same - in Russian ( zdes - po-russki )
| Author: Paul Gorodyansky (click on the name for contact information) |
This page - about Netscape. More |
| You can read and write | in Browser | in News(Discussions) | in Mail(Messenger) |
Instructions for Cyrillic (mostly Russian) in MS Windows
This page is large, but there is no need to read everything.
Read the beginning and
To Webmasters: PLEASE, do NOT copy the files of this article to your
server!
Instead, put LINKS to the main location(s) listed above.
All unauthorized copies that I found were
This is the only instruction on the Web that
lets you tune-up
> Thanks for writing such a comprehensive and easy to follow guidelines
I had been teaching "Computer Science" for 5 years to University freshmen,
I can not make these explanations any
> Thanks for your invaluable information on Netscape and Cyrillic.
> It was complete and easy to follow (not common to get either on the Web).
> Terry Martin, Professor of Russian History, Harvard University
> for russification of Netscape for Windows.
> It worked great for people like me, who knows only how to click and type.
> Roza Kryzhanovska
This is a step-by-step instruction, therefore I suggest
to read it
See references in Chapter 8 for the subjects that are NOT covered in this article.
Ok, you work with MS Windows and would like to browse Russian language
Web sites.
But different authors of such Web pages use different methods
to represent Cyrillic letters, that is, they use different encoding
methods.
(An encoding determines where in the full character set Cyrillic
letters are located).
For a MS Windows user there are 2 different Cyrillic encodings on the Web:
Thus, you need to install 2 sets of Cyrillic True Type Windows fonts to be able to work with both types of Cyrillic Web pages in your Netscape:
Mail and News NOTE: All Russian language Newsgroups use only KOI8-R encoding (see for example relcom.talk).
KOI8-R is a standard for Russian on theInternet - Usenet Newsgroups, telnet, e-mail, etc. That is, almost all Russian e-mail letters also are sent in KOI8-R.KOI8-R is a network encoding, while CP-1251(win) is a local encoding of Russian letters on a computer with
MS Windows operating system.
Other local encodings can beMacintosh Cyrillic , DOS-866 Cyrillic, etc., and KOI8-R serves as atransport encoding ,'common ground' that lets messages from all these computers with different Cyrillic encodings exchange Russian messages over the Internet.The simplest example is Newsgroups. A Newsgroup can be read by a user of Mac, Windows, or Unix. Then messages in this Newsgroup just must use
one common Cyrillic encoding for a user of each platform to be able to read it.
Now imagine that this News Server keeps a thread where one message is from a Unix user - in ISO-8859-5, another message is from a DOS user - in CP-866, another one from a Windows user - in Windows-1251.
How a News client program will show you this thread?
This is why most News Servers keep all messages in KOI8-R.
Generally, World Wide Web uses 2 methods to show you a text on your screen:
Each type of a page requires its own type of font to be used in your browser:
So, you need to install at least 4 new Cyrillic True Type fonts in your Windows:
Some free Russian fonts collected from the Web
But CP-1251 is a standard Russian encoding in
| in the U.S. | "Cyrillic and MS Multilanguage Support" |
| in Russia | "Cyrillic and MS Multilanguage Support" |
After you install this package, you can use Wordpad to see if you get Cyrillic variations of the MS fonts listed in the NT/2000's item above.
So, if you:
Below you will find download locations and
descriptions for free Cyrillic
Important. As it was explained in the previous section, you need these old non-Microsoft fonts only in the following cases:
or
or
All these free fonts allow you to read both English and Russian on the same page.
You need to create a directory(folder) on your PC where you will collect these font files, for example, C:\RUSFONTS.
I have created a single file(archive) ForWWW.zip that includes all
these free Russian fonts.
You can download this file
from one of the sites listed in a table below.
To download a file, you just need to click on its underlined
name in a table below. Then Netscape offers you to SAVE FILE.
In this SAVE FILE dialog, you need to select the directory(folder)
that you created to keep font
NOTE: If Netscape begins, instead,showing a content of this file on screen, then try to download it again, but this time hold down a SHIFT key on your keyboard while clicking on that file.
| in the U.S. | in Russia |
|---|---|
| file ForWWW.zip | file ForWWW.zip |
To extract font files using pkunzip, open an MS-DOS window first:
C:\........> cd \RUSFONTS
C:\RUSFONTS> pkunzip forwww.zip
NOTE: I have collected into ForWWW.zip such fonts that work with all versions of Netscape and all Windows platforms. If you found somewhere another version of the same font, it may not work correctly with Netscape or with some Windows platform (for example,NT 4.0).
