Language settings

Report · Feb 15, 2012

This should probably be filed under stupid questions, but I was asked to investigate anyway by my current client. This is not my idea!

Can I re set the language for FrameMaker 10 from English to Japanese on an English version of Windows XP and then open a FrameMaker book (English) and insert Japanese characters to replace the existing English text? And what affect would this have when printing to PDF?

Would I, for example, need to change the default language on Windows (the language packs have been installed) to Japanese?

The idea is for a Japanese person to remote desktop into the machine and translate the English FrameMaker files. I repeat, not my idea!!!

Mark

Report · Feb 15, 2012

Mark,

AFAIK, you would need to change the locale setting in XP to make FM think it is running on a Japanese OS machine.

As long as Distiller knows where the fonts are located, the PDFs should be ok. Note: for XP there is a Microsoft Hotfix required to fix some issues in PDF creation if you haven't installed this yet.

Not the best way to do this - can't they find a version of FM in Japan to use?

Report · Feb 15, 2012

Hi Arnis,

I think reality is finally dawning on the client that what they are trying to do to save money will end up costing them more in the long run. Thanks for the advice re Distiller.

Mark

Report · Feb 17, 2012

Handling Japanese or Chinese language documents in FrameMaker itself is straightforward for viewing, cutting, pasting, formatting, and printing, but NOT typing, as long as you've got the relevant fonts installed. I've done it for Chinese documents on an English FM system (both 5.5.6 and 8.0) running on English Windows and it works.

In the English language version of FM, you'll probably also need to manually enable the Asian "combined fonts" feature, by rather ironically setting the "AsianFonts Yes" settings (there's more than one of them) to "AsianFonts No" in the cmds.cfg file. It has to be the cmds.cfg file, as doing it in a customui.cfg file has no effect.

However, actually TYPING Japanese text is a different challenge. This probably requires the relevant Windows language pack or version unless you can find and enable a Japanese keyboard driver and/or text-entry system in your English Windows system, and I'm not sure if such a thing exists.

Also, if your client wants to type Japanese text remotely they should know that most of the remote login tools that I have used don't handle non-Latin keyboard mappings well, if at all, at least in combination with FrameMaker. You'd have to try it, and it could be a dead end.

Dave