Expert: Bill DeShawn - 1/26/2011

Question
How can I copy Chinese text from Excel or Word to display properly in Auto-CAD 2002? I am trying to do some English to Chinese translations on the drawings. All translations were done in Excel 2000 or Word 2000. I have tried saving in different formats such  ".txt" & ".rtf" & several other formats but that didn't work either. It doesn't seem to matter what type of text editor is used. I have tried several different fonts. I have gotten the text to show-up in Multiline text, but only one line. If I try to have more than one line then all of the Chinese text disappears.
Thanks for any help you can provide.

Answer
Jeff:
Except for upgrading your AutoCAD and Windows platform, there isn't very much out there with a solution to your problem.  I'm sure you've run into this problem as well in your search for a solution.  The problem is age-old and attempts to solve it were left open-ended and without replies.  Although I am not able to solve the problem with your current software, I believe I can offer you a work-around that will allow you to display the characters.  
    Since you are able to see these docuements fully in Word and Excel, open them in that program, in a normal window (not maximized).  Stretch the window until it fully displays the page you want to import into AutoCAD.
    There are two methods to capture your screen output to the clipboard.  Pressing "PrtScn" on your keyboard will capture everything on your display.  Pressing "Alt+PrtScn" will capture the current active window.  So make sure your Word or Excel window is active and then press "Alt+PrtScn".
    Now, open Windows Paint (MSPAINT or PBRUSH).  Press "Ctrl+V" to paste the contents of the clipboard into Windows Paint.  You could have pasted the image directly into AutoCAD, and it would have come in as an OLE image, but you might eventually lose it when you clean up your computer and erase object in your temporary folders.  That assumption is a little "iffy", but regardless, actual referencing of a file is much safer in the long run.
    So, instead, do the following:  Save the image as a JPG file in Windows Paint as a JPG file in your project folder that you're working in for your drawings.  Use the IMAGE or if available use the IMAGEATTACH command to attach the image to your drawing.  Scale it appropriately (you can use grips) and then use IMAGECLIP (if available in AutoCAD 2002) to clip the image and clean up the outer edges so you see only the "paper" and not the menu from Word or Excel.
The Chinese text will be reduced to graphics and will not be recognized as font and the only way to edit it is in Word or Excel and after every time you edit it you will have to make a new image as described above to reference it in AutoCAD.  The good part is that no matter what version of AutoCAD and Windows you have, you can't lose the Chinese characters this way.

Let me know how it goes.

Bill DeShawn
http://my.sterling.net/~bdeshawn