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nobitacu · Mar 28, 2003, 02:54 AM

As you know... without coding... the font will look all weird and unreadable. I have music files that are in chinese, but mac os x didn't uncode it and so I can't read it... Anyone know how I can turn that on or a software or something so I can read chinese font on mac? I've tried making chinese first on the language thing in system preferences, it did change the whole OS into chinese... but it still didn't uncode my files...

Any ideas???

Thanks in advance...

Ming

moonmonkey · Mar 28, 2003, 03:19 AM

Originally posted by nobitacu:
As you know... without coding... the font will look all weird and unreadable. I have music files that are in chinese, but mac os x didn't uncode it and so I can't read it... Anyone know how I can turn that on or a software or something so I can read chinese font on mac? I've tried making chinese first on the language thing in system preferences, it did change the whole OS into chinese... but it still didn't uncode my files...

Any ideas???

Thanks in advance...

Ming

I realy should know how to do this, but I dont.

Sorry.

nobitacu · Mar 28, 2003, 03:39 AM

Does anyone here that uses Chinese on their mac know??? It's the same when I'm in a FTP site from Taiwan, can't read any of the fonts.... help please... I really need to be able to read those so I can get my work files from the FTP....

Ming

Camelot · Mar 28, 2003, 03:59 AM

As long as you installed the Chinese Language Kit when you installed Mac OS X, and the application you're using supports unicode, you should be fine.

My guess is that your problem is application support.

nobitacu · Mar 28, 2003, 07:40 AM

Well, OS X was pre installed, and yea, app support is what I need. So, do I just pop in the cd that came with the computer and just find that kit and install it? how would I do this? I'm a new switcher, so, still learning all this...

Thanks...

Ming

veryniceguy2002 · Mar 28, 2003, 08:22 AM

Originally posted by nobitacu:
As you know... without coding... the font will look all weird and unreadable. I have music files that are in chinese, but mac os x didn't uncode it and so I can't read it... Anyone know how I can turn that on or a software or something so I can read chinese font on mac? I've tried making chinese first on the language thing in system preferences, it did change the whole OS into chinese... but it still didn't uncode my files...

Any ideas???

Thanks in advance...

Ming

Ming,

I probably need more information before I can help you explicitly:

1. What version of MacOS X have you got?
2. What sort of things do you want to read in Chinese (is it a web page, a Chinese word document, or what kind of things you are trying to read?)?
3. Where did you get the "thing" from (is it transferred from your PC?)

Generally, MacOS X 10.1 or later have Chinese support built-in. It should have been the most painless thing you would experience when using a computer! I am thinking it might not have a proper fonts or something wrong with the formatting of the "thing" you are trying to read causing MacOS X not recognising what you are trying to read (I guess whatever you read is in Big-5 character encoding format, right?)

I often use MacOS X in Chinese. Not problem whatsoever. I used iTunes and pop in a HK pop CD and use CDDB and get all the Chiense song titles without any problems.

There is a very very useful web site for using Chinese in a Mac. Spend some time to read it, and I'm sure it can help you in some degree:

http://www.yale.edu/chinesemac/

Hope this helps!

nobitacu · Mar 28, 2003, 08:28 AM

1. I'm using the newest MacOS X that came with my 17iner.
2. I read documents and file names
3. Yes, it is transfered from my PC

Yes, the things I read is in Big-5 character encoding format. I need it to be able to read files, and apps that uses it.

Thanks for the link.

Ming

Originally posted by veryniceguy2002:
Ming,

I probably need more information before I can help you explicitly:

1. What version of MacOS X have you got?
2. What sort of things do you want to read in Chinese (is it a web page, a Chinese word document, or what kind of things you are trying to read?)?
3. Where did you get the "thing" from (is it transferred from your PC?)

Generally, MacOS X 10.1 or later have Chinese support built-in. It should have been the most painless thing you would experience when using a computer! I am thinking it might not have a proper fonts or something wrong with the formatting of the "thing" you are trying to read causing MacOS X not recognising what you are trying to read (I guess whatever you read is in Big-5 character encoding format, right?)