Remember, to work with Cyrillic in Netscape, you need to install at least 4 new Cyrillic True Type fonts in your Windows:
NOTE. UnderWindows NT 4.0 - versionsbefore Service Pack 3 - font 'ROL:KOI8-Courier' works with an error while showing lists such as one on the Yahoo! search page.
Therefore, for these versions of NT you need to use another Fixed KOI8-R font:'ER Kurier KOI-8 Normal' - Fixed font -
file cokoi8n.TTF, dated November 15, 1995
2. These are CP-1251(Windows) fonts:
Follow instructions below for Windows 3.1,3.11 and for
Windows 95/98 and Windows NT 4.0/2000:
Windows 3.1, 3.11:
Now you have these Russian fonts installed in Windows and
ready to use in any Windows application that allows fonts selection,
including Netscape.
NOTE: When I write "Netscape 4", I meanNetscape Communicator 4 (more details about theCommunicator - in theChapter 4).
You can select the fonts of your choice in Netscape (from the set of fonts already installed in your Windows).
Netscape 1:
Note: Netscape 4 uses different name for Proportional Fonts.
They are called 'Variable Width Fonts' there.
In this Fonts window, you can select a pair of
When you open Fonts window, you see in a small window an Encoding
that stands first in a list of all available Encodings:
For example, for KOI8-R Cyrillic server:
1) choose Proportional font - 'ER Bukinist KOI-8', size 12 2) choose Fixed font - 'ROL-K8-Courier', size 10Now you can read Russian pages on such server (Proportional
But because ver. 1 has only one suitable
This chapter explains a method of tuning-up
After implementation of this method you will be able to
NOTE: Older versions - 2.0, 1.22, 1.1, ... - can not be fully tuned-up for Russian.
You can use Russian in these versions (if you use correct Web fonts that I suggest in this article), butnot completely - depending on a version, Cyrillic does not work in some parts of Netscape that are listed above.
NOTE: If you ever want to send Cyrillic e-mail from Netscape 2 and 3, then
make sure that you did NOT change its e-mail settings.
Go to Options / Mail and News Preferences, find a tab "Composition",
and check that at the top of this window you have the correct
setting in
Detailed instructions for this Russian setup are below,
but generally you need to do the following:
It is known, for example, thatSo, if under your version of Windows, Netscape does not work with Russian as described in this article, then wait for a new version of your WindowsWindows NT Service Packs 2,3 andWindows 95 OSR2 have some errors in their multilanguage support, even in the Microsoft's own applications such asMS Word and Excel. See Newsgroups relcom.comp.os.windows and relcom.comp.os.windows.nt.
For example, I heard that Netscape has problems with Cyrillic under
some national versions of
Let's imagine that I am inserting same coin into 10 public phones made
by the same manufacturer, and in 3 of them the coin can not go through.
My opinion is that it's not a fault of the
Here are my instructions - 2-step initial setup for Cyrillic in
Beginning from version 2, Netscape allows to select an encoding easily, without changing fonts again and again:
I tested, which Encodings work for Russian, and selected
(only once, during initial setup) the following Fonts
for the following Encodings in the
Options / General Preferences / Fonts window.
Reminder: to work with Russian in Netscape 2,3 under
|
Go to Options / General Preferences / Fonts,
select suggested Encoding, then select a pair of suggested
fonts for this Encoding.
(Remember, to select an Encoding from the list, just click
on the arrow at the right of the small window with a title
| Encoding in Netscape 3 | Encoding in Netscape 2.01,2.02 | Fonts |
|---|---|---|
Cyrillic(KOI8-R) | Latin2 (Central European) |
|
Now click on OK button.
Netscape 2 NOTE.
KOI8-R fonts must be in Latin2 (Central European) to allow KOI8-R reading/writing in all parts of Netscape 2, including Forms, News, and Mail.
In addition, ver. 2.02 needs KOI8-R fonts also as aUser Defined Encoding. See details below, in the section"Version 2.02 - additional setup for News and Mail" and then come back here (f.e. by clicking on Back button of your browser) to continue reading about fonts.ATTENTION!
Windows NT 4.0 and KOI8-R forms inNetscape 2,3.
