Chinese Word Processing (XP)

[tmathis]

I am setting up a computer for a Tawainese friend. She would like to be able to write documents in traditional Chinese characters as well as English. Her language preference for word processing is Chinese. Her language preference for Windows is English. She has a Chinese version of Office.

My question can Word produce Chinese-Mandarin documents? or should she look for another program? and if so what program?
Should I install the Chinese or English version of Office?

[kaplinb]

1. Yes, it can. Third-party programs can do it also. For example, TwinBridge

2. You can install either English or Chinese version. However, despite Microsoft denies it, I heard a gossip that language versions of Office can produce problems running on English Windows.

[JudyT]

I was trying to do the same thing, set up Office/Word for a chinese co-worker. After downloading the chinese patches from microsoft, and selecting chinese and the language, I was unable to figure out what to do next ... ie how to get the chinese characters on the page....everything was still in Englsih? How does it work?
Thanks

[jscher2000]

What version of Windows do you have? Microsoft included an Input Method Editor (IME) in Windows 2000 and XP that is supposed to allow you to enter Chinese characters without a special keyboard. My earlier experiments with Japanese didn't work out, so I'm no expert on this, but see if any of this helps:

Instructions from Windows XP Pro help:

<hr>To add another keyboard layout or Input Method Editor (IME)

1. <LI>Open Regional and Language Options in Control Panel.
   <LI>On the Languages tab, under Text services and input languages, click Details.
   <LI>Under Installed services, click Add.
   <LI>In the Input language list, click the language for the keyboard layout or Input Method Editor (IME) you want to add.
   <LI>Select the Keyboard layout/IME check box, if multiple options are available, and then click a service in the list.
   
   If Keyboard Layout/IME is the only type of text service available, click an option in that list.

Notes
<UL><LI>To open Regional and Language Options, click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Regional and Language Options.
<LI>There may be only one keyboard layout for some languages.
<LI>To add an IME, you must have installed it on your computer first.[/list]<hr>

If your version of Windows does not have an IME, you can download one here:

Office XP Tool: Global IME (Simplified Chinese)
Office XP Tool: Global IME (Traditional Chinese)

And these "language packs" might be the patch you already downloaded:

Office XP Tool: Simplified Chinese Language Pack
Office XP Tool: Traditional Chinese Language Pack

Even then, I don' t know if it will really ever be convenient to use; I think these are accommodation for occasional Chinese language input, and not heavy duty word processing.

[JudyT]

Thank you for the information. I had done everything you suggested but was unable to figure out how to input the chinese characters without a special keyboard, until the penny dropped this morning (slaps forehead and says "doh"). The characters must be input directly from the character map.

As you say, it is awkward and not practical for heavy-duty word processing, but for an occasional letter, flyer or phrase it will work sufficiently well. Thanks again for your guidance.