Re: Foreign Languages in WinHelp

[Bill Burns <BillDB -at- ILE -dot- COM>]

Karl,

Here's a response from one of our localization engineers.

Bill Burns
Senior Technical Writer/Technology Consultant
ILE Communications
billdb -at- ile -dot- com



                Do the localized foreign language versions of Microsoft's
Winhelp engine
                (versions 3.1, 95, 98) display the interface (e.g.,
"Forward" and "Back"
                buttons, etc.) in the local language or is it always in
English?

The text for "Forward" and "Back" comes from the winhelp.exe or winhlp32.exe
executables, which come with every localized version of Windows.  So the
text appears in English when using English running help, but it appears in
Japanese with the Japanese running help on a Japanese operating system.

                To compile localized foreign language versions of Winhelp,
do we need the
                foreign language versions of the Winhelp compiler and of
Micorosoft Windows?

No, but you do need to specify the correct character set, font, sorting
language, etc. when compiling with Microsoft Help Workshop.

                Can double-byte language RoboHelp files (Japanese) be
authored and QA tested
                on a system using the English version of Windows?
Amazingly, Microsoft and
                Robohelp have been unable to answer this question after a
week of questioning.

It may be possible, but I wouldn't recommend it.  You would at least need
the Japanese winhelp or winhlp32 and some kind of Japanese emulation program
like NJWIN.  The problem with emulators is that they tend not to wrap or
sort text properly.  I also don't know how Robohelp behaves under such an
emulation program.  There may be other reasons why this wouldn't work.  In
general, it's a good idea to use the Japanese system for QA testing.

                Is any specialized hardware required to create a system that
can be used to
                QA test double-byte (Japanese) RoboHelp files?  Can we just
install Win 95J
                (Japanese) and the localized versions of RoboHelp to
author/QA test our files?

This is the preferred method.  Everything Japanese should work a lot better
for authoring and testing under realistic conditions.

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