how to debug vb6 richtextbox not showing unicode (chinese) properly.

Question

hi there, I have a simple vb6 editor type application which has a richtextbox as the editor page. It allows users to key in stuff and the store it into a file which will keep all the text in RTF stored as CDATA in xml.

When you load back the file, it will read it off the xml and load back the rtf. We allow for unicode editing, but my problem is I have a user which is using Windows XP, and they have some problems reading the chinese characters. They show up as gibberish in their pc.

It displays fine in both mine and a coworker's. I've already checked that they have the proper regional language and settings in their system. The install files for east asian language is already checked. And they can see chinese words on websites and even type them out.

I feel like I'm missing something here but I'm at a lost on what to check next? Any ideas on what I could test or check next?

my bad for the poor description skills, if anything is not clear just ask me. thanks. ~steve

Answer 1

Could be a problem with font?

Try using font that supports unicode characters (Arial Unicode). Or try going to a website with chinese characters and paste it into richtextbox, save it to a file and try loading it from the file.

Does that work?

Answer 2

That is weird. Try confirming that your user have the same version of RICHTXT32.OCX ?

Answer 3

well they should because i packed the app in vs installer setup package. and for fonts, it's sim sun, and i've already checked with the users that they do have the sim sun fonts under window/fonts.

Btw i've already updated that the data is actually stored in xml under CDATA, although the rtf chunk is kept as it is.

okie, this seems to be the solution although i don't know why. in my msi setup file i've included the riched.dll so when i installed it in, the dll acts up and screw up my chinese character in the richtext control.

but when i repack to exclude that dll file and reinstall using that setup, it seems to work now...