Webdesign | First Impressions

Posts Tagged ‘webdesign’

Type Set

Friday, June 4th, 2010

Type Set

How to configure the computer to read Foreign Languages

Small businesses or website owners who do not have the budgets for the location full-fledged website, you can still market to foreign cultures with little tricks to get around common cultural barriers. One of these barriers cultural, simply may be related to the different alphabets and "character sets. How do you communicate with a foreign country do not even can be written in the language?

A reader wrote me today with a question about the legibility of different language character sets. This question deserves more than a quick response.

Here's his question:

Russia We are adding to our website and our regular visitors have no Cyrillic type, so you can not see the area of Russia. Have you had this problem with any of the languages and if so is there any way to solve it without using files PDF or art?

There are two easy way out.

Using a PDF file

Save each page as images are the options

Both of these solutions allow most people to read Russian characters. But each has its drawbacks.

PDF files can be large and some users not to download a PDF.

The text of an image is just an image, so search engines will not find it.

Installing the Cyrillic type for Internet Explorer and Firefox

There is one thing to do first.

On the TU, make sure you identify its contents and in Cyrillic.

If you do not call the characters are in an alphabet different then you may see something like the following entry instead of Cyrillic letters:

::::::::::::::::::::::;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;???? ????????????????///////////////////

HTML code to use the character set Cyrillic (CHARSET below) is very important.

Here is what you need to insert the rest of their meta tags above the body of html code:

The need to use a different character set?

If you want to do this with a different character set, this is where you can get the complete list of Windows character sets. There is a link to the Microsoft site in the resource box at the end of this article.

How To configure the computer to read Foreign Languages

I will not tell you how to do this in all computer operating systems and all versions of these systems.

Here are changes you want to do in the two most common operating systems in use. The examples used are for Cyrillic.

In Windows XP

To see a different character set as the Russian

Go to your control and double Click "Regional and language that will open a window.

From this new window select "Advanced" and you will see a list of supported languages.

From this list select the language that matches the language version you want to view.

In the top of the list is Cyrillic, to be selected.

Further down the list there are other versions of the Cyrillic alphabet which must also be selected.

In addition, it is safer to include the Ukrainian language.

If you are doing this for languages using something rather than the Cyrillic alphabet, it is better to select more options than you think necessary – other people can make mistakes in the definition of their language.

To write in Russian:

Go to your control and double-click "Regional and Language ', which will open a window.

In this new window select "Languages" and then "Details."

When you click the Details "is open new window "Text Services and 'Input Languages.

In this window, select "Add" and a new window will open.

In this window, from the "Input language drop" from the dropdown menu select 'Russia'.

The "Keyboard layout / IME drop-down menu will change to Russia.

The results in the "Text Services and Languages entry "will be given an additional keyboard you can choose to write in Russian.

In Windows Vista

In Vista there is one process to read and write in a different character set.

In Control Panel, select "Regional Options icon and Language ', which will open a new window.

In this new window select "Keyboards" Languages, then "Change keyboards, "which opens a new window.

In the new window 'Add' (another window) and select from this last window 'Russia'.

You should now be able to write in Russian in Microsoft Word, Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, and many other applications. You can switch to 'Russia' by clicking the icon 'Ru' in the taskbar or using Alt + Shift to select your language.

And also, once you finish writing in Russian, you can return to English by clicking the 'In' or using Alt + Shift again.

In some programs such as AOL and earlier versions of Word (95) also will choose a specific Cyrillic font such as Arial Cyr.

More easier than it looks

Enabling your computer to view and read different character sets will make it easier for you to do research market and communicate in that language in particular and the country.

Remember that other teams outside the country in question can not be created for those languages. For solve this problem, you can use PDF files and images to convey their message in different character set.

In this way all readers will able to view your message, in Cyrillic, for example, instead of thinking that there is an error either in your website or your computer.

If it is committed to accelerating international sales cycles?

Learn how to combine cross-cultural marketing tools and international sales strategies for faster sales.

Join us in the Sales Roadmap International.

About the Author

Cindy King
Cross-Cultural Marketer & International Sales Specialist

Over 25 years field experience in aligning cultural offers for international sales.

International content strategy
Custom publishing in English to build international markets B2B international lead generation

40km south of Paris, France – GMT+1
Cell: +33 6 98 91 86 11
Follow me on Twitter
Get International Clients

E-Type feat. NaNa Hedin – Set the World on Fire