Pinyin in pdfs

[qzchris]

Has a fix to this problem been found yet? I'm glad to know I'm not the only person having trouble with getting pinyin to display, though I wonder whether this problem is actually likely to be solved at all. Anyone?

[Amber]

hi qzchris,

i've asked our tech team to look into it again! will let you know what we find out!

amber

[jerseyguy]

I'm having a different PDF problem. Any PDF file I try to open I get a message "The file is damaged and could not be repaired". I installed both the traditional and simplified packs from a link Amber posted on the comments section of a lesson, but I still get the same message.

[super_user]

hi jerseyguy,

first time i hear of that problem. Maybe unrelated to this thread.
How are you downloading the PDFs? In iTunes? Browser?

-Marvin

[jerseyguy]

Hi Super_user,

I'm trying to open them in my browser (Firefox).

[jerseyguy]

Marvin. I fixed my pdf problem. I upgraded to adobe 9.1 and I can now view the pdfs in my browser.

[staticmotion]

I've just signed up to ChineseClass101 and I am really disappointed with the tech probelm with the PDFs. They are very jumbled. The characters are ok, but the pinyin is very poor and all over the place.

I'm using Windows Vista and an alternative PDF reader. I don't want to have to install Adobe as it's just unnecessarily a big filesize, so can we have this problem sorted asap as it interrupts study.

[lmcjipo]

I'm experiencing this problem as well.

My home computer is running Windows Vista and Adobe Acrobat 8.1.6 (viewing it both in Internet Explorer 8.0 and Firefox 3.5.2.

For example: in Survival Phrases #31, everything shows up fine in the "Lesson Notes" except for the pinyin which appears to be overlapping especially when there is a tone mark. In the "Lesson Notes Lite" of the same Survival Phrases lesson, the pinyin displays properly.

I tried a few of the other lessons/sections and got similar results.

I will try my work laptop (Vista) and my home laptop (Windows XP) when I get a chance and report my findings which might help to isolate the problem.

Just want to mention that regarding my quoted post, I upgraded my home PC's version of Adobe Acrobat Reader to version 9 and I still have the problem viewing with both Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Unfortunately, I keep forgetting to check on my work laptop (Vista) or my home laptop (Windows XP) since most of the time I prefer using my home desktop when I'm at home.

[lmcjipo]

Unfortunately, I keep forgetting to check on my work laptop (Vista) or my home laptop (Windows XP) since most of the time I prefer using my home desktop when I'm at home.

I checked my home laptop running Windows XP and the pinyin looks fine under Mozilla Firefox and Adobe Reader 9. Based on an earlier post by another poster, I think that the issue might be related to having Microsoft Office installed. My home desktop PC running Vista doesn't have Microsoft Office installed whereas my home laptop running Windows XP does have Microsoft Office (Office 2007) installed.

On my work laptop running Vista and Adobe Acrobat Reader 9.2 (has Office 2003 installed), the pinyin in the regular document looks better than on my home PC (running Vista without Office) but by no means does it look as nice/perfect as it does on my Windows XP home laptop with Office 2007 installed.

I tested it on a friend's desktop running Windows XP with Adobe Acrobat 6 (full version not just the reader) as well as Office XP installed on it and the pinyin in the regular document looks better than on my home PC but is also not perfect. Its pinyin results are similar to what I get with my work laptop which isn't perfect but is better than on my home PC.

I'm not sure if this additional information/tests helps anyone.

[fugu68]

I'm getting more and more convinced that this is where the problem lies. I just got a new laptop with Microsoft Vista, and here I got a free trial version of Microsoft Word, and now I can view the pinyin without any problems at all.

I think you are quite correct in your assessment of the problem. I get exactly the same behaviour: works fine on my laptop with Office 2003 installed, and does not work on my desktop which does NOT have Office installed.

It is quite possible that the PDFs specify a font for the Pinyin which gets installed along with MS Office, which is why it works on those machines that have Office installed.

That said, if they specified the same font for pinyin as used in the Lite pdfs, that should solve the problem.

I am quite happy to work with the techs to resolve this, if this would be helpful. It really does need to be sorted out...

[kitayec]

This issue can be easily fixed with installing ARIALUNI.TTF unicode font.

It is bundled with MS Office but can be found on rapidshare.

[CrassPip]

This issue can be easily fixed with installing ARIALUNI.TTF unicode font.

It is bundled with MS Office but can be found on rapidshare.

I don't think illegally pirating software is a good solution.
The question remains: Why do the Lite PDF's work and the paid ones do not? Obviously CC101 is doing something wrong with the latter.

[david]

Hi CrassPip,

The PDF Lite files come bundled with the necessary fonts to display Chinese characters on computers that lack Asian support. The normal PDFs don't have these fonts embedded so only work on machines with support for Asian fonts.

It's possible to use other methods to produce PDFs, but doing things this way makes it impossible to support advanced features like copy-and-paste. I believe the thinking was that it was best to produce the best PDF possible for people who can use those features, and provide the Lite version for anyone without the necessary fonts involved. The content is the same in both PDFs, incidentally, so someone who can only use the Lite versions isn't missing out on anything.

Best,

--david

[CrassPip]

david,

Thanks much for your reply. I hadn't realized the Lite and regular pdf's had the same content. I feel better now

Take care.