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I am about to buy a laptop (windows) computer for Chinese friends who
want Chinese character interface. They will use it for email and to
read Chinese newspapers, probably not much else.

I haven't owned a laptop but am familiar with desktop machines, so
firstly I would appreciate any comments on the differences. For
example I did once see a laptop which had a small partition with what
seemed like routines which on a desktop would be found in the bios
chips. Is this a common setup? Are there any other issues like this
which might trip up a person used to working with destop PCs? I will
be buying a new or not too old secondhand machine, I want to use
Norton Ghost on a separate partition in case of monumental suffup.

Secondly, about the Chinese interface. Is this something added only
to windows, or does it have to be installed for each application? Can
I easily switch back to the western character set (I will be helping
them from time to time).

Many thanks, John

On Wed, 09 Jun 2004 10:28:04 +1200, John Potter
<> wrote:

>I am about to buy a laptop (windows) computer for Chinese friends who
>want Chinese character interface. They will use it for email and to
>read Chinese newspapers, probably not much else.
>
>I haven't owned a laptop but am familiar with desktop machines, so
>firstly I would appreciate any comments on the differences. For
>example I did once see a laptop which had a small partition with what
>seemed like routines which on a desktop would be found in the bios
>chips. Is this a common setup? Are there any other issues like this
>which might trip up a person used to working with destop PCs? I will
>be buying a new or not too old secondhand machine, I want to use
>Norton Ghost on a separate partition in case of monumental suffup.
>
>Secondly, about the Chinese interface. Is this something added only
>to windows, or does it have to be installed for each application? Can
>I easily switch back to the western character set (I will be helping
>them from time to time).
>
>Many thanks, John

Any laptop you buy these days is just "a smaller desktop". Nothing
weird. Beware though, some maybe sold minus a battery and none have
bags (unless they chuck one in where you're buying). As for the
Chinese interface, XP has support for Chinese characters when it comes
to looking at web pages written in Chinese. I would imagine you can
enable a Chinese keyboard layout and maybe type in Chinese
characters..? The OS itself is going to be English however unless you
install an actual Chinese version of XP.

Do they really need "chinese interface" ?
And how they going to typing chinese?

Here's some "add-on" programs for using Chinese under Windows (Eng).
http://www.njstar.com/

Some computer stores may selling Chinese Windows, such as, e-one, inc.

Email me if help needed.


Cheers


"John Potter" <> wrote in message
news:...
> I am about to buy a laptop (windows) computer for Chinese friends who
> want Chinese character interface. They will use it for email and to
> read Chinese newspapers, probably not much else.
>
> I haven't owned a laptop but am familiar with desktop machines, so
> firstly I would appreciate any comments on the differences. For
> example I did once see a laptop which had a small partition with what
> seemed like routines which on a desktop would be found in the bios
> chips. Is this a common setup? Are there any other issues like this
> which might trip up a person used to working with destop PCs? I will
> be buying a new or not too old secondhand machine, I want to use
> Norton Ghost on a separate partition in case of monumental suffup.
>
> Secondly, about the Chinese interface. Is this something added only
> to windows, or does it have to be installed for each application? Can
> I easily switch back to the western character set (I will be helping
> them from time to time).
>
> Many thanks, John

On Wed, 09 Jun 2004 11:14:16 +1200, Dogg <> wrote:

>Any laptop you buy these days is just "a smaller desktop". Nothing
>weird. Beware though, some maybe sold minus a battery and none have
>bags (unless they chuck one in where you're buying). As for the
>Chinese interface, XP has support for Chinese characters when it comes
>to looking at web pages written in Chinese. I would imagine you can
>enable a Chinese keyboard layout and maybe type in Chinese
>characters..? The OS itself is going to be English however unless you
>install an actual Chinese version of XP.

Thanks. At the moment I'm trying to get a handle on what I need to
know.

John

On Wed, 9 Jun 2004 11:56:31 +1200, "TmcT" <>
wrote:

>Do they really need "chinese interface" ?
He is 69, she 65. They were professional in Beijing, she a
metallurgist, he an engineer so they are quite bright but their
English is limited and they are not too familiar with computers. They
will want to send Chinese language emails and maybe print letters to
friends. The Chinese interface was their daughter's idea (she lives
in Germany), but maybe it's not necessary.

>And how they going to typing chinese?
I think you can enable Chinese input on a US layout keyboard, they use
multiple keys - but I know very little about it. I think the
characters are 16 bits each rather than the 8 in western languages -
there are 2-3000 characters in the Chinese script.

>Here's some "add-on" programs for using Chinese under Windows (Eng).
>http://www.njstar.com/
>
>Some computer stores may selling Chinese Windows, such as, e-one, inc.
>
>Email me if help needed.
Thanks, I'll bear that in mind.

