Re: Really need help fixing my AbiWord

Amanda Johnson wrote:

>Hi. Well, I have a problem with my AbiWord that I really don't know
>how to fix. I have friends in China that I was wanting to write to,
>so I thought I'd try and type some Chinese (if possible in Abi). My
>Microsoft IME with Simplified Chinese didn't let me. So, I thought
>maybe putting Abi in Chinese would work. It didn't as well (nor
>display properly), and that's where my problem starts. I knew how to
>change things back into English when Abi was in English, but once it
>went into Chinese the button to put things back into English did not
>come up. The names of several languages did display, but never
>English. So, I know this was probably bad, but I started clicking
>random buttons trying to find one that might show me English even if
>written in a different language. (I can understand to some level many
>languages.) Well, that too (the random clicking) didn't fix things.
>So, I checked the FAQ section and tried to find an answer, but never
>could find a proper link to show me how to fix it. Eventually, I went
>back to Abi and put it into a Spanish language (Asturian)as it was the
>most familiar language to me of those that would display in the little
>box where you can change languages. (Usually when the Languages box
>displays however, the language right before Bokmal is highlighted; I
>can't tell you what this is however because it only displays as "()".)
>
>Well, this morning, I started thinking that maybe my answer to all of
>the above problems would be to uninstall my original version (Abi 2.2)
>and completely trash everything with that Abi and install a newer
>version of Abi (from the website). So, I did that. I now have
>AbiWord 2.4.0, but when I ran the program it still displayed like it
>was set up in Chinese (simplified). As you can tell, I really made a
>mess of things and have no idea how to fix the problems I created.
>Rather than tinker with it more on my own, I am calling out for MUCH
>NEEDED help. I already have some previous Abi documents that I don't
>won't to open until the problem(s) is fixed.
>
>So, whomever is reading this, first, thanks for reading through all of
>the above. I have Windows 98 (I think the non SE version) if that's
>helpful in knowing how to fix things. I really do appreciate any
>feedback to try and help resolve these issues.
>
>Sincerely -- AJ (livesacrifice@gmail.com)
>
>
To use an input manager such as to input Chinese, you have to change a
setting in Windows, in the Regional control panel. (or perhaps the
Keyboard control panel, or both - it moves around between versions.)
AbiWord will start up in the "locale" that you have your system set for,
I believe, and it seems that when you changed the language to Simplified
Chinese, you did that in Windows. There are two language selections in
AbiWord, but neither directly help you enter other languages: one in the
Preferences window changes the language the interface is in (you may
want to check there as well to make sure it's back to English), and
under Tools, Set Language marks some text in your document as a language
in order to spell check it.

If you change back the region in the Regional control panel and keyboard
in the Keyboard panel, then make sure the interface language in Abi's
preferences is English, you should be back to normal.

In the future, if you want to just be able to type in another language
that requires a special mode of input (new keyboard layout or IME), you
handle that in the Regional or Keyboard control panel. You can have
more than one installed and have a system tray icon to switch back and
forth, if you look around. My directions might be a little off because
I currently use Windows XP, but it should be possible in Windows 98 as well.

Good luck, and thanks for using AbiWord!

-- 
Ryan Pavlik
AbiWord Win32 Platform Maintainer
www.abisource.com
"Optimism is the father that leads to achievement." - Helen Keller
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