SAP Knowledge Base Article - Public

1308057 - How to display Thai characters in the RDC viewer at runtime in a Visual Basic 6 application

Symptom

A Crystal Report uses Thai characters that are stored in a database. The database field is formatted to use the Arial font.

At runtime in a Visual Basic 6 (VB6) application the Thai characters are not displayed correctly in the Report Designer Component's (RDC) Viewer.

Exporting to the Word/RTF format from the viewer displays the Thai characters correctly.

Environment

Crystal Reports XI (v11.0)

Reproducing the Issue

Create a Crystal Report that is using a database field to pass Thai characters to a report.

Right click on the database field and click on Format Field. Select the Arial font.

Save the report and view it through the RDC viewer at runtime in a VB6 application.

The Thai characters will display incorrectly.

Cause

This issue is seen because the Arial font is not a Unicode compliant font. The Arial font can not display the Thai characthers correctly in the RDC viewer.

Resolution

In order to display the Thai characters at runtime in the RDC viewer you need to change the font to a Unicode compliant version of the Arial font - Arial Unicode MS. 

The Arial Unicode MS font is available on systems that have Microsoft Office installed.

  1. Launch the Office installer through Add / Remove Programs and click on the Change option.
  2. Select the Add or Remove Features option.
  3. Select the Word program.
  4. Also select the "Choose advanced customization of applications" option.
  5. Go to the Office Shared Features area and click on the plus sign.
  6. Click on the plus sign next to International Support.
  7. Click the icon next to Universal Font and select to entire the feature.

This will add the Arial Unicode MS font to the system.

Once the Arial Unicode MS font is installed go back to the report in Crystal Reports.

  1. Right click on the database field.
  2. Click on Format Field.
  3. Select the Font tab.
  4. Change the font to Arial Unicode MS.
  5. Save the report.

The database field will now display the Thai font properly at runtime in the RDC's viewer.

Keywords

VB6, Visual Basic 6, RDC, viewer, crviewer, runtime, fonts , KBA , BI-DEV , Business Intelligence Software Development Kits (SDKs) , How To

Product

SAP Crystal Reports XI ; SAP Crystal Reports XI R2