Users who live in the countries of the former USSR and who 'Russified' theirWindows NT 4.0 by selecting 'region=Russia':
Start / Settings / Control Panel / Regional Settings
Russian - Set as system default locale,will not be able to read a text on the buttons of KOI8-R forms and in
pop-up menus(list boxes) that some forms contain.
(You can check it using forms in a section ofChapter 5 "Test: you read Russian in Netscape")
It can be fixed and if it's yoursituation - read section"Web forms and Windows NT 4.0" and then come back here (f.e. by clicking on Back button of your browser) to continue reading about fonts.
Go to Options / General Preferences / Fonts,
select suggested Encoding, then select a pair of suggested
fonts for this Encoding.
(Remember, to select an Encoding from the list, just click
on the arrow at the right of the small window with a title
| Encoding in Netscape 3 | Encoding in Netscape 2.01,2.02 | Fonts |
|---|---|---|
Cyrillic (it means CP-1251(win)) | Korean - works! :-) |
|
Now click on OK button.
Important!
You have to use in Netscape 2,3 those not very pretty free
KOI8-R fonts desribed above, but the situation for CP-1251(win)
fonts is better, because Microsoft uses for Russian just CP-1251 encoding!
Therefore, instead of those free CP-1251 fonts 'ER' described above,
you, probably, can use in Netscape much nicer looking Cyrillic fonts,
included into your Windows system (for example, font "Arial").
This would be definitely a better solution for Cyrillic CP-1251 in Netscape!
Why did I write 'probably'? You will understand it after you read the following
notes regarding built-in Cyrillic CP-1251 fonts in
If you have a Russian Windows 3.1,3.11 developed by Microsoft for Russia,
then you can use its CP-1251 fonts in
Options / General Preferences / Fonts and then
| Encoding in Netscape 3 | Encoding in Netscape 2.01,2.02 | Fonts |
|---|---|---|
Cyrillic (it means CP-1251(win)) | Korean |
|
Now click on OK button.
But if you have a regular U.S. version of
Windows 95/98 has, unlike Windows 3.1, large-size font files that contain symbols of many languages, including Russian. And Russian letters are there in CP-1251(win) encoding!
Therefore, in Netscape you can use for Cyrillic CP-1251 any font from your Windows
system that has a Cyrillic-modification, for example, "Arial".
That is, you will use that part of this large file
(for example, file Arial.ttf), which contains Russian letters.
The easiest way to check it is to call WordPad editor and look at
its list of fonts.
You will see, for example, several modifications of "Arial" font that allow
to use different parts of this large file:
If you do not see such Cyrillic-modifications of yourWindows 95/98 fonts, then it means that you need to install an additionalsoftware - MS Multilanguage Support.
Here is my short installation instruction for this package:
in the U.S. "Cyrillic and MS Multilanguage Support" in Russia "Cyrillic and MS Multilanguage Support"
Thus, in Netscape 2,3 under Windows 95/98 you can install,
instead of those free Cyrillic 'ER' fonts of CP-1251(win) encoding,
much better fonts included into your Windows.
For example, you can install the following fonts that contain Russian letters:
"Arial" and
Unlike WordPad, Netscape 2,3 does not show all
modifications of a multilanguage font as a list.
Instead, Netscape asks you
to select needed modification.
For this purpose, Netscape ver. 2,3 has, in its Fonts Selection window,
a small window called 'Script',
where for a multilanguage font you can select a modification:
To install in Netscape 2,3 such fonts for a Cyrillic CP-1251 encoding,
you need to go to
Options / General Preferences / Fonts and then
| Encoding in Netscape 3 | Encoding in Netscape 2.01,2.02 | Fonts |
|---|---|---|
Cyrillic (it means CP-1251(win)) | Korean |
|
Now click on OK button.
Next small section is devoted to Windows NT 4.0. If it's not of your
interest, then you can go directly to the next section:
Windows NT 4.0 has, unlike Windows 3.1, large-size font files that contain symbols of many languages, including Russian. And Russian letters are there in CP-1251(win) encoding!
Therefore, in Netscape 2,3 instead of those free CP-1251 fonts 'ER' you can try to install for Cyrillic CP-1251 encoding any font from your Windows system that contains Russian letters, for example, font "Arial".
To let a user choose needed part of such large font,
That is, you tell what part of this large font file
(for example, file Arial.ttf) you want to use.
