International languages setup

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International languages setup

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Help & Manual is fully Unicode-enabled and can edit and publish help files in virtually all international languages. There are just some restrictions on right-to left languages, which are only supported in HTML Help CHM files and WebHelp (for example languages like Hebrew, Arabic and Farsi).

Working in Unicode languages requires both configuration settings for the language you are using in your project and special Windows settings for the Microsoft help compilers, which are not Unicode programs.

Even if you are working in English or any other Western European language it is important to check that the language settings of your project are correct before starting work.

For more information see International Languages and Unicode  and Language Settings in the Reference section.

Click to expand/collapseWhere to find the language settings

•Go to Configuration > Common Properties > Language Settings in the Project Explorer to view and edit the language settings for your project.

•See Language Settings in the Project Configuration section of the help for details.

•If you are plan to generate PDF files you also need to set CID Font Mode to the correct setting for the language you are using.
Click to expand/collapseEnglish and Western European languages

Windows version and configuration:

Projects in English and Western European languages can be published and viewed on all versions of Windows without restrictions. The language of the help file does not have to match the language of the Windows version on which the file is being viewed.

Configuration > Common Properties > Language Settings:

Language of the help file:

The default setting is English (United States). This should not be changed for English and Western European languages unless you experience problems with sorting in the Keyword Index.

Because of a bug in the Microsoft HTML Help viewer it is best to set English (United States) for all Western European languages if possible – otherwise "HTML Help" will be displayed in the title bar of the help if the language setting does not match the language of the user's Windows version.

Font character set:

The default setting is ANSI_CHARSET. This should not be changed for English and Western European languages.

Default font:

This option only defines the font used in the TOC and dialog boxes in HTML Help CHM files.

Note that HTML Help is designed to work with the default font and font size settings so please test thoroughly if you use different fonts or sizes.

The default is MS Sans Serif,8,0. The value 8 defines the font size and should generally not be changed. The last value defines the character set and 0 tells Help & Manual to set the character set automatically.

CID Font Mode for PDF font embedding:

Go to Configuration > Publishing Options > Adobe PDF > Font Embedding:

CID Font Mode is a special mode for embedding Unicode fonts in PDF files more efficiently for Asian languages. It should generally be set to CID Off unless you are using Asian languages. See CID mode for Unicode fonts for more details.
Click to expand/collapseEastern European languages, Greek, Russian, Turkish etc.

Windows version and configuration:

Publishing projects:

•You can publish projects written in these languages to WebHelp, MS Word RTF, PDF, eBooks and Visual Studio Help (MS Help 2.0/3.0) with any version of Windows XP or later with support installed for the language you are using.

•To publish projects in these languages to HTML Help you must also set the "system locale" of your Windows configuration to match the language of your project.

Note that the system locale and the user locale are different! Simply setting the display and/or data entry language does not change the system locale!

1.Log in to a user account with administrator privileges.

2.Open the Regional and Languages section in the Windows Control Panel.

•Windows XP: Select your language as the default language for non-Unicode programs in the Advanced tab (this tab is only displayed if you have administrator rights).

•Windows Vista and Windows 7: Select the Change System Locale button in the Administrative tab (this tab is only displayed if you have administrator rights.

3.Click on OK to apply the setting and then restart Windows.

Viewing published help:

Help & Manual's output files can be viewed on most versions of Windows on which proper support for the specific languages is installed. Some features of HTML Help (full-text search, Keyword Index sorting) will only work properly if the language of the Windows version matches the language of the help file. This applies particularly for Asian languages. For example, all functions of a Chinese HTML Help file will only work correctly on a Chinese version of Windows.

See About H&M's Unicode support for more details on this.

Configuration > Common Properties > Language Settings:

Language of the help file:

This setting must be set to the language in which your help is written. This is important both for proper sorting in the Keyword Index and proper identification of the language by the system.

Font character set:

This setting must be set to the correct character set to display the language used in your help file.

Default font:

This is not the default font of your help project! This option only defines the font used in the TOC and dialog boxes by HTML Help.

