General Information on Language Computing
1. Language input works with each application instance
This means that each time you start an application or begin a new document the default language will be English. If you have one document open in one language and another in a different language, then each instance should maintain its selected language input method. It may be necessary to reselect the language input method if you are changing between documents written in different languages.
2. Using the QWERTY keyboard
For users who usually use keyboard stickers and are unsure of the correct keys to hit, there is an on-screen keyboard for inputting text in Win2000 which can be found under:
START->Programs->Accessories->Accessibility->On Screen Keyboard
On the Mac, click on the flag at the top of your screen and then choose ‘Show Character Pallet’ from the drop-down list.
3. Joining characters – Hindi, Arabic, Thai, Greek (Languages using ligatures)
Languages requiring ligatures (links which join letters) and languages that re-order, join or swap characters to create a new character, may experience problems with complex applications such as MS Word.
These languages will work in simple applications like Notepad or WordPad. However, these simple applications do not allow for much in the way of formatting and will only allow one font to be selected for each document.
4. Using Fonts – making characters display correctly
As a general rule, if you don’t know what font to use, choose ‘Arial Unicode MS’ to input text on a PC. Arial Unicode is one of the most complete Unicode compliant font sets on Windows and works in most languages.
All Mac OSX fonts are Unicode fonts but not all applications can accept Unicode input methods. For example MS Word on Mac will accept Japanese input, but will not accept Chinese or Korean input properly. If you are going to create a document on OSX and give it to someone who uses Windows 2000, you should let them know that they need to select all text and change to Arial Unicode or another Unicode compliant Windows font.
5. Using Fonts – How do I find out what fonts are available for the language I want to use?
On the PC, open Internet Explorer and choose ‘Internet Options’ from the tools menu. Click the ‘Fonts’ button. If you select the language from the drop-down menu at the top of the panel, you will see all fonts that can be used with that language in both the web browser and for input in a text document.
On Mac OSX, click on the flag at the top of your screen and then choose ‘Show Character Pallet’ from the drop-down list. In the character pallet, click the check box next to the label ‘Show only fonts containing selected character’. You can then select a character and click the ‘font’ drop-down menu to see all fonts that contain that character.
Using the Browser
The default browser for the Information Commons PCs and Macs is Internet Explorer.
Most web pages are encoded to display the correct font automatically, but some are not. If a web page is not displaying correctly in Internet Explorer, use the ‘View’ menu and choose ‘encoding’ – then select either ‘Unicode (UTF8)’ – or the next appropriate language which makes the page display correctly.
Netscape Navigator 6.2 has not yet had the multi-lingual options enabled.
Using WebCT
Some features do work with some languages. Expect mixed results depending on the language. For assistance regarding WebCT go to http://webct.anu.edu.au/login/problems.html
Using e-mail
The standard email application on Information Commons PCs is Eudora. Unfortunately this version of Eudora is not currently compatible with language options.
To send emails in languages other than English, we recommend sending the mail as a WordPad or MS Word attachment.
Saving files
The golden rule here is ALWAYS save files with English file names.
While applications such as MS Word appear to be able to handle filenames in any language, the server will change the file name and you may not be able to find your documents.
Using languages between Mac and PC
If Unicode fonts are used, most languages are cross compatible. However, there are anomalies with each language input mechanism.
As a general rule, documents saved on a PC in WordPad (rtf), which use ‘Arial Unicode MS’, will open correctly in Mac OS9 or OSX. However this is not always the case. With a few exceptions, MS Word does not handle all languages well on both operating systems. For the best results Mac OSX TextEdit and Windows WordPad (rtf) file formats are compatible for most languages.
TIP: Most cross-compatibility issues are caused by font incompatibility. For example, often if text in a Word document is not displaying correctly, by highlighting the text and changing fonts, the text can be made readable.
More Help
For more help, ask a student consultant or speak to staff at InfoPlace@Menzies 1pm – 4pm Tuesday and Thursday.
During library opening hours you may ask Library Staff in the RG Menzies Building for assistance using Asian languages.
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