String value;
+            switch (codepage)
+            {
+                case -1:
+                    value = new String(src, o, (int) sLength);
+                    break;
+                case Constants.CP_UNICODE:
+                    // In the case of UTF-16, the length represents the number of characters.
+                    value = new String(src, o, (int) sLength * 2, VariantSupport.codepageToEncoding(codepage));
+                    break;
+                default:
+                    // TODO: Confirm the behaviour of UTF-8.
+                    value = new String(src, o, (int) sLength, VariantSupport.codepageToEncoding(codepage));
+            }
+
+            StringBuffer b = new StringBuffer(value);
+
             /* Strip 0x00 characters from the end of the string: */
             while (b.length() > 0 && b.charAt(b.length() - 1) == 0x00)
                 b.setLength(b.length() - 1);