In Netscape 2 for CP-1251 encoding you can
install the following fonts included into your
Options / General Preferences / Fonts and then
for an Encoding
See below a short instruction that corrects this situation, that is,
If you do not need to tune-up
NOTE. I suggest to use this instruction people who set up 'region=Russia' in NT, that is, users who 'Russified' their NT (they are usually people who live in the countries of the former USSR) by selecting
Start / Settings / Control Panel / Regional Settings
Russian - Set as system default locale.If a user, who did not select 'region=Russia', follows this instruction that allows
Netscape 3 to work with built-in CP-1251 fonts, then such user will not be able to use Cyrillic fully inCP-1251 forms: You can see examples of these 2 cases listed above in the
- will not be able to read a text on the buttons of forms
- will not be able to read items of a pop-up menu(list box) if a form has such element
Chapter 5, section"Test: you read Russian in Netscape".
This problem for users who did not 'Russify' their NTcan be fixed. If it's your situation and you still want to use NT's built-in Russian fonts instead of the free fonts 'ER', then read section"Web forms and Windows NT 4.0" and after that come back here (f.e. by clicking on Back button of your browser) to continue reading about fonts.
Here is the instruction that allows
Now, when you call Netscape 3, you will be able to work with Cyrillic
fonts (of Windows-1251 encoding) that are included into your
Options / General Preferences / Fonts
and then for an Encoding
"Cyrillic"
Reminder: All Russian language Newsgroups use only KOI8-R encoding (see for example relcom.talk).
KOI8-R is a standard for Russian on theInternet - Usenet Newsgroups, telnet, e-mail, etc. (that is, almost all Russian e-mail letters also are sent in KOI8-R).
Unlike the Internet, Microsoft Windows has a different standard forRussian - CP-1251 encoding.
By experimenting with Netscape, I found out that in order to use KOI8-R
everywhere in Netscape
Beginning from version 2, Netscape offers an easy way of switching
from one encoding to another, without changing fonts
(you sure need to do first my
| Netscape ver. 2 and 3 |
|---|
For example, I go to a KOI8-R site after I was on a CP-1251 page. Or, I want to open Mail/News window where only KOI8-R is used. It means that I need to switch to KOI8-R encoding :
|
Later I decided to connect to some CP-1251 page. I need to switch to CP-1251 encoding :
|
NOTE:
I do not go often to Options / Document Encoding :
I use KOI8-R in Netscape most of the time. When a server offers me
to choose an encoding(KOI8-R or CP-1251) , I select KOI8-R.
It is not because I prefer KOI8-R, but just because I go often
to News where only KOI8-R is used.
Using KOI8-R for Web pages allows me do not switch again and again between KOI8-R and CP-1251 when I go from Browser window to News window or back.
To avoid switching encodings, I use KOI8-R for English servers, too (remember, all Cyrillic fonts mentioned in this article, allow you to read both English and Russian text on the same Web page).
So, I need to change an encoding very seldom, may be once a
So, when you open your Bookmarks window fully
(for example, by pressing Ctrl/B), you can read KOI8-R
Names but not CP-1251 Names, or vice versa (it depends on your
I use KOI8-R in Netscape most of the time
(see "NOTE" above).
So, all my Cyrillic Names in Bookmarks are in KOI8-R.
This is why I replace CP-1251 Names in my Bookmarks with English
ones:
NOTE. In the browser window (not in Bookmarks window) you can NOT see
readable KOI8-R Russian in a Title of a page (top blue line of the browser
window), because Netscape uses a system font for it.
(For CP-1251 pages with Russian Title, the title will be readable only
if you have Russian Windows where system fonts are CP-1251 fonts).
For the same reason you can not see a KOI8-R Bookmark item if you are not
in the full Bookmark window
Solution:
Forms problems can be solved by modifying those free non-Microsoft
Russian fonts that were described in the
There is a free program TTFConv that modifies
these fonts by putting a Unicode indicator into a font and thus
(Even Word 97 begins to recognize such non-Microsoft fonts)
You need to download this very small program from here:
ftp://ftp.lesobank.ru/pub/soft/Soft_win32/TTF_convert/
or take a copy I have:
ttfconv.zip
Place this ttfconv.zip archive file into the directory where you put these
(Downloading of a .ZIP file was explained in the
Then you need to extract the files of TTFConv
from this archive.
(Opening a .ZIP archive was explained in the
Now you can modify the font files:
| "ER Bukinist 1251", | "ER Bukinist KOI 8", | |
| "ER Kurier 1251", | "ROL:KOI8-Courier", | "ER Kurier KOI 8" |
When you start Netscape 3 now, your forms problems will disappear:
Version 2.02 has a problem in News and Mail, in a Composition
window -
it is impossible to read and write a Subject line
when a user wants to do any of the following:
To fix it in 2.02, you need to do the following:
User Defined Encoding in
Options / General Preferences / Fonts .
