Messages Beta for Lion breaks my message composed in Chinese to fragments

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Messages Beta for Lion breaks my message composed in Chinese to fragments

Just installed the beta version of Messages for Lion. When I type my message in English, it can be well received by iOS devices, but when I type them in Chinese, the message is broken to random pieces and is received as several messages

Here is a screenshot from the sender:

but it is received as this:

As you can see, the message is broken. As tested, messages composed in English does not have this issue.

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Feb 16, 2012 10:55 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 16, 2012 2:58 PM in response to sunviva

Hi,

Turn Off Send as I type in either the Bonjour Account or any Yahoo account you have.

10:58 PM Thursday; February 16, 2012

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Lion 10.7.3)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

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Answer 2

sunviva Author

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Feb 16, 2012 3:56 PM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

Hi Ralph, thank you for your reply. I am only enabling and using the iMessage Service and I don't have any Yahoo account. I tried to enable Bonjour service but I could not find any options related to Send as I type.

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Answer 3

Feb 17, 2012 11:12 AM in response to sunviva

HI,

I did somewhat presume that this setting that was in the iChat version 2 through 6 would still be there for the Bonjour Account (It crosses over and effects any Yahoo Account in iChat 6).

As you say it is not in the current Bonjour Settings in iChat Menu > Preferences > Accounts > Bonjour.

Mine was not set before the change to Messages and is not sending this way at present.

My next thought would be those Chinese characters that take up two character data spaces.

Does changing the font help ?

7:12 PM Friday; February 17, 2012

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Lion 10.7.3)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

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Answer 4

sunviva Author

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Feb 17, 2012 12:25 PM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

Hi Ralph, very much appreciate your help. The message is normal now when I change to some Chinese font (cannot be any English font), it is sent in one message now. The painful thing is that when I copy/paste, I still have to change the font before sending.

I have visited some Chinese discussion forum and several people have reported the same problem. I guess it may be some sort of bug consider this is only a beta version.

Thanks for the help!

P.S. I checked the settings for Messages Beta, under Accounts/Bonjour there are only three check boxes: enable bonjour instant messaging, publish my email and instant message addresses, block other from seeing my status as idle. They must have changed the setting how.

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Answer 5

Feb 17, 2012 12:49 PM in response to sunviva

Hi,

I am glad that you have found a font that works.

Apple are likely to be keeping some sort of eye on theses discussions.

Would you mind listing the font you had problems with.

If Copying and Pasting is having issues as well which Keystrokes are you using ?

See Messages > Edit Menu > Copy Style and Paste Style

Or are you saying it is keeping the Font it was written in from the Copy document ?

8:49 PM Friday; February 17, 2012

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Lion 10.7.3)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Reply

Answer 6

sunviva Author

Level 1

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Feb 17, 2012 1:04 PM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

Hi, I was using Helvetica and I also tried using Tahoma, these are English fonts and they do not work, I figure other English fonts would not work and I did not bother to try. But I later changed to STSong, which is a widely used Chinese font and it works. Similarly STHeiti and STfangsong also work. My guess is that all fonts starts with "ST" can work.

Sorry if I did not make myself clear on the copy/paste. The copy/paste function works fine and it is just an extra step I have to take for copied text. There is no bother if I type. Messages seem to keep the font of the copied text thus if the copied text is in Helvetica, I have to manually convert it to STSong so that it can be received correctly. Hope this explains my last reply.

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Answer 7

Feb 17, 2012 2:17 PM in response to sunviva

Hi,

Fonts is not my strong point.

Are you saying that you can type Chinese Characters in Helvetica ? (or Tahoma)

Or are you saying that in Messages > Preferences > Messages you had Helvetica chosen but in the Format menu you were changing it for that IM ?

10:17 PM Friday; February 17, 2012

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Lion 10.7.3)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Reply

Answer 8

sunviva Author

Level 1

0 points

Feb 17, 2012 2:35 PM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

Hi Ralph, strange as it may seem, I indeed can type Chinese in Helvetica or any English fonts. One possibility might be that Apple automatically converts the Chinese character to some other compatible font type.

In my understanding, as long as the sent text are encoded in a Chinese font (whether you chose it in the preference panel or type and change), it can be received as fragments.

So the problem of receiving fragmented messages can be solved by either changing the font type in the preference panel as suggested in your reply or one can change the typed text to a Chinese font then send.

Thanks

Best

Weihua

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Answer 9

Feb 17, 2012 2:42 PM in response to sunviva

Hi,

It does seem strange that the behaviour has changed.

If it worked in iChat I would have thought it would have worked in Messages.

As you may remember I did say that the Bonjour Account inniChat 6 (and earlier) could be set to Send As I Type and this seemed to cross over if you used a Yahoo account in iChat 6.x.x (Messages is coded as version 6.1 already meaning it is using the iChat "Engine" if you like).

AIM (for PCs at least) have for a long time also offere "Real Time" which is Send as I type stuff but is not compatible with iChat.

I have not seen anything that suggest that Messages is picking up on this feature.

Currently I have no real explanation.

Glad you have found a work around.

10:42 PM Friday; February 17, 2012

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Lion 10.7.3)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Reply