module display/encoidng issue

Discussion on theWord modules and other resources
keyuhui
Posts: 43
Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2015 5:33 pm

module display/encoidng issue

Post by keyuhui »

Hi Costas,

I LOVE your program! I believe is is the best Bible software I've ever seen, and I'm still discovering features that I didn't realize existed. Two of my favorite new (beta) features are the local maximize/minimize buttons and the feature to display addtional translations in a popup. As a translator, I got excited just reading about that feature...and using it has been even better!

I'm having trouble with certain TW modules not displaying properly. I think it's a problem with the encoding. Any ideas what's causing it? For some modules, smart quotes, dashes and other marks and diacritics display as garbled Chinese text (see attached)

Just a little background on my situation...

My OS is Chinese Windows 7, but most of my modules display perfectly fine, including those with smart quotes, dashes (–), and other special symbols and diacritics., but some of my modules always display incorrectly (see above).

Some of the problematic modules include: Hasting's Bible Dictionary, and Hasting's NT Dictionary, Lange's Commentary, Church Pulpit Commentary, Bridgeway Dictionary, and several others. The modules look fine in eSword, but the counterpart modules (whether downloaded or converted with TW's importer tool), have the above mentioned encoding issues.

I've tried changing the Encoding settings for TW's importer tool to see if that helped, but so far it hasn't. I think the default is 1252, and I've tried 936, 54936 (both for Chinese encoding), and several others without avail.

The only option that has worked so far, is to open the eSword module with T4, save as a RTF, then open in MS Word and find/replace smart quotes, dashes, etc. Then reload in T4 and remake the module. The problem is, this doesn't solve the problem with certain words/letters with diacritics, AND some modules (like Hasting's dictionaries), won't open with T4 for some reason.

Any help that anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated. By the way, I am fairly certain that the problem is related to my OS, because the problem modules look find on an English OS, BUT that can't be the only problem, because other modules display fine on my system...so it seems the issue has to be related to codepage encoding (I'm really a novice with regard to encoding, but it's the only thing that makes sense to me).

Thanks for the help. (see screen captures)

Keyuhui
Attachments
hastings-capture.jpg
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lange's screenshot.jpg
lange's screenshot.jpg (561.32 KiB) Viewed 2264 times
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JG
Posts: 4599
Joined: Wed Jun 04, 2008 8:34 pm

Re: module display/encoidng issue

Post by JG »

I am fairly certain it is due to the module being converted from an eSword module that does not have rtf headers for each topic.

Maybe Costas has some way of fixing this. What I tried for the Hastings dictionary was to switch to the English locale and fire up theWord and detect all vrefs for the whole module via the module properties page (and held down the Alt key, until the process is underway). Then when I changed to the Chinese local, the module was ok as all the codepage escapes had been converted... . Well it won't hurt for you to give it a try.
Jon
the
Word 6 Bible Software
OS for testing; Windows 10
Beta Download ------Beta Setup Guide------On-line Manual------Tech doc's and Utilities------Copyright Factsheet
keyuhui
Posts: 43
Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2015 5:33 pm

Re: module display/encoidng issue

Post by keyuhui »

Thanks for the suggestion...I tried what you said, but it didn't help...

You said you switched to the English locale, and then switched to the Chinese locale, to you mean the different language settings in theWord, or the Regional Settings in Windows 7? I'm running Chinese Windows 7.

Your thought about the rtf headers souds like a poosbility, but I don;t know what to do with that information...I don't know much about how rtf works, especially in TW.

Hopefully Costas has some insight?

Thanks
User avatar
JG
Posts: 4599
Joined: Wed Jun 04, 2008 8:34 pm

Re: module display/encoidng issue

Post by JG »

No, I meant the operating system locale, from the Region -> Administrative tab.
You would probably need to try the test again with an untouched module.
Jon
the
Word 6 Bible Software
OS for testing; Windows 10
Beta Download ------Beta Setup Guide------On-line Manual------Tech doc's and Utilities------Copyright Factsheet
keyuhui
Posts: 43
Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2015 5:33 pm

Re: module display/encoidng issue

Post by keyuhui »

ok...just checking...

I did find a work around for the encoding problem today (thanks to your thought about the rtf headers. I was able to extract the data from the TWM file after I uncompressed it, and then I re-compiled it with T4 (the Tooltip Tool for eSword), but I chose to include the rtf headers. Then I converted the file over to TW with TW's import tool, and it looks great!

Thanks again for steering me in the right direction!

Keyuhui
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