Japanese in generated indexes

[Combs, Richard]

Marc Betz wrote: 
 
> In documentation for a recently acquired product, we have FrameMaker
> documents in Japanese. This is my first experience in working with non-
> English documents. The documents have these characteristics:
> 
> • On my system, at least, whatever font was originally used for
> Japanese is substituted by the Meiryo font, which is distributed on
> Windows 7 systems. The console has lines such as this:
> The "‰l‰r ‰oúͩ" Font Family is not available.
> "Meiryo" will be used in this session.
> • Both the documents and the generated index look all right.
> • However, in the Markers pod, all of the index entries are gibberish,
> which I have also confirmed in individual markers. It seems odd that
> the text would be incorrect in the markers but correct in the generated
> index, but that is what I am seeing.
> • If I generate a marker list using the ixgen utility, I get the same
> gibberish as in the Markers pod.
> • Although beyond the scope of this particular list, when these
> documents are generated into WebWorks Help documents using WebWorks
> Express (through stationary developed in WebWorks ePublisher of
> course), the index also displays gibberish.
> 
> My best guess is this: the markers, Makers pod, and ixgen all fail to
> substitute an available Japanese font for the marker text. Arial
> appears to be the font being used. But when the index is generated,
> FrameMaker does substitute a Japanese font in this document.
> 
> So my question to you all: does anyone who works with Japanese
> documents know to induce FrameMaker to use a Japanese font in markers,
> and the Markers pod? If you use ixgen, do you know how to obtain proper
> Japanese text in its generated marker list?

Someone with more than my limited experience may be able to address your specific questions -- but they haven't yet, so I'll throw this out. :-) 

First, it's always a good idea to specify the environment -- at least FM version and OS version. When dealing with Asian languages, it matters a lot whether you're on a pre-Unicode version of FM. 

Second, you undoubtedly need to install support for Japanese in Windows (and that alone may solve the gibberish problem). 

-- In Windows XP, go to Control Panel > Regional and Language Options. On the Languages tab, check Install files for East Asian languages and click OK (you probably need your Windows install disk or CAB files -- I can't remember). 

-- In Windows 7, go to Control Panel > Region and Language. On the Keyboards and Languages tab, click "How can I install additional languages?" for help. In a corporate environment, you may need assistance from your IT department. 

HTH to at least get you started. 

Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
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rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-903-6372
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