RE: FN-FORUM: client question of the day.

date posted 20th June 2007 16:22

As Mike said, make sure it's all UTF-8. I've worked on Multi-language =
Flash content reading in all content from XML, granted you've got a =
different delivery but same hurdles.

Most common Chinese variation that my clients have gone for (normally =
the regional office translates) uses SimSun font. The font tags are =
then contained in the html - obviously.

Make sure you have the Far-Eastern languages installed in Windows XP (or =
whatever) - assuming you use Windows. You'll then be able to see the =
text in Word, XML (Notepad!) or browsers (er, possibly?!?).

I've got example Word files and XML files if you want to run any tests - =
just give me a shout.

Can't help you on the MySQL front, but it outputs as UTF-8, so I assume =
stores it as UTF-8.

You'll need to get translators costs, your scripts will have to well =
defined with references to match up with the English version (so you =
know what's what).

Ideally you'll need a tester who can check the Chinese afterwards =
(ideally not the same person who translated it). Don't do as my old =
boss did, and go to the local Chinese take-away!

Does this help or hinder?

Peter


-----Original Message-----
From: Derek Almond [EMAIL REMOVED]

I'm currently part way through a full site rebuild for a client, and =
just had this sent to me

"quick question - if I wanted to turn our website in to Chinese - would =
it be possible? Would it be something you could do? And what are the =
cost implications?"

Anyone done this before, what's a sensible set of things I need to ask / =
look at. I'm using lang files anyway, so the framework is pretty much =
there for this - only I was thinking maybe US English, German, French =
etc... not Chinese.

I suspect most of my problems will come storing the data and writing =
them out using XML

The new version of the site runs php5 / mysql5 Apache on an Apple XServe =
if that's relevant.

Am I correct in thinking there is more than one variation of Chinese?