I often use MacOS X in Chinese. Not problem whatsoever. I used iTunes and pop in a HK pop CD and use CDDB and get all the Chiense song titles without any problems.

There is a very very useful web site for using Chinese in a Mac. Spend some time to read it, and I'm sure it can help you in some degree:

http://www.yale.edu/chinesemac/

Hope this helps!

veryniceguy2002 · Mar 28, 2003, 08:31 AM

Originally posted by nobitacu:
Well, OS X was pre installed, and yea, app support is what I need. So, do I just pop in the cd that came with the computer and just find that kit and install it? how would I do this? I'm a new switcher, so, still learning all this...

Thanks...

Ming

It sounds like you got a brand new machine...

When you first start your new Mac, did you put Chinese as the main language?

If not, you probably need to install the Chinese components (actually all it does is to install Big-5 and unicode fonts that has Chinese characters, as well as Chinese input methods; OS X internal can handle Chinese as is)

Does your Mac comes with a single DVD or 2 CD sets? In the DVD or CD disc 2 it should have something like "additional packages" folder, and inside that you should be able to find a package that has the name "Chinese" in it somewhere... double click that package to open the installer, click the padlock button and type the password, and following the instruction might do the trick for you.

Oneota · Mar 28, 2003, 08:32 AM

Mac user since: 03/24/03

Hey, you switched on Mac OS X's second birthday/anniversary (whatever you'd call it when referring to an inanimate object)!

Cool.

nobitacu · Mar 28, 2003, 08:35 AM

Hehehe, thanks ^_^ It's a great day to switch ^_^

Ming

veryniceguy2002 · Mar 28, 2003, 08:39 AM

Originally posted by nobitacu:
1. I'm using the newest MacOS X that came with my 17iner.
2. I read documents and file names
3. Yes, it is transfered from my PC

Yes, the things I read is in Big-5 character encoding format. I need it to be able to read files, and apps that uses it.

Thanks for the link.

Ming

Can you check whether your Mac has the fonts "Apple LiGothic Medium" and "Apple LiSung Light" installed in your Mac (It should be under /System/Library/Fonts/ directory). These two are the default fonts used in Mac for Big-5 chinese.

Also, have a look at the CD/DVD that comes with your Mac. It should come with read me files in multiple languages (including both set of Chinese), and the filenames of those read me files are in that particular languages. Have a look the contents of that CD/DVD and see if you can see any files with Chinese or Japanese filenames (and for the matter, see any files with garbage filenames).

nobitacu · Mar 28, 2003, 08:47 AM

I have the Apple LiGothic Medium, but not the Apple LiSung Light. I don't hav ethe DVD with me right now, so I can't check it yet...

Ming

Originally posted by veryniceguy2002:
Can you check whether your Mac has the fonts "Apple LiGothic Medium" and "Apple LiSung Light" installed in your Mac (It should be under /System/Library/Fonts/ directory). These two are the default fonts used in Mac for Big-5 chinese.

Also, have a look at the CD/DVD that comes with your Mac. It should come with read me files in multiple languages (including both set of Chinese), and the filenames of those read me files are in that particular languages. Have a look the contents of that CD/DVD and see if you can see any files with Chinese or Japanese filenames (and for the matter, see any files with garbage filenames).

veryniceguy2002 · Mar 28, 2003, 08:47 AM

Originally posted by nobitacu:
1. I'm using the newest MacOS X that came with my 17iner.
2. I read documents and file names
3. Yes, it is transfered from my PC

Yes, the things I read is in Big-5 character encoding format. I need it to be able to read files, and apps that uses it.

Thanks for the link.

Ming

The OS X page in Yale mention the exact procedure you will need to follow:

http://www.yale.edu/chinesemac/pages/os_x.html

Now, what sort of files are you trying to read from PC? Microsoft word, plain text in Big-5 or some other format? Most of the apps in OS X should able to read Chinese without too much trouble...

