Treòraiche
Unicode - A Guide to Unicode
Why
Unicode?
Did you ever get garbled email with things like "Fàilte gu
Dùn Éideann"? Most likely you have
and you might even be so used to it by now that you figured the above
reads "Fàilte gu Dùn Éideann" without any trouble.
Different encodings are used by different language communities simply
because they use other letters - not only accents but completely
different letters at times, such as Greek, Russian, Chinese and so
on. There are a great many of them and sometimes your computer has
to "translate" between them ... and most of the time that goes wrong
- and you have the garble. Unicode encodes in an entirely
different way - there is exactly one codepoint for each letter that
people anywhere in the world use - from Sanskrit syllables to the old
Gaelic letters. So your poor computer doesn't have to translate
anymore ... and you don't get the garble (in theory anyway).
Since we use special IPA symbols, we need Unicode as an encoding - so
the letters display properly for you.
Simply do the following and your PC will be Unicode compliant in about
10 minutes (since you have to restart your PC in the process, you might
want to print out this page).
1) You have to download a Unicode font. You have a choice of two, - Lucida Sans Unicode
(which has Latin letters and the IPA symbols) and Arial
Unicode (which covers the whole of Unicode2.0 - quite a large file -
23kb). Both will do the job. If you use Office2000, you don't
need to download a font but you will need to do the following:
2) Either
your Windows95/98 CD or this file Lang.exe
(scroll down to Multilanguage Support and click on Lang.exe) and save it
on your hard drive. If you are using WinXP, you don't need to do this
because it already uses Unicode.
3) Once you
have all you need, do the following (if you have the Windows95/98 CD, go to 4):
> click on START
>
RUN
> BROWSE
> find the folder which contains Lang.exe
> click on it once
> click OK.
The programme will now install. You will have to restart your PC before it will
work.
> go to 5)
4) If
you are using your Windows95/98 CD, do the following:
> insert your CD
> close any windows that pop up on their own
> click on START
> click on SETTINGS
> click on CONTROL PANEL
> click on ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMMES twice
> click on WINDOWS SETUP
> wait a bit
> scroll down and tick the MULTILANGUAGE SUPPORT box
> click OK.
The programme
will now install. You will have to restart your PC before it will
work.
> go to 5) (click here if you use
Office2000)
5) When your PC is ready, you will need to install the font:
> click on START
> click on SETTINGS
> click on CONTROL PANEL
> click on FONTS twice
> click on FILE
> click on INSTALL NEW FONT
> choose the folder in which you stored the font file you downloaded (Lucida
Sans Unicode or Arial Unicode)
> click on the name of the font
> click on OK.
The programme
will now install.
You do not need to restart your PC.
You are all set to go now. Return to Fhuaimean
na Gàidhlig
Users
of Office2000:
The Arial Unicode font os on the Office2000 CD. You still have to
follow steps 3 & 4. Afterwards, install the font like this:
> insert your OFFICE2000
CD (the
first CD)
> click on START
> click on SETTINGS
> click on CONTROL PANEL
> click on ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMMES twice
> click on OFFICE2000
> click on ADD/REMOVE
FEATURES
> click on OFFICE
TOOLS
> check the INTERNATIONAL
SUPPORT box
and choose RUN
ALL FROM MY COMPUTER
> click on OK
> The programme
will now install. You will have to restart your PC before it will
work.
Caveat!
Your browser should recognize the encoding as Unicode on its own, but if
you still get garble, do the following:
Netscape Navigator
> click on VIEW
> click on CHARACTER
SET
> click on UNICODE
(UTF-8)
> reload the page - the characters should display properly now.
Internet Explorer
> click on VIEW
> click on ENCODING
> click on UNICODE (UTF-8)
> reload the page - the characters should display properly now.
If
you continue to have difficulties, write
to us and we will try to help you
