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So I'm ready to test-drive Windows Vista. What next?

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Many of our Windows Vista beta testers contact us excited to be test-driving the beta but wondering what to look for. I thought it might be nice to share here the test cases that we give interested beta testers. If you try these test cases and you have feedback for us on any aspect of our basic NLS/language enablement support, please let me know either in the comments section here or by sending me email directly.

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NLS data testing for Beta partners

 

This is a collection of usage scenarios that beta testers might like to try in order to verify that their locale data is correct.

 

Fonts

 

If you do one thing: Look at sample representative strings and longer pieces of text in Notepad in Vista (or in XP with ClearType turned on) at 8pt (Office UI) and 9pt (Vista UI). Are the strings readable?

If you do more: For Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek, the font to look at is Segoe UI. Look at all four styles (the italic, bold and bold italic as well as the regular). Identify any bad character shapes, or unacceptable clipping of diacritics. If you can do more, also check out strings using Microsoft Sans Serif and MS UI Gothic.

In Vista, one good way to test the UI font is by creating/renaming folders with strings set in the relevant languages.

Keyboards

If you do one thing: Make sure that you can select the keyboards that are important for your locale. Type using the keyboard you have selected and make sure that the output matches what you expect from the layout.

If you do more: Verify that the keyboards for your locale match the standards that you expect to find.

Regional Options

If you do one thing: Open up Regional Options and change your user locale. Is your locale on the list? Is it in the form that you expect? Are the sample data displayed what you expect?

If you do more: Click customize in Regional Options. Are the default values what you expect?

Are you able to edit and save these values?

Change your user locale (Standards and Formats) setting and save settings. Does your formatting change as you expect it to (e.g. in Windows calendar)?

Are the date formats that you expect available? Are there any errors in month or day day names?

If you speak a language that uses genitive forms for month names, are the month names displayed correctly in date strings?

Open up your Windows calendar. Does it look like you expect it to?

Sorting

If you do one thing: Create several filenames using characters from your language. Do they sort properly in Explorer?

If you do more: Create a list of words using characters from your language in Word or Excel. Sort the list. Does it sort properly?

 

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If you try any of this stuff and have feedback for us on what we're doing right and not right, please let me know!

Comments

  • Anonymous
    August 01, 2006
    Hi Kieran,

    Here is my Bulgarian Locale feedback about Windows Vista Beta 2 (5384.4). I've used the Microsoft Locale Builder Beta tool to view the data. So, the feedback:

    Windows Vista Beta 2 --> MUST BE

    Numbers
    Number Symbols
    Positive infinity symbol: + безкрайност --> +∞
    Negative infinity symbol: - безкрайност --> -∞
    Not a number (NaN): NaN --> НеН

    Currency
    Names and Symbols
    Currency native name: България лев --> лев
    Currency symbol: BGL --> BGN

    Time
    Long Time Pattern: HH:mm 'ч.' --> HH:mm:ss 'ч.' OR   HH:mm:ss tt 'ч.' (where AM and PM are zero strings '', as they're now)
    Short Time Pattern: HH:mm --> HH:mm 'ч.'
    H:mm --> H:mm 'ч.'
    Time Formating
    Duration time pattern: HH:mm:ss --> H ч. m мин. s сек.
    Gregorian month names
    Month names
    Abbreviated month names ян --> ян.
    февр --> февр.
    март --> март
    май --> май
    юни --> юни
    юли --> юли
    авг --> авг.
    септ --> септ.
    окт --> окт.
    ноември --> ноем.
    дек --> дек.

    Genetive month names ян --> ян.
    февр --> февр.
    март --> март
    май --> май
    юни --> юни
    юли --> юли
    авг --> авг.
    септ --> септ.
    окт --> окт.
    ноември --> ноем.
    дек --> дек.
    Day names
    Day names
    Abbreviated day names пон --> пн
    вт --> вт
    ср --> ср
    четв --> чт
    пет --> пт
    съб --> сб
    нед --> нд
    Font signature
    OEM
    OEM code pages: - --> MIK, the REAL Bulgarian OEM code page !!! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIK_Code_page)
    866 --> 866
    855 --> 855

    Regards,
    Ivan petrov.

  • Anonymous
    August 01, 2006
    One more mistake, I'm really sorry:

    Duration time pattern: HH:mm:ss --> H 'ч.' m 'мин.' s 'сек.'

    Regards,
    Ivan.

  • Anonymous
    August 01, 2006
    One more mistake, I'm really sorry:

    Duration time pattern: HH:mm:ss --> H 'ч.' m 'мин.' s 'сек.'

    Regards,
    Ivan.

  • Anonymous
    August 01, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 01, 2006
    Hi again Kieran,

    I saw that you've already moderated my posts, so thank you for that!
    I'll beg you if it's not a problem to replace the entries from the first post with the etries listed below and then delete the 2. and 3. posts an leave only the 1. and 4. posts. Thank you in advance. I was so tired last nigh, so I made a couple of mistakes in my posts. I'm really sorry again. So here are the entries that I would like to change in the first post:

    Not a number (NaN): NaN --> НеЧ, which cames from 'Не е Число' which means exactly Not a number
    Currency native name: България лев --> лев, OR български лев, but the first one is exactly the native name of the currency as you ask every Bulgarian would tell you!
    Duration time pattern: HH:mm:ss --> H 'ч.' m 'мин.' s 'сек.'

    Thank you in advance!

    Please, also delete this post after making the replacements.

    With best regards,
    Ivan Petrov.

  • Anonymous
    November 24, 2006
    I found that even in the version of Microsoft Windows Vista Beta 2 and testing for Final release, the Phonetic keyboard is not absolutely correct and 5-6 letters are absolutely messed. I dunno whethter others have met some problem, however "ь" were supposed to be "ю"; "ю" were supposed to be "ч" and reciprocaly. So any fixes or ideas how to fix that on my own are welcome.

  • Anonymous
    January 08, 2007
    Well, in the interim,MSKLC provides a great workaround, since it lets you modify an existing layout according to your specifications. If you would like to send me the modified layout detailing your suggestions, I'll make sure that it gets a proper review!

  • Anonymous
    March 16, 2007
    There is already a "Legacy" Phonetic layout available @ http://www.geocities.com/stanio/kbdbu/phonetic.html P.S. The author have even given the source so it can be further modified ...

  • Anonymous
    June 08, 2009
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