Now, I need to know you are not using classic, right? (i.e. the OS 9 compability mode within OS X) If you are using classic, than you'll need to install fonts under OS 9 seperately. (If you are not sure whether you are using classic or not, check if the colour of the Apple icon on the menu bar in rainbow colours or just aqua. Classic one would be in rainbow colour, and OS X one would be in aqua). YOu need to tell us what sort of applications you are using (and version).

madhex · Mar 28, 2003, 10:32 AM

Originally posted by nobitacu:
As you know... without coding... the font will look all weird and unreadable. I have music files that are in chinese, but mac os x didn't uncode it and so I can't read it... Anyone know how I can turn that on or a software or something so I can read chinese font on mac? I've tried making chinese first on the language thing in system preferences, it did change the whole OS into chinese... but it still didn't uncode my files...

Any ideas???

Thanks in advance...

Ming

If the filename is in Big-5 and unreadable in OS X...

try this Apple File Name Encoding Repair

In order to read Chinese on a FTP site, you need to download Fetch 4.0.x.

On Fetch menu, go to Preferences --> Misc ---> uncheck "Translate ISO Characters"

frawgz · Mar 28, 2003, 09:03 PM

The problem is not with Chinese fonts.. Mac OS X comes with plenty of Chinese support out of the box.

The user above probably gives good advice translating Chinese file names.. however, I've never tried it, and the program is built specifically for translating file names from OS 9 to OS X. I think you may have some luck trying them on your transferred Windows files, though.

It would help if you gave more specific examples also of what files and what text you're having trouble reading.

rw · Mar 28, 2003, 10:15 PM

It's possible that the file names were converted to gibberish when you transferred them from the PC to the Mac. Do try the Apple File Name Encoding Repair utility mentioned in a previous post. That repaired lots of my Japanese file names that had been turned to gibberish by a bug in an old version of Stuffit.

nobitacu · Mar 29, 2003, 02:20 AM

Ah... I'll try that out, thanks so much for everyone's help ^_^

Ming

nobitacu · Mar 29, 2003, 02:26 AM

Well, I installed Apple File Name Encoding Repair utility, but I can't find where it is install to??? how do I start that program?

Thanks...

Ming

nobitacu · 02:53 AM

I tried downloading fetch and used it, I unchecked the "translate ISO charactors" but after I did that, it won't let me go into any folders at all saying file not found on server. When I check it again, i can go into the folders again. The characters are all still in unreadable type in Fetch...

Ming

Originally posted by madhex:
If the filename is in Big-5 and unreadable in OS X...

try this Apple File Name Encoding Repair

In order to read Chinese on a FTP site, you need to download Fetch 4.0.x.

On Fetch menu, go to Preferences --> Misc ---> uncheck "Translate ISO Characters"

nobitacu · Mar 29, 2003, 02:40 AM

For example, here's a name from my MP3 folder ...

?��I�?_?��A?R��?

Thanks

Ming

veryniceguy2002 · Mar 29, 2003, 11:32 PM

Originally posted by nobitacu:
For example, here's a name from my MP3 folder ...

?��I�?_?��A?R��?

Thanks

Ming

Ummm... need to check exactly where the problem is... I'm still not sure whether it is the problem of your MacOSX or applications you are using, or files you got from PC...

OK, can you open the Systems Preferences (From the Apple menu). Click on the international icon (The one with the UN flag icon), and see if under the Languages it has "Traditional Chinese" or "Simplifed Chinese" (displayed in Chinese) shown. If not, click on the "Edit..." button. See if the pop-up windows whether there is any "Traditional Chinese" or "Simplified Chinese" can be selected.

I expect if you MacOS X system is OK, it should have shown either or both languages in Chinese without problem.

Try this, and then we'll work on. Ideally if you can put your screen dump into here, then it's easier to figure out the problem.

