MSIE 6 Encoding -- Need Help with Big5

[gfross]

My OS is Windows XP Pro. Office XP (Word 2002, Outlook 2002, etc.) is installed. Microsoft Japanese and Chinese (PRC IME and Taiwan IME) are installed and running. When I type pinyin in Word 2002 or Outlook (email) or MSIE browser window, I can select either traditional or simplified characters by changing the setting on the Chinese PRC language bar or simply use the Taiwan IME to type traditional characters.

The problem is that when I am reading a web page that has been prepared in Big5, not all the characters appear. Three encodings are listed in the MSIE 6 browser under View/Encoding/More/Chinese: GB2312, GB18030, and HZ. There is no Big5 encoding listed. Wasn't the Big5 font supposed to be downloaded to my computer as part of the Microsoft Asian Language pack?

Is there any way I can check to see whether a Big5 font exists on my hard drive? The following TT fonts that I think are Chinese are listed in the Windows font folder: MS Mincho and PMincho, Sim Hei, Sim Sun and NSim Sun. I also have Arial Unicode and Lucida Sans Unicode (and Times, which I think can do Unicode).

I'd appreciate any suggestions about what I need to do in order to be able to read Big5 web pages. Thanks!

[MarkFail]

There are two ways i believe,

first check your region settings in your control panel.

second view your OS website, www.microsoft.com and download the language packs.

Hope this helps.

[Quest]

Try this: make sure "Auto-Select" is checked, then visit a BIG5 website. See if it auto selects BIG5 for you.

[gfross]

There should be no need to download anything from Microsoft, since the Asian language pack is included as part of the Windows XP CD, and I have already copied the Asian language pack from my CD to my hard drive and told Windows to load the IMEs for PCR and Taiwan Chinese on my language bar. I can TYPE (in Word 2002) and SEE on my monitor screen the traditional characters that appeared from the hanyu pinyin that I typed, but I think that what is shown is a subset of UNICODE, not Big5 code. Perhaps the Big5 code (what is it, 950?) is somewhere on the Windows XP CD, too.

Autoselect doesn't work.

When I select in MSIE 6 any of the three Chinese Simplified encodings under View/Encoding/More, most of the characters do appear on Big5 web pages, but a few characters appear as gibberish or there is nothing there at all where a character should be.

I have asked Microsoft for a solution. They're supposed to get back to me in 48 hours, so I'll let you know. Thanks for trying to help!

[geek_frappa]

is NJStar open?

[gfross]

I'm not using NJStar, only U.S. English Windows XP and the MSIE 6 browser. According to Microsoft, Windows XP is supposed to be able display the Big5 codepage (950) (see http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/reference/oem.mspx) . However, whenever I go to a Big5 webpage and right-click on it in order to select the proper encoding, only "Chinese Simplified" encodings appear under "Chinese"; no "Chinese Traditional."

Well, the Microsoft person I talked to didn't know the answer. LOL!

I sure hope that one of you experts in computers out there can help me solve this problem. Thanks!

[geek_frappa]

did you click on "More..." in the encoding menu and your menu did not show Traditional ...? reinstall MS OFFICE and under languages reinstall Traditional ... it's the same font pack...

[gfross]

If I reinstall MS Office XP, won't I lose all my current data in the various Office XP programs (Word 2002, Outlook, etc.)?

By the way, the Microsoft website recommended that Windows XP users NOT install the Office Asian language files, since Windows XP already includes them. So I should be able to find them somewhere on the Windows XP Pro CD and extract them. Hmm, maybe I should uninstall the currently installed Asian language files and then reinstall them.

[geek_frappa]

reinstalling office usually keep preferences... because remember that prefs are stored in Application Data folders... the actual programs are usually in PROGRAM FILES sub-folders ..

furthermore, that is an excellent idea to uninstall the fonts... REBOOT, then reinstall the fonts in office.

i hope this works. i know how frustrating this is.... XP promised easier cross-language support.

[gfross]

Finally got MSIE to display Big5! Had to uninstall the Windows XP Pro Asian Language Pack and the Traditional Chinese language IME for Office XP that I had downloaded from Microsoft. Evidently the Office IME was preventing MSIE from enabling the Big5 encoding. I went to a Big5 web page, clicked on the page, and Windows asked me if I wanted to install Traditional Chinese. I said Yes, and Windows (re)installed the Asian Language Pack, and BINGO, Big5 appeared!

I learned the Windows XP Professional OS does NOT need (and should NOT install) any of the Office XP Asian language IMEs available from the Microsoft Office Downloads web page. Everything is already included on the Windows XP Pro and Office XP CDs.

I then had to figure out how to reenable Office (Word, Outlook, etc.) to allow me to use the language bar to write (and handdraw) Chinese. Everything finally got sorted out.

Thanks again for your suggestions and moral support!