Adding language support

From HelpDeskWiki

Microsoft Windows and your internet browser both support the entry and display of multiple languages.

Browser

Configuring your browser is fairly simple. To do so, click on Tools, then, for Internet Explorer, click Internet Options, and for Firefox, click Options. Then, click the Languages button on the General tab. By default, the language that appears is the language for the market that your version of Windows was sold in. Thus, if your version of Windows was sold in the United States, the default language for IE is "English (United States) [en-us]". If you live in the US and speak Spanish, you can click the Add button and select "Spanish (United States) [es-us]" or "Spanish [es]".

Once you have multiple languages in the list, you can put them in order of preference. Once done, your browser will then request pages in your preferred languages. If none of the languages that you want are available, or if the site is not set up properly, then you will get the default language for the site.

Windows

For Windows, go to the Regional and Language Options icon in Control Panel. Click on the Languages tab, then the Details button. Here, you can click the Add button to select another language that you'll want to use to enter text. You also get to choose the keyboard layout, since different countries often have keyboards laid out different even for the same language. Thus, if you are in the United States and adding German to the list of languages, you'll probably want to select the standard US keyboard layout. As an example, if you select German keyboard layout, but you are using a standard US keyboard, if you attempt to type "~!@#$%^&*()_", you'll get "°!"§$%&/()=?" instead. On the other hand, selecting a German keyboard layout will let you use accents more easily (such as âÂáÁ), once you memorize the new meanings of the keys.

Once you have multiple languages and/or keyboards listed, the Key Settings button is enabled, which allows you to select what keystrokes to use to switch from one language/layout to another.

If the Language Bar button is disabled, click on the Advanced tab, and UNcheck "Turn off advanced text services". Be warned that unchecking this can cause your computer to run noticeably slower, if you have speech recognition and handwriting recognition installed. Once the button is enabled, you can use it to display the Language Bar, and also to display a language icon and keyboard icon, as appropriate, which you can use to switch between languages and keyboards instead of keystrokes. If using keystrokes is sufficient for you, you do not need to turn on advanced text services.

One interesting feature of the language bar is that some programs can change it automatically to match what you had the last time you used the program. For instance, if German was active last time you used Outlook Express, Outlook Express will temporarily change the language setting back to German next time you open it.

This web page will show you what each keyboard looks like; note that the shift, ctrl, alt, and AltGr keys work, as appopriate: http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/reference/keyboards.mspx

Windows messages

If you want your Windows messages to be in a different language, you will need to find, purchase, and install the appropriate version. Depending upon what market you are in, and what version you want, this may entail some difficulty.