Back to Contents Installing Cyrillic keyboards in Windows XP or Vista Customizing your keyboard Typing Cyrillic on other people's computers Cyrillic in GW computer labs Cyrillic in Internet browsers Additional issues (Windows system fonts) Russian E-Mail Inserting stress marks in Cyrillic |
CYRILLICIZE
WINDOWS
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Back to Contents Installing Cyrillic keyboards in Windows XP or Vista Customizing your keyboard Typing Cyrillic on other people's computers Cyrillic in GW computer labs Cyrillic in Internet browsers Additional issues (Windows system fonts) Russian E-Mail Inserting stress marks in Cyrillic
Back to Contents Installing Cyrillic keyboards in Windows XP or Vista Customizing your keyboard Typing Cyrillic on other people's computers Cyrillic in GW computer labs Cyrillic in Internet browsers Additional issues (Windows system fonts) Russian E-Mail Inserting stress marks in Cyrillic |
RUSSIAN KEYBOARDS IN XP AND VISTAIn the GW labs, Cyrillic keyboards layouts are already installed. Skip this section and go to Cyrillic in GW Computer Labs. Important! For
some versions of XP, you need the original Windows disk! Step 1. Go to regional options. Open Start -> Settings -> Control Panel and then open Regional Options -> Languages -> Details.
Scroll through the list and look for Cyrillic. You might be prompted to insert your original Windows CD, although for most computers this will not happen.
Finally, you can create a shortcut key to switch between languages while typing. In the dialog pictured above (Start -> Settings -> Control Panel and then open Regional Options -> Languages -> Details) click Key Settings. The default switch between languages. Is Alt-Shift. You can change it to Ctrl-Shift if you wish. There is also a setting for switching keyboards within a language (for example, English users could switch between the QWERTY keyboard and the Dvorak keyboard). For the time being, don't bother with this setting. Let it be whatever Widows wants it to be. You now have a Russian keyboard… But… Does the Microsoft Russian keyboard
seems to be chaotic...?
Many students prefer a phonetic keyboard that more or less follows English,
like this:
Which should you use? If you plan to spend time in Russia on a study tour and/or an internship, you'll eventually have to learn the real Russian "Gosstandart" keyboard. So why not start now. On the other hand, if you will will not be using computers in Russia, you can safely stick to the QWERTY phonetic keyboard, shown immediately above. How to switch keyboard layouts. How to switch layouts depends on how old your computer is. Some versions of Vista, Apple OS 10.x, and Linux have shown up with Phonetic keyboard options. If when installing a keyboard, you see a Russian Phonetic option, and you want that keyboard, choose it, and you're done. But if that option is not available, try either of these sites:
winrus.com - Paul Gorodyansky's comprehensive site. It covers just about every known issue with Cyrillic for Windows and Vista. This site also features a virtual keyboard: you can type Cyrillic on a public (Internet cafe) computer without installing a thing!
Russian for Gringos offers phonetic keyboard layouts for XP, Vista, and Linux.
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Back to Contents Installing Cyrillic keyboards in Windows XP or Vista Customizing your keyboard Typing Cyrillic on other people's computers Cyrillic in GW computer labs Cyrillic in Internet browsers Additional issues (Windows system fonts) Russian E-Mail Inserting stress marks in Cyrillic |
CUSTOMIZING KEYBOARDSIf you don't like any of the keyboard layouts currently available, you can make your own. Download Microsoft's Keyboard Layout Creator, MSKLC 1.4. Step 1. If you are running Vista, skip this step and go to Step 2.
