At 10:29 PM 12/12/2003 +0800, you wrote:

>Hi Helen.
>
>I will try your suggestion in your first reply. You have mention about
>decoding ... when you say decoding ... what does it do? What's bothering
>me is the excel can be view correctly under english windows system using
>a CJK viewer but on chinese windows it appears to be garbage. Is this
>the decoding you're mentioning?

Yes it is; but from what you are describing, it sounds as if, on the
English Windows, your viewer did the right decoding, while your Chinese
Windows can't decode it. As Ivan suggested, you'd need to find out what
character set your application on the Chinese Windows is expecting.

Could you perhaps set up a small test database, setting GB_2312 as the
default character set, setting the client as GB_2312, and input some test
data to some varchars? The IB_SQL tool (free: www.ibobjects.com) can
export in Excel format; it would be quick.

/h