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CHGIS Version 4 recommended software platform and settings are highlighted in light green in the chart below.
Good News! With Windows XP Regional Options / Advanced Language
set to Chinese (PRC), Chinese Characters (GBK Encoding only) can be
viewed in earlier versions of ArcView 3.x software, without any need
for NJStar!
This setting does not work for ArcGIS, however. For ArcGIS, we
recommend using XP with Regional Options Languages all set to English,
then use the NJStar Communicator to view Chinese Characters.
(Note: NJStar Communicator is known to conflict with Windows
Explorer and Internet Explorer. We recommend closing all Explorer
applications BEFORE launching NJStar.)
Testing has been done with NJStar Communicator only, because it
is widely available as a free demo version, and because Harvard
University users have an unlimited site license. Other Chinese Viewing
Software which may work for you include RichWin, TwinBridge, ChinaStar, UnionWay
or others. We do not know what the results will be for any of these
Chinese Viewers, but encourage you to contact us and let us know if you
have any knowledge you would like to share about specific
configurations!
It is important to consider that the ArcView application has
never been consistent in handling Chinese Characters. ESRI seems to
have finally solved the problem in the new ArcGIS 9.X platform, which
has been tested with the shapefiles on this CD-ROM. Please see the
following chart for the results of our testing. Your system may behave
differently, so please use the following information as a guideline for
your best option in using CHGIS data.
For Chinese Character input note that NJStar Word Processor has been tested for input of GBK and Big5 characters. For UTF-8 Characters, we recommend setting up the Global Input Method Editor
(Global IME) which is an option that can be set up in Windows XP.
Chinese entered with IME is actually a Universal Character Set 2
(UCS-2) encoding. We highly recommend using a fully-compliant Unicode
Editor, such as BabelPad for external editing and saving of UTF-8 characters.
TESTED CONFIGURATIONS FOR VIEWING CHINESE
| Platform |
Software |
Correct Files to Use |
Characters OK? |
Notes |
| Windows XP (English) |
ArcGIS 9.2 |
shape gbk, shape utf |
YES |
Attribute Table, Labeling, and Identify functions are ok for Characters, using NJ Star. |
| Windows XP (Chinese PRC) |
ArcView 3.2 |
shape gbk |
YES |
ArcView
3.2 can view Chinese GBK Encodings when XP Regional Options / Advanced
Language set to Chinese(PRC). No need for NJ Star! |
| Windows XP (English) |
ArcGIS 8.1 ArcGIS 8.2 |
shape gbk, shape utf |
YES |
Attribute Table, Labeling, and Identify functions are ok for Characters. |
| Windows XP (English) |
ArcView 3.1 ArcView 3.2 |
shape gbk, shape utf |
NO |
ArcView 3.1 and 3.2 were not written for the WinXP platform. This configuration does NOT work. |
| Windows 2000 (English) |
ArcGIS 8.1 ArcGIS 8.2 |
shape gbk, shape utf |
YES |
Attribute Table, Labeling, and Identify functions are ok for Characters. |
| Windows 2000 (English) |
ArcView 3.1 ArcView 3.2 |
shape gbk, shape utf |
NO |
ArcView 3.1 and 3.2 were not written for the Win2000 platform. This configuration does NOT work. |
| Windows 2000 (English) |
ArcView 3.3 |
shape gbk, shape utf |
NO |
ArcView 3.3 WAS written for the Win2000 & XP platforms. Alas, this configuration STILL does NOT work. |
| Windows 2000 (PRC Chinese) |
ArcView 3.1 ArcView 3.2 |
shape gbk |
YES |
|
| Windows 98 & NT (English) |
ArcView 3.1 ArcView 3.2 |
shape gbk, shape utf |
YES |
Limitations: autolabel and some other tools may not work. Cannot EXPORT to DBF without corrupting characters. |
| Windows 98 (PRC Chinese) |
ArcView 3.1 ArcView 3.2 |
shape gbk |
YES |
|
| Windows 98 & NT (English) |
MapInfo 6.x MapInfo 7.x |
mapinfo USA |
YES |
Note: when exporting tables, select NO CHARACTER SET CONVERSION option to preserve characters. |
| Windows 2000 & xp (English) |
MapInfo 6.x MapInfo 7.x |
mapinfo USA |
YES |
Note: when exporting tables, select NO CHARACTER SET CONVERSION option to preserve characters. |
| Windows 98 & NT (Chinese) |
MapInfo 6.x MapInfo 7.x |
mapinfo PRC |
YES |
|
| Windows 2000 & xp (Chinese) |
MapInfo 6.x MapInfo 7.x |
mapinfo USA |
YES |
|
| Windows 2000 (English) |
ArcExplorer |
shape gbk, shape utf |
YES |
funtionality is limited to viewing, altering symbology, searching |
| Windows 2000 (English) |
ProViewer |
mapinfo USA |
YES |
funtionality is limited to viewing, altering symbology, searching. Drawback: uses first field ONLY as label default. |
| Windows 2000 (English) |
GeoMatica Freeview |
shape gbk, shape utf, mapinfo USA |
YES |
funtionality is limited to viewing, altering symbology, searching. |
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