Download and install
Step 3. Run MSKLC. Step 4. File => Load existing keyboard. Find the keyboard you want to
modify. When done, Step 5. Project => Build DLL and Setup package - MSKLC creates the DLL and installation package. Pay attention to where this file is being saved. It will be in a sub-folder of the place where you saved the .klc file from Step 4. Step 6. Find the setup file in the sub-folder that was created
it Step 5. Run setup. Then enjoy your new keyboard. If your new keyboard doesn't
show up immediately. Go to Control Panel / Regional and Language Options -
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Back to Contents Installing Cyrillic keyboards in Windows XP or Vista Customizing your keyboard Typing Cyrillic on other people's computers Cyrillic in GW computer labs Cyrillic in Internet browsers Additional issues (Windows system fonts) Russian E-Mail Inserting stress marks in Cyrillic |
TYPING RUSSIAN ON OTHER PEOPLE’S COMPUTERSYou're at work. For some strange reason, your employer doesn't agree to let you modify the Windows registry of the company's system to install Cyrillic. (How closed-minded of them!) Never fear. You can use a temporary on-screen keyboard to write Cyrillic – either phonetically or on the Gosstandart keyboard. The only inconvenience is that you have to write the text you want on screen and then copy and paste it into whatever you want (e-mail, Word document, etc.) This service is available through Paul Gorodyansky's On-Screen Cyrillic Keyboard. |
Back to Contents Installing Cyrillic keyboards in Windows XP or Vista Customizing your keyboard Typing Cyrillic on other people's computers Cyrillic in GW computer labs Cyrillic in Internet browsers Additional issues (Windows system fonts) Russian E-Mail Inserting stress marks in Cyrillic |
RUSSIAN IN INTERNET BROWSERSInternet browsers for Windows (Internet Explorer, Mozilla, and Mozilla Firefox) come configured to be able to read Cyrillic. However, occasionally you'll hit a page that is supposed to be in Russian, but comes out in gibberish. This section shows you what to do in those circumstances. Overview of the
problem. For English letters, all modern computers use the
same encoding system. For example, a capital English A is
always ANSI code 65 (or to the computer's binary way of counting
1000001). However, for Russian, there are three commonly used
encodings: Windows Cyrillic (1251), KOI8r, and Unicode.
Most webpages contain information that tells the browser which
encoding to use. But occasionally, that information is missing or for
some reason, the browser misinterprets it. When that happens, you
have to set the encoding manually. Changing the encoding in a browser
is not permanent. It can be easily reversed. Here are some
examples of common problems:
Problem 2. Lots of Cyrillic uppercase gibberish:
Problem 3. All question marks (???????????). The browser thinks the document is in Unicode. Try Windows Cyrillic (1251). If that doesn't work, try KOI8r.
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Back to Contents Installing Cyrillic keyboards in Windows XP or Vista Customizing your keyboard Typing Cyrillic on other people's computers Cyrillic in GW computer labs Cyrillic in Internet browsers Additional issues (Windows system fonts) Russian E-Mail Inserting stress marks in Cyrillic |
ADDITIONAL ISSUES: WINDOWS SYSTEM FONTS IN MENUS AND TITLE BARSEven if you have successfully completed all the steps above, you may seem some problems with Cyrillic in certain programs or in parts of programs. Specifically, European accented characters or question marks might replace Cyrillic in
> the title bars and status bars of programs For example...
1. Start
-> Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options ->
Advanced After this operation, you will be able to see everything in Cyrillic. You can even give your files legitimate Cyrillic names. Just remember that if you copy a Cyrillic-named file to a computer whose owner has not made this change, the filename will be unreadable. One other caution, after making this change, menus in European languages may have Cyrillic letters in place of accented letter. For example, a Spanish language whose title bar has a word with an accented e, might have a Russian zh instead.
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Back to Contents Installing Cyrillic keyboards in Windows XP or Vista Customizing your keyboard Typing Cyrillic on other people's computers Cyrillic in GW computer labs Cyrillic in Internet browsers Additional issues (Windows system fonts) Russian E-Mail Inserting stress marks in Cyrillic |
CYRILLIC IN GW COMPUTER LABS
If you find you are missing the correct keyboard, activate it by doing the following:
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Back to Contents Installing Cyrillic keyboards in Windows XP or Vista Customizing your keyboard Typing Cyrillic on other people's computers Cyrillic in GW computer labs Cyrillic in Internet browsers Additional issues (Windows system fonts) Russian E-Mail Inserting stress marks in Cyrillic |
RUSSIAN E-MAILWEB-BASED E-MAIL. All the popular web-based e-mail programs (Gmail, Hotmail, MSN-Mail, Yahoo) support Cyrillic by default. However, occasionally, you have to tweak a setting. Russian e-mail usually works best when you are sending in UTF-8 and Formatted Mail (also known as "Rich-format," "HTML"; in other words, NOT "plain text") Go to your mail's help screen and search for UTF-8. Make sure that everything, especially outgoing mail, is set to that. This will not in any way affect e-mail sent to you in other foreign languages.
