Foreign language and font support for MediaLab?

[jarvis24]

[edited from support email]
Hello! I currently use Medialab (haven't yet updated to 2006). However, I have a colleague that is contemplating buying some additional licenses for his lab. He is interested in doing a cross cultural study such that questions, items, and anchors could be presented in foreign characters (Korean/Chinese,etc). Is that possible with Medialab? I know that you can create word documents that would appear as questions, but I was unsure about how the anchor wording would be handled?

Perhaps it is a matter of creating html language with the radio buttons and then using that for your questionnaire. I don't have experience doing that. Is it difficult? Are there programs that make that easier (Frontpage?) and would that allow for the foreign characters to serve as scale anchors?

[jarvis24]

It's actually pretty simple to do a study in Korean/Chinese etc., especially if he has access to machines with versions of Windows XP designed for those languages. In such cases, your colleague can just type the appropriate responses directly into the questionnaire editor like you do. If not, you can still do it with a few extra steps--e.g., HTML is certainly a way to do it, but that's probably not necessary. Also, many languages can easily be done with the English version of XP (Greek, Chinese, Spanish, and others), but I think Korean is one of the few languages best done with the language-specific (Korean) version of XP.

But in answer to your HTML question, yes, you can put references to html files in the area where you put the response labels. Check out the last item in the second sample in the c:\medialab\samples folder for an example.

See also: www.empirisoft.com/support/showthread.php?t=82

[jarvis24]

[edited from related support email]

I was wondering if MediaLab and DirectRT can display non-roman fonts such as Japanese and Cyrillic.

Thank you

[jarvis24]

MediaLab has pretty decent support for this. Check this out and see if it helps:

www.empirisoft.com/medialab/help/preferences.htm#prefs_foreign

DirectRT not so much unless you are running the version of Windows native to the particular language.

[jarvis24]

[edited from related support email]

We tried to enter Japanese characters in the instruction and text label in
the Scale Response. I went to this support page and found the posts above. So I got relieved but no idea how to get Japanese characters in the questionnaire. Please let me know how to fix it. I would like to avoid an option using HTML.

[jarvis24]

What font/script are you using in the experiment editor--do you happen to know?

It might be Mincho but I am not sure. Which font can be appeared on Medialab/DirectRT?

Are you able to see the Japanese characters when you are editing the
questionnaire (.que) file?

Yes, I can see the Japanese characters while I choose Kanji with space key but it disappears or replaced with strange character when I select the characters by hitting "enter" key.

And are they replaced then by blank spaces, or strange characters?

Yes, they are basically replaced with strange characters.

Finally, do you know how to do a screen capture--it might help to see an image of what you are describing.

Yes, I guess I know. I will try it after going back to my office in Japan next week ... If you ever have solved the similar problem which your other customers had, please let me know. I wonder how Korean people are using Medialab without any problems. I would appreciate your further help very much.

[jarvis24]

You could also try using Arial or Arial Unicode as the editor font. As far as I know, Japanese, Chinese and many other font sets will work (but not for Korean and a few others if you are using US Windows--for some it requires the native version of Windows). Also if you have trouble entering the text in "Overview" mode, try clicking "Details" for any given item and entering the text there. Note that this is just for the MediaLab Experiment Editor. Now, once you see the text appearing properly in the Editor, then there are a couple steps you need to take in the main MediaLab Preferences menu to have it appear properly in the session itself (e.g., setting the same font as in the Editor and esp the *script*--in this case, the latter to Japanese) .

Btw, is this on an American machine running US Windows (not just US Regional settings but the actual Japanese version of Windows)? Also, you mention DirectRT--I ought to ask to be clear--these answers are just for MediaLab--right now DirectRT is a different story altogether--even if it's embedded within a larger MediaLab session. Worst case, btw, I can certainly help hook you up with some other users who have had success in using Japanese fonts with MediaLab. I know users from as far back as 4-5 years ago who worked this out--esp after we added the script function in the MediaLab preferences menu.

And a note for future reference re MediaLab and DirectRT--in the next versions (v2010) I'm hoping we can switch out the text fields in the experiment editors with "formatable" ones like you see in Excel--and that you can then see that formatting automatically carried over into your MediaLab and DirectRT sessions. This would included font, size, colour (color), underlining, script, italics, bold, etc., where you could apply such to any individual field.

If any other users have experience/success with the use of non-Western/European fonts, please feel free to continue this exchange here--it might provide useful info for those looking to deal with similar issues.

[skuri]

Thanks a lot for the info. I found that HGP MINCHO worked out,
after changing the font in Preference -> Edit Preferences -> Font & Colors,
which made me very happy. By the way, neither of Arial and Arial Unicode worked for Japanese characters. Our computers (HP) are running Japanese Windows. I will test DirectRT with Japanese characters and post the results here when we find out.

[jarvis24]

Thanks for the update skuri, very helpful info.

[skuri]

You are very welcome, thanks for your help too.