Asian Language Support

myrridenmyrriden
Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
Hi there, new to the forums. I recently bought an Apple Powerbook, and this being my first Apple, I have no clue about anything. I'm looking to get Asian language support onto it- mainly Chinese. Being able to view it is a must (right now, when I view a document in chinese, regardless if it's big-5 or whatever, it shows up as random characters). Being able to type in it would be nice but isn't really a must. Is this built in, and can I activate it, or do I need a third party program, and if so, any suggestions? Thanks in advance.



(I'm running OS X panther)



edit: Uhh sorry, could a admin move this post to the Genius bar.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    fahlmanfahlman Posts: 740member
    First, congratulations on your first Macintosh. A powerbook even. I'm jealous.



    Here's a support document,About using other languages on your computer(<--Click), from Apple's website that should be just what you're looking for. Here's the same document in Chinese, just for fun.
  • Reply 2 of 3
    karl kuehnkarl kuehn Posts: 756member
    For viewing different languages on your Mac all you need is to have the language pack installed on your computer. I don't know what Apple is installing by default from the US market at the moment, but if you break out your "System Install" disk from your computer you can chose to add and specific language support that you want, and I know that includes several versions of the Chinese groups.



    MacOS X is at its heart very adaptable to different languages and comes in something like 26 languages, and switching the language used for the interface is a very quick thing. If you are using more than one language at a time you will want to make sure that you have the Input Menu showing (System Preferences->International->Input Menu->Show input menu).



    Once you have the language packs installed (and with them the fonts that cover those characters) many applications will just work, especially Safari. I would recommend avoiding InternetExplorer (for so many reasons, and not just on the Mac) as it has a real problem with some Unicode ranges.



    Most of the international problems at this point are either: right-to-left issues or simple lack of enough translations.
  • Reply 3 of 3
    myrridenmyrriden Posts: 2member
    Thanks for the replies. I've just finished adjusting it, and so far, so good. Very pleased so far with OS X, having come from Windows 2000.
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