Font problem - Chinese won't display properly in some txt files

[Guest Zerosum]

I was having problems viewing separately downloaded Chinese subtitles in avi

files. I finally managed to solve that problem using BSPlayer.

 

But that's not what I'm asking for help with here. There's something I don't

understand. I downloaded the Chinese subtitles from a Chinese website. The

subtitle filetype is .srt. However, when I open the subtitle file in Notepad,

all I see are lines of nonsense characters that look like this:

ÕâÊÇÄãÃÇÄܼ¯ºÏµÄ°®ºÃ

 

But when I open the same srt subtitle file in Word, I get a File Conversion

options window asking me to choose one of the following:

 

1 Windows (Default) 2 MS-DOS 3 Other encoding (choose

Chinese Simplified (GB2312))

 

choosing the 'Other encoding' option properly displays the Chinese characters

 

My question: Why don't the Chinese characters display properly when I open

the srt file in Notepad? Why does Word have to 'convert' the file for the

Chinese characters to display propery? When the file is open in Notepad, even

changing the default font to a Chinese Font doesn't help, in fact the

characters then display as square boxes.

 

Language support for both traditional and simplified Chinese have been

enabled via Regional and Language Options in the WindowsXP Control Panel, and

I have never had any problems viewing or typing Chinese in either Word or

Notepad. I have both simplified and traditional Chinese fonts installed in

the Font folder.

 

If I copy Chinese text from the web, I can paste it into a .txt file and

save it. So what is it about these Chinese srt files that they will not

display properly when opened in Notepad?

 

Thanks.

[Guest Allan]

Re: Font problem - Chinese won't display properly in some txt files

 

 

"Zerosum" <Zerosum@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:B4E84F00-DD77-4628-A827-2974A4DA089A@microsoft.com...

>I was having problems viewing separately downloaded Chinese subtitles in

>avi

> files. I finally managed to solve that problem using BSPlayer.

>

> But that's not what I'm asking for help with here. There's something I

> don't

> understand. I downloaded the Chinese subtitles from a Chinese website. The

> subtitle filetype is .srt. However, when I open the subtitle file in

> Notepad,

> all I see are lines of nonsense characters that look like this:

> ÕâÊÇÄãÃÇÄܼ¯ºÏµÄ°®ºÃ

>

> But when I open the same srt subtitle file in Word, I get a File

> Conversion

> options window asking me to choose one of the following:

>

> 1 Windows (Default) 2 MS-DOS 3 Other encoding (choose

> Chinese Simplified (GB2312))

>

> choosing the 'Other encoding' option properly displays the Chinese

> characters

>

> My question: Why don't the Chinese characters display properly when I open

> the srt file in Notepad? Why does Word have to 'convert' the file for the

> Chinese characters to display propery? When the file is open in Notepad,

> even

> changing the default font to a Chinese Font doesn't help, in fact the

> characters then display as square boxes.

>

> Language support for both traditional and simplified Chinese have been

> enabled via Regional and Language Options in the WindowsXP Control Panel,

> and

> I have never had any problems viewing or typing Chinese in either Word or

> Notepad. I have both simplified and traditional Chinese fonts installed in

> the Font folder.

>

> If I copy Chinese text from the web, I can paste it into a .txt file and

> save it. So what is it about these Chinese srt files that they will not

> display properly when opened in Notepad?

Instead of trying to get Notepad to work properly, you should consider

installing Emacs instead.

I only use Notepad to print out text files, in which case I cut and paste

from Emacs to Notepad.

http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/

 

--

Allan

[Guest Zerosum]

Re: Font problem - Chinese won't display properly in some txt file

 

Re: Font problem - Chinese won't display properly in some txt file

 

Thanks Allan, but that doesn't answer my question. I am not trying to fix

Notepad, but rather understand why the srt file will not display properly

when opened in Notepad. Why does Word recognize that the srt file is in

Chinese and open up the Conversions options window allowing the file to

display properly if I choose Chinese? Why does the file need to be converted

at all?

 

In any case, just for the hell of it, I installed emacs 21.3. Emacs treats

the srt file just as Notepad does - it gives me gibberish. Please don't

respond with instructions on how to use emacs.

 

Perhaps, this question would be more appropriate for another section of this

forum?

 

"Allan" wrote:

> Instead of trying to get Notepad to work properly, you should consider

> installing Emacs instead.

> I only use Notepad to print out text files, in which case I cut and paste

> from Emacs to Notepad.

> http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/

>

> Allan

[Guest Malke]

Re: Font problem - Chinese won't display properly in some txt file

 

Re: Font problem - Chinese won't display properly in some txt file

 

Zerosum wrote:

> Thanks Allan, but that doesn't answer my question. I am not trying to fix

> Notepad, but rather understand why the srt file will not display properly

> when opened in Notepad. Why does Word recognize that the srt file is in

> Chinese and open up the Conversions options window allowing the file to

> display properly if I choose Chinese? Why does the file need to be

> converted at all?

>

> In any case, just for the hell of it, I installed emacs 21.3. Emacs treats

> the srt file just as Notepad does - it gives me gibberish. Please don't

> respond with instructions on how to use emacs.

>

> Perhaps, this question would be more appropriate for another section of

> this forum?

 

Notepad is a very simply plain text editor. Obviously your file has some

code that isn't handled by plain text and that is why Word can convert it

and open it.

 

Malke

--

MS-MVP

Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!

FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

[Guest Zerosum]

Re: Font problem - Chinese won't display properly in some txt file

 

Re: Font problem - Chinese won't display properly in some txt file

 

Thank you for your reply Malke.

 

I assume these subtitle files were originally created by someone who had

Chinese as the default OS language on his computer; and when I open these

files in Notepad on a Chinese firiend's computer which also has Chinese as

the default system language, the files correctly display the Chinese

characters, so why not on my computer?

 

I would like to understand why the file won't display properly, as I think

this is the key to solving other font related problems.

 

"Malke" wrote:

 

> Notepad is a very simply plain text editor. Obviously your file has some

> code that isn't handled by plain text and that is why Word can convert it

> and open it.

[Guest Malke]

Re: Font problem - Chinese won't display properly in some txt file

 

Re: Font problem - Chinese won't display properly in some txt file

 

Zerosum wrote:

> Thank you for your reply Malke.

>

> I assume these subtitle files were originally created by someone who had

> Chinese as the default OS language on his computer; and when I open these

> files in Notepad on a Chinese firiend's computer which also has Chinese as

> the default system language, the files correctly display the Chinese

> characters, so why not on my computer?

>

> I would like to understand why the file won't display properly, as I think

> this is the key to solving other font related problems.

 

Perhaps you need to install the same font which was used to create the

files. Other than that, I'm sorry but I really don't know.

 

 

Malke

--

MS-MVP

Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!

FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

[Guest Zerosum]

Re: Font problem - Chinese won't display properly in some txt file

 

Re: Font problem - Chinese won't display properly in some txt file

 

That makes sense, and it would seem to imply that my Chinese friend can read

these srt files opend directly in Notepad on his system because Notepad in a

Chinese XP OS has the native ability to read a greater variety of encodings

than Notepad on an English XP OS that has had Chinese language support

enabled via Regional and Language Options.

 

I assume this is also the reason why some of the Chinese language emails I

receive are gibberish; i.e, that email was encoded with something other than

unicode.

 

"Malke" wrote:

> Notepad is a very simply plain text editor. Obviously your file has some

> code that isn't handled by plain text and that is why Word can convert it

> and open it.