Chinese in FM7 versus FM9

[H_de_Jong]

I've got a translation project where a set of FM7 files was translated from English to Chinese.

In FM7 the result is OK. When I open these files in FM9, the index markers have become corrupted. When I update the book, the index looks wrong, with entries looking like this: "×ð»´¥Îþ©"

Is there a way to import the files in FM9 while preserving the index markers?

Thanks,

Harro de Jong

[Art_Campbell1]

Without knowing more about the project, it sounds as if you're running into the lack of Unicode character support in 7 and full Unicode support in 9.

Basically, the character set with which Frame works changed at the FM 8 rev to support broader international standards. I suspect you'll have to do some editing to switch from the old closed character set to the Unicode set, if that is indeed the problem.

You could probably find out quickly by editing one or two markers in FM 9 and regenerating the index to see what is generated.

[H_de_Jong]

Sure, if I create new index entries in FM9 they work correctly, but that's a rather large job.

It seems to me there's a problem opening FM7 files in FM9: the body text is converted to the new character set correctly, but markers aren't converted.

[Guest]

I recall hearing this issue previously; as Art mentions it's a problem in FM that marker text (I believe this affects all types of markers) doesn't get converted.

The only thing I can suggest is that you might be able to find something on the Framers list.

I was wondering whether IXGen http://www.fsatools.com   might be able to work around it, but in the FAQ I found:

The second part of the question touches on Asian language support. Currently,  IXgen will not work properly with Asian languages (or any application where  16-bit character sets are in use). We have no plans to expand non-English  language support at this time.

Edit: I wonder whether CudSpan's MarkerWorker might be able to do the trick:

http://www.cudspan.net/plugins/

======

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"chinese" site:lists.frameusers.com

If your search term has spaces, be sure to put quotation marks around it, e.g.

"master page" site:lists.frameusers.com

[Be.eM · Accepted solution]

AxialInfo wrote:

I recall hearing this issue previously; as Art mentions it's a problem in FM that marker text (I believe this affects all types of markers) doesn't get converted.

True, this doesn't only fail with Chinese, but with all languages using characters beyond the Roman character set.

There's a good workaround using FrameScripts (FS is not free, unfortunately, but definitely pays for itself). Klaus Mueller (itl) has been so kind and wrote a free script for me, as I've had exactly the same problem. The script can be used as follows:

1. Script automatically converts marker content to plain body text in FM7 -> save file

2. Open file in FM8 (or 9), use script again -> Original marker text (currently in body) is converted back to markers.

The difference: regular body text is correctly converted to unicode, which (hidden) marker text isn't. Now, by "transporting" the marker text within the body, conversion works.

The script can be found here: http://groups.google.com/group/frameusers-de/attach/e6f6f03ae66d6b89/Marker2Text2Marker.fsl?hl=de&pa...

The corresponding description is also there, but in German only: http://groups.google.com/group/frameusers-de/msg/e6f6f03ae66d6b89?hl=de

Bernd

[H_de_Jong]

I've found a solution along the lines of Bernd's suggestion. I'm using Silicon Prairie's Index Tools Pro to convert the markers to ordinary text in FM7, then I import the files in FM9 and convert the text to markers again.

Steve at Silicon Prairie has been very helpful, he sent me a beta version of Index Tools Pro with which this works correctly.

http://www.siliconprairiesoftware.com

Thanks everyone for the help.

Harro de Jong

[H_de_Jong]

IndexTools works well, but only for markers of type Index. If you need to process other marker types as well, you'll have to use the FrameScript option.