>Cheers
>
>
>"John Potter" <> wrote in message
>news:.. .
>> I am about to buy a laptop (windows) computer for Chinese friends who
>> want Chinese character interface. They will use it for email and to
>> read Chinese newspapers, probably not much else.
>>
>> I haven't owned a laptop but am familiar with desktop machines, so
>> firstly I would appreciate any comments on the differences. For
>> example I did once see a laptop which had a small partition with what
>> seemed like routines which on a desktop would be found in the bios
>> chips. Is this a common setup? Are there any other issues like this
>> which might trip up a person used to working with destop PCs? I will
>> be buying a new or not too old secondhand machine, I want to use
>> Norton Ghost on a separate partition in case of monumental suffup.
>>
>> Secondly, about the Chinese interface. Is this something added only
>> to windows, or does it have to be installed for each application? Can
>> I easily switch back to the western character set (I will be helping
>> them from time to time).
>>
>> Many thanks, John
>

You probably want to seek out a keyboard with chinese language characters on
it though! Also make sure you get the right type, tradition vs simplified -
that goes for the lang option in the OS too

"John Potter" <> wrote in message
news:...
>I am about to buy a laptop (windows) computer for Chinese friends who
> want Chinese character interface. They will use it for email and to
> read Chinese newspapers, probably not much else.
>
> I haven't owned a laptop but am familiar with desktop machines, so
> firstly I would appreciate any comments on the differences. For
> example I did once see a laptop which had a small partition with what
> seemed like routines which on a desktop would be found in the bios
> chips. Is this a common setup? Are there any other issues like this
> which might trip up a person used to working with destop PCs? I will
> be buying a new or not too old secondhand machine, I want to use
> Norton Ghost on a separate partition in case of monumental suffup.
>
> Secondly, about the Chinese interface. Is this something added only
> to windows, or does it have to be installed for each application? Can
> I easily switch back to the western character set (I will be helping
> them from time to time).
>
> Many thanks, John

I have worked on a few of these with difficulty (I am only Enlish speaking)
Keyboard is normal QWERTY but you have the chinese charactors also on the
keys.
OS is chinese.
All the prompts are in the normal place and I can install the OS and get
most drivers done as device manager is in its usual place.
However for any errors or need to setup some smarts you will need some-one
to read it to you

If you know windows well you should be able to do all the basics - otherwise
some of the local PC shops have asians that should be able to assist.

"John Potter" <> wrote in message
news:...
> I am about to buy a laptop (windows) computer for Chinese friends who
> want Chinese character interface. They will use it for email and to
> read Chinese newspapers, probably not much else.
>
> I haven't owned a laptop but am familiar with desktop machines, so
> firstly I would appreciate any comments on the differences. For
> example I did once see a laptop which had a small partition with what
> seemed like routines which on a desktop would be found in the bios
> chips. Is this a common setup? Are there any other issues like this
> which might trip up a person used to working with destop PCs? I will
> be buying a new or not too old secondhand machine, I want to use
> Norton Ghost on a separate partition in case of monumental suffup.
>
> Secondly, about the Chinese interface. Is this something added only
> to windows, or does it have to be installed for each application? Can
> I easily switch back to the western character set (I will be helping
> them from time to time).
>
> Many thanks, John

> You probably want to seek out a keyboard with chinese language characters
on
> it though! Also make sure you get the right type, tradition vs
simplified -
> that goes for the lang option in the OS too

Cant say I ever saw a keyboard with chinese characters on it while I was in
china. As far as Im aware they dont use them. They type using pinyin.
(think thats wot its called) All chinese characters are typed by how they
sound eg. chan, le etc..

I've installed chinese windows on several machines. Its a piece of cake if
you know all the prompts.

I'd say your friends will be able to sort out the software for typing, and
chinese windows is available on every shop corner in china...

"John Potter" <> wrote in message
news:...
> I am about to buy a laptop (windows) computer for Chinese friends who
> want Chinese character interface. They will use it for email and to
> read Chinese newspapers, probably not much else.
>
> I haven't owned a laptop but am familiar with desktop machines, so
> firstly I would appreciate any comments on the differences. For
> example I did once see a laptop which had a small partition with what
> seemed like routines which on a desktop would be found in the bios
> chips. Is this a common setup? Are there any other issues like this
> which might trip up a person used to working with destop PCs? I will
> be buying a new or not too old secondhand machine, I want to use
> Norton Ghost on a separate partition in case of monumental suffup.
>
> Secondly, about the Chinese interface. Is this something added only
> to windows, or does it have to be installed for each application? Can
> I easily switch back to the western character set (I will be helping
> them from time to time).
>
I am sure you can buy an external USB Chinese keyboard..any asian pc dealer
shop should be able to source one.

TmcT wrote:
> Do they really need "chinese interface" ?
> And how they going to typing chinese?

It's usually done with software that supports "Big-5" or
similar....where up to 5 key-strokes are required to compose a single
Chinese character.

The PC/Laptop would need to have double-byte character set support built
in....I think.