International characters don't make it to the desktop...

[soso]

(Hi. Newbie - if this doesn't belong here please delete it...)

I would like to ask for hjelp from all those who write on their English OS pocket PC's in other language than English.

I write Romanian on my iPAQ, which means I input some special, international characters (versions of t, s with comma-like stuff under them, for example). For this there are lots of soft keyboards which work very well.

The problem is that, when I move such files to the desktop, all the special letters are gone. [t,] is replaced by [t], [s,] is replaced by [s] and so on.

I tried everything I could think of, to no avail.

Even if I take the card out of the iPAQ and read it with the desktop computer (therefore, without transferring the file through ActiveSync!), I find that the file has not retained any of the special characters!

The other way, if I move a file from the desktop to the iPAQ, everything goes fine. Of course, I changed all setting to the ActiveSync conversion, and I used all formats available for saving Pocket Word files. Nothing worked. I installed new fonts, which I am sure that they contain these special characters; same problem.

I now use a iPAQ hx2750 - but I also had the same problem on my previous machine, a HP Jornada. The iPAQ has Windows mobile 2003, and I use ActiveSync 3.7.1.

Any suggestion , anybody ? I surely must be missing something very obvious !!!

[Constant Caffeine]

I would like to ask for hjelp from all those who write on their English OS pocket PC's in other language than English.

When you say your writing your actually using the built in keyboard software, correct? What operating system are you using to sync your PDA with? Is it a Romanian version?

[soso]

Hello!
Actually, the built-in keyboard does not allow me to enter those characters (it is the very usual "English" keyboard available from factory). So I use a "soft keyboard" - some application made on purpose to introduce a "Romanian" keyboard, on which q, k and some other rarely-used letters are replaced by the Romanian-specific characters. (one such app is InterkeyPPC, but there are many others).

As for the operating system on my desktop - no, it is not a Romanian one; its a very usual Windows XP home edition.

[Nurhisham Hussein]

Did your SIP software install any special fonts? You might want to transfer them (if any) to your desktop.

[soso]

Thanks for replying.
As far as I know, no fonts were installed by the new keyboard software (I cannot see any additional fonts in Windows\Fonts).

But indeed, I am getting more and more convinced that the problem is in the desktop computer. Moreover, today I tried several different languages (Turkish, Slovak, French...), and all special characters entered in these languages' keyboards transferred correctly to the desktop PC... However, I still don't know how to fix the problem. I didn't know Romanian is such a special language :oops: :roll: :twisted: :evil: 0X

[JesterMania]

It seems it maybe a problem with non-unicode filenames the SIP on your PPC is generating, because I deal a lot with Japanese files and they transfer back and forth flawlessly. On your main computer, try going into Regional Settings and changing "Language for non-Unicode programs" to "Romania", restarting and see if that helps.

[soso]

Hi, thanks for the suggestion.
Glad to hear about Japanese transferring back and forth without flaw.
That gives me hope :-)

However, changing the language for non-Unicode programs appeared to have no effect.

Yet, I made some more testing with Pocket Word, and here is what I noticed.

I made a series of transfers to and from the desktop. First I started with a new, blank file on the iPAQ. I typed "aaa1" to get a "aaa1" named .psw file, and then on a new line I typed a few Romanian letters. I transferred this file to the desktop PC. Obviously, as I explained until now, everything was transformed - the Romanian letters disappeared. Step 2: On the desktop Word I added a few more Romanian letters and then saved the file as "aaa2.psw", ignoring the warning Word gives that I will lose some formatting. Then I transfer this file back to the iPAQ - and now the Romanian characters are there, fine and healthy! Moreover, in step 3, if I type some more Romanian on the iPAQ and then save the file as "aaa3" in psw format, and then I transfer it to the desktop, everything is still fine!

So, as a very-very ugly work-around, I could keep file "aaa3", for example, as a kind of "template", write Romanian in it and then save with a different filename...

Would you settle for this ?!

[gwinter]

I think I know the problem to this. There was once, I prepared a document containing Japanese script. I saved it on a memory card and opened it on the desktop. Everything has turned illegible. At this point, taking the memory card back to the device will not help, all the Japanese glyphs are lost.

1. SIP would normally output Unicode characters, otherwise it might not work correctly/ as expected.
2. I think the problem with Pocket Word is that it somehow defaults to non-Unicode format (i.e. using codepage). To open this file successfully, the codepage on the desktop should be matched to that of the document, otherwise data loss will occur.
3. Jestermania does not observe any problem because his desktop codepage is matched. You said you did not observe any problem with a few other languages. It might so happen that the characters that you used in the test are in the ASCII-compatible zone, which will be supported by the default English codepage. So no data loss in this case.
4. Regarding the workaround that you mentioned last, I think this might be the only way it is workable. The file that you prepared on the desktop is now saved as Unicode. If you use it in Pocket Word, it will know to save it in Unicode format, preventing data loss.

[soso]

thank you, gwinter.
So everything points to a bug of Pocket Word...
Maybe I should try another word processor.
(I will look for options, but... does anyone suggest a good freeware ?)

Thank you.

[soso]

OK, after posting to other sites too and trying various things, the conclusion is: this isdefinitely a bug of Pocket Word, which sometimes does not save correctly in Unicode. I tried a simple notepad application as a word editor, and everything went fine; nothing like the above happened, so this seems to be the conclusion.
Just in case somebody else has the same problem...
Thanks for the help.