In Mac, you use Command (Apple key) + shift + 3 to do a screen capture, equivalent to "print screen" function in PC. The captured screen would be saved in a file Called "Picture n" (n is a number), and the format is PDF under MacOS X 10.2.

Good luck!

Scifience · Mar 30, 2003, 07:44 AM

Hmmm....on my MDD Japanese text worked out of the box. On some web pages, though, I get the problem that you are talking about. In Safari, I just go up to View, Encoding, and manually choose Japanese. Is there a system-wide setting like this, though?

Hope you get it all worked out!

Edit: I now have two stars under my name!

frawgz · Mar 31, 2003, 01:21 AM

I'm not sure that changing the system's language setting will help here. All that does is localize the OS's menus, etc. Of course, you don't need to have your system set to Traditional Chinese to be able to read webpages encoded in Traditional Chinese.

I'm not sure at all if it's possible to read folders and filenames encoded in Big 5 over an FTP server. Does anybody know an FTP client that can actually reinterpret Big-5 encoded text in a filename?

veryniceguy2002 · Mar 31, 2003, 02:28 AM

Originally posted by frawgz:
I'm not sure that changing the system's language setting will help here. All that does is localize the OS's menus, etc. Of course, you don't need to have your system set to Traditional Chinese to be able to read webpages encoded in Traditional Chinese.

You are 100% right here!

However, that wasn't my intention.

What I want to do is to isolate the problem. If the international setting in the systems prefs cannot display Chinese probably, then It's the MacOS X's system problem, not caused by applications or PC files transferred has broken encodings etc.

nobitacu · Mar 31, 2003, 04:00 AM

Yea, I can change in to Chinese on the OS X without any problem, but yea, that only changes my menu to Chinese, it doesn't code the chinese font or anything. That's one of the first things I've tried. I don't know... I give up... I just can't read the files I guess when I'm in my file system folder. or anywhere else in fact... oh well...
I can read chinese fine on webpages and such, just not the ones in my file folder where my files are.

Ming

wataru · Mar 31, 2003, 04:26 AM

If you're talking about ID3 tags in iTunes, then you should control-click on the file in iTunes, choose "convert ID3 tags" and then from the popup menu choose the Unicode one. If that doesn't do it, try one of the other options in that popup menu. If none of those work, you might be screwed.

If you're trying to view Chinese text in a Word document, realize that Word has HORRIBLE Unicode support, and it just messes everything up. Try copying and pasting the contents of the file into Text Edit. That works for me most of the time.

veryniceguy2002 · Mar 31, 2003, 05:00 AM

Originally posted by nobitacu:
Yea, I can change in to Chinese on the OS X without any problem, but yea, that only changes my menu to Chinese, it doesn't code the chinese font or anything. That's one of the first things I've tried. I don't know... I give up... I just can't read the files I guess when I'm in my file system folder. or anywhere else in fact... oh well...
I can read chinese fine on webpages and such, just not the ones in my file folder where my files are.

Ming

Well, at least we now know it is not OS X itself causing the trouble.

Don't giveup yet... it's very difficult to diagnose a Chinese problem by exchanging messages in English without any screen dump whatsoever

, and we are almost there...

Have you tried Chinese Text converters that come with MacOS X? That should translate text files from Windows to Mac without problem.
http://www.yale.edu/chinesemac/pages/utilities.html#CTC

Now for all your other files (It would be good if you can tell me what kind of files is it) according to the ChineseMac web page <http://www.yale.edu/chinesemac/pages...ml#translation> Microsoft Office 2001 or X should able to read the PC version of the Word etc.

The other thing I would like to know is how did you transfer the file from PC to Mac.

Did you use a floppy, burn a CD, USB drives, file server, via FTP, via web or email?

If you use a floppy or burn a CD or via a Windows file server, then you might want to check the encoding you used to mount the volume. If you select the volume and do a "get info..." (equivalent to "properties..." in Windows), check the Encoding setting and see if "Chinese Traditional" is selected instead of Roman. That might help the gargage filename issue.

Good luck!