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

[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¯ºÃµÄ°®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.

 

[Allan]

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¯ºÃµÄ°®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/

 

[Zerosum]

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?

 

[Malke]

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

 

[Zerosum]

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]

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

 

[Zerosum]

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.

 

[gilman]

Solution Found

Hi There,

I was having this same problem with hebrew characters. In my case it was subtitle files for tv shows. Anyway, the solution is to open it in word, then save as. When you save it, it will ask you for the envoding option youd like. Select unicode. Then it will be in a format notepad (and other applications) can understand. It worked wonders for me and AVISynth.

-Gilman

 

[L10Nusers]

Hi There,

I was having this same problem with hebrew characters. In my case it was subtitle files for tv shows. Anyway, the solution is to open it in word, then save as. When you save it, it will ask you for the envoding option youd like. Select unicode. Then it will be in a format notepad (and other applications) can understand. It worked wonders for me and AVISynth.

-Gilman

Thank you very much, Gilman. I had the same issue in Chinese, and your suggestion worked!

 

[drigar]

Dude i Have your answer , every chinese language or any language have their different input method and they are using font is also different if i madeup a software and i use simsun font either i use chinese language or another one if that software wanted to install in your pc and you not have the same font means simsun font then you can not see my typed character , must be you can see chinese in your laptop but without the same font you never see my software character. but i still not know how can i search that font in pc if i not know which font is used that software that is the main problem