Most e-mail systems are smart enough to figure out how to display Cyrillic properly without additional coaxing. A hidden line of code in the e-mail header usually tells the e-mail program or browser how the Cyrillic is encoded.
Sometimes, you can restore murdered Russian by adjusting how your e-mail program displays the Russian... If you see lots of European accented vowels, mostly lowercase, hit View=>Encoding=>Cyrillic - Windows. This will return you to your mailbox inbox. (If it doesn't, hit View=>Encoding=>Cyrillic - Windows again.) Now click on the message again. It should come out in Cyrillic. If you see mostly uppercase European accented vowels, hit View=>Encoding=>Cyrillic KOI-R. This will return you to your mailbox inbox. (If it doesn't, hit View=>Encoding=>Cyrillic KOI-R again.) Now click on the message again. It should come out in Cyrillic.
"MY INSTITUTION DOES NOT SUPPORT CYRILLIC E-MAIL!" Yes, this happens. There was a time when even a famous Russian-related research oragnization could not read e-mails sent by Russian colleagues. But there's always a fix — a way that you can send and receive mail using your institutional e-mail address. The solution below is given for Gmail, which is the default e-mail carrier for the George Washington University. However, a similar solution may work for other Web-based e-mail systems like Yahoo or MSN mail.
Assume for a moment that you are someone@state_university.edu.
You're done. From now on, you're using Cyrillic-friendly Gmail. But your identity is still someone@state_university.edu.
BUT I STILL SEE CYRILLIC AS ????? ???? ?? ??????! If you see question marks or little boxes instead of Cyrillic letters, someone is trying to send you Russian from an old e-mail system (like Wisemail) that does not support Cyrillic. Делать нечего! You have to send them to this page and have them switch e-mail systems.
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Back to Contents Installing Cyrillic keyboards in Windows XP or Vista Customizing your keyboard Typing Cyrillic on other people's computers Cyrillic in GW computer labs Cyrillic in Internet browsers Additional issues (Windows system fonts) Russian E-Mail Inserting stress marks in Cyrillic |
INSERTING STRESS MARKS INTO CYRILLICThere are two strategies for doing stress (accent) marks in Russian Cyrillic. Method 1 (Vremya Accent), limited to Times New Roman (or very similar-looking fonts) uses a special font that contains accented vowels but which in every other way resembles a standard serifed "Times" family font. Main advantage: Russian spell checkers accept accented characters. That's because the accented word being checked is spelled the same as its non-accented counterpart. Only the font changes. Main disadvantage: "Times" (Times new Roman, Times, etc.) font family only. Another slight disadvantage: the accented characters look ugly on the screen – but they print very nicely. Finally, other computer users can read documnets containing VremyaAccent marks only if they have this font installed on their computers.
Method 2 (Native Stress Marks) inserts "real" stress marks directly over the vowel itself. It works with almost any font. Main advantage: Accents work with almost any font in Windows. You can accent any letter in any alphabet – great for those situations where you really need an accented "j". Then too, documents that use this method can be read on any Windows computer. You don't need special fonts. Main disadvantages: (1) Spellcheckers reject stressed words as misspelled. So xaoc 'chaos' is accepted as correct but it's accented counterpart xaoc is seen as a misspelling. That's because the accented version is really read as something akin to xa’oc. (2) Sometimes the accents come out misplaced - not quite over the center of the vowel in question - or sometimes too high or too low. This can be adjusted through Format, Font, Spacing, Position. But these adjustments can be tricky. Finally, in order to make either method work effortlessly, you have to be working in a program that allows macros, such as Word or Excel.
You can combine both methods. For example, you can use the VremyaAccent method for serifed text which you want to spell-check and then add accent marks to Helvetica text, for which you will have to forgo spellchecking.
HOW TO DO IT. Both methods require several steps to set up. But once you're done, everything works easily. The following description installs both methods onto your computer.
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