How to Convert Old Chinese Documents to Unicode-supported Documents ?
This page is in unicode. Please set character to UTF8.
(For Netscape, click View, Character Set and select Unicode UTF-8. For Internet Explorer, click View, Encoding and select Unicode UTF-8) 
Tianwei Xie
CSULB
txie@csulb.edu

Note: you must have unicode Chinese fonts to display characters. Your Word 2000 may already have them. If you can see the following lines in Chinese, you already have these fonts.

如果你能看見這行中文字﹐說明你已經有了中文繁體字體。
如果你能看见这行中文字,说明你已经有了中文简体字体。

Otherwise, go to http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/iebuild/ime5_win32/en/ime5_win32.htm to install these fonts.

After you have installed new unicode Chinese fonts, follow the following instructions.

1.Use Word (XP) open the old document. It looks like:
 
¶þ Ê® ÊÀ ¼Í¾ÅÊ® Äê ´ú ³õ£¬ Ëæ ×Å ÖÐ ¹ú ¹ú ÄÚ ¾­ ¼Ã ¸Ä ¸ï µÄ Éî Èë £¬ ÖÐ ¹ú Æó Òµ ºÍ ×Ê ±¾ ͬ ʱ ¿ª ʼ  ×ß Ïò º£ Í⣬ ²¢ Ѹ ËÙ È¡ µÃ ÁË Òý ÈË ×¢ Ä¿ µÄ ³É ¹¦¡£ È» ¶ø£¬ ÓÉ ÓÚ ¶à Äê À´ ±Õ ¹Ø Ëø ¹ú Õþ ²ß µÄ Ó° Ï죬 Õâ Ò» ³É ¹¦ ¹ý ³Ì ÖÐ µÄ ¶· Õù Ö® ¸´ ÔÓ£¬ Æð ²½ Ö® ά ¼è£¬ ³É ¹û µÃ À´ Ö® ²» Ò×£¬ Ôò ÒÑ ³¬ ³ö ÁË Ðí ¶à ¾Ö Íâ ÈË µÄ Ïë Ïó¡£  Êµ ¼Ê ÉÏ£¬

2.Save the file as .rtf file and exit.

3.Use NJSTAR Chinese Word Processor to open the .rtf file. If you don't have the program, click here to download the demo version. Select either simplified or tranditional character. 

4.Save and exit. Your file is converted! (The table in original document may be damaged.)

5.Use Word  to open the .rtf file again. You will see the following passage.
 
               紀九十初﹐  外﹐功。而﹐響﹐雜﹐艱﹐易﹐象。  

Note: Please do a careful proof-reading. Some characters may be incorrect, such as 步之 should be 步履艱難

 

Another easier way:

Copy unreadable text like ¶þ Ê® ÊÀ ¼Í¾ÅÊ® Äê ´ú ³õ£¬ Ëæ ×Å ÖÐ ¹ú ¹ú ÄÚ ¾­ ¼Ã ¸Ä ¸ï µÄ

Go to http://www.mandarintools.com/email.html and paste the string in the window. Click Fix and you will see the correct characters 二 十 世 纪九十 年 代 初, 随 着 中 国 国 内 经 济 改 革 的
 

Copy and paste it back to Word of Excel.


Updated January 2005