Note that HTML Help is designed to work with the default font and font size settings so please test thoroughly if you use different fonts or sizes. You may need to change the font to display all characters correctly in your language.

The default is MS Sans Serif,8,0. The value 8 defines the font size and should generally not be changed. The last value defines the character set and 0 tells Help & Manual to set the character set automatically.

CID Font Mode for PDF font embedding:

Go to Configuration > Publishing Options > Adobe PDF > Font Embedding:

CID Font Mode is a special mode for embedding Unicode fonts in PDF files more efficiently for Asian languages. It should generally be set to CID Off unless you are using Asian languages. See CID mode for Unicode fonts for more details.
Click to expand/collapseAsian languages, all languages requiring Unicode

This group includes all languages that require Unicode, which means languages with more than 255 characters requiring two bytes to store each character. For example, this includes most Asian languages like Chinese, Japanese and Thai.

Windows version and configuration:

Editing projects:

Help & Manual projects written in Unicode-based languages can only be edited on Windows XP or later with support installed for the language you are using.

Publishing projects:

•You can publish Unicode projects to WebHelp, MS Word RTF, eBooks and Visual Studio Help (MS Help 2.0/3.0) with any version of Windows XP or later with support installed for the language you are using.

•To publish Unicode projects to HTML Help you must also set the "system locale" of your Windows configuration to match the language of your project.

Note that the system locale and the user locale are different! Simply setting the display and/or data entry language does not change the system locale!

1.Log in to a user account with administrator privileges.

2.Open the Regional and Languages section in the Windows Control Panel.

•Windows XP: Select your language as the default language for non-Unicode programs in the Advanced tab (this tab is only displayed if you have administrator rights).

•Windows Vista and Windows 7: Select the Change System Locale button in the Administrative tab (this tab is only displayed if you have administrator rights.

3.Click on OK to apply the setting and then restart Windows.

Viewing published help:

Help & Manual's output files can be viewed on most versions of Windows on which proper support for the specific languages is installed. Some features of HTML Help (full-text search, Keyword Index sorting) will only work properly if the language of the Windows version matches the language of the help file. This applies particularly for Asian languages. For example, all functions of a Chinese HTML Help file will only work correctly on a Chinese version of Windows.

See About H&M's Unicode support for more details on this.

Configuration > Common Properties > Language Settings:

Language of the help file:

This setting must be set to the language in which your help is written. This is important both for proper sorting in the Keyword Index and proper identification of the language by the system.

Font character set:

This setting must be set to the correct character set to display the language used in your help file. This too is particularly important for proper handling of Unicode-based languages. You must have the proper character set for your language installed for Help & Manual to be able to process and publish the language correctly.

Default font:

This is not the default font of your help project! This option only defines the font used in the TOC and dialog boxes in HTML Help CHM files.

The default is MS Sans Serif,8,0, which is the font and size that HTML Help is designed for. In Asian languages and other Unicode-based languages you may need to choose an appropriate font for your language instead of MS Sans Serif.

The value 8 defines the font size and should generally not be changed. The value 0 defines the character set. You do not need to change the character set value – Help & Manual does this for you automatically when you publish your project.

CID Font Mode for PDF font embedding:

Go to Configuration > Publishing Options > Adobe PDF > Font Embedding:

CID Font Mode is a special mode for embedding Unicode fonts in PDF files more efficiently for Asian languages. It should generally be set to CID Off unless you are using Asian languages. See CID mode for Unicode fonts for more details.
Click to expand/collapseTest-publishing Asian languages on non-Asian Windows

Normally, you cannot publish help projects written Asian languages on non-Asian versions of Windows because the necessary language settings don't match. However, if you just want to do a quick test publish and don't have a Windows version in the matching Asian language there is a configuration setting that will allow you to do this.

•Go to View > Program Options > Compilers and activate the option Tolerant handling of Asian languages.

Some features may not work correctly in the resulting help file in HTML Help if the languages of your Windows version and the help file don't match (Search, Keyword Index) but you will be able to complete the compilation, which is sufficient for testing.

See also:

International Languages and Unicode (Reference)

Language Settings (Project Configuration)