Again, you need to do it only once during this initial
Fonts setup.
META ...... CONTENT="text/html; charset=koi8-r"
or
META ...... CONTENT="text/html; charset=windows-1251"
More recent versions of Netscape work fine with such pages, but version 2 does not. It creates a problem.
For example, a user went to a Web site using Netscape 2.01 or 2.02, and read
that this page is in KOI8-R.
User selected KOI8-R setting in Options / Document Encoding,
but still does not see normal Russian text.
So, this is it - he met such modern page that conform to the standards
unknown to
What happens is that Netscape 2 does not know anything about
KOI8-R and CP-1251 (versions 3,4 already know about these encodings).
When a page explicitly describes an encoding, and this encoding is
unknown to Netscape 2, it uses Latin1 Encoding to show
such page.
So, the solution for version 2 is:
In addition to my 2-step setup you need to select
corresponding fonts as Latin1 Encoding
in
Options / General Preferences / Fonts .
That is, if such modern page is a KOI8-R page, then you need to select
your KOI8-R Proportional and Fixed fonts as Latin1 in
Options / General Preferences / Fonts .
If this page uses CP-1251, then you need to select
your CP-1251 Proportional and Fixed fonts as Latin1.
Remember, this is a problem of ver. 2 only.
Couple examples of such pages:
FORM ACCEPT-CHARSET="KOI8-R, US-ASCII" ...
then you can not write in this Form and can not
read Russian text on its buttons.
NOTE. Mail part of Netscape 4 is called a Messenger.
In Netscape 4.0x, unlike all previous versions and newerver. 4.5+, News(Newsgroups) part has anothername - Discussions.
If you ever want to send e-mail letters or a message to a Newsgroup
from
But, as I read in the following professional Newsgroups:
So, you need to tell Netscape, that you do not want your message be sent
as HTML, you want it to be a
Another very important setting that you need to check:
Russian characters are 8-bit characters
(US ASCII characters are 7-bit),
and Netscape should not modify them in any way.
So, for these 2 settings you need to go to the corresponding user
preferences
click on '+' sign to see the options, and then:
Comparing to ver. 2,3, Netscape 4 offers a new method for
As it was explained in details in Chapter 1, KOI8-R is a network encoding, a'common ground' for Cyrillic messages travelling on the Internet between computers that may have different local encoding for Cyrillic
(CP-1251(win) for MS Windows computer, CP-866 for DOS/Fido7 and OS/2, ISO-8859-5 for Unix, etc.)
Netscape 4
Therefore, with Netscape 4 you do NOT need KOI8-R fonts
and KOI8-R keyboard tools when you work under
Important! It should be clear after reading of the previous
paragraph, that for a Windows user, a current Cyrillic
encoding in
unlike ver. 2,3, in ver. 4 a user should select Windows-1251
while working with Mail and
Netscape 4 works with Cyrillic just fine in all its parts.
The tune-up steps are similar to ones for
Netscape 4's tune-up is not the same for different versions of Windows:
This is Step 1 of the Initial Setup.
Windows 95/98/NT/2000 has, unlike
And Russian letters are there in CP-1251(win) encoding.
Therefore, you can use for Cyrillic any font from your Windows
that has a Cyrillic-modification, for example, "Arial".
That is, you will use that part of this large file
(for example, file Arial.ttf), which contains Russian letters.
The easiest way to check it is to call WordPad editor
You will see, for example, several modifications of "Arial" font that allow
to use different parts of this large file:
Windows 95/98 Note.
If you do not see such Cyrillic-modifications of yourWindows 95/98 fonts, then it means that you need to install an additionalsoftware - MS Multilanguage Support.
Here is my short installation instruction for this package:
in the U.S. "Cyrillic and MS Multilanguage Support" in Russia "Cyrillic and MS Multilanguage Support"
Under Windows 95/98/NT/2000 you need to use in Netscape 4 only this type
of Russian CP-1251(win) fonts, that is, those included into your Windows.
(Netscape 4 for Windows 95/98/NT/2000 does NOT
In Netscape 4 you do NOT need any KOI8-R fonts.
Selected fonts
Starting, I think, from version 4.05,
You can look at these settings:
| "Arial" | (not "Arial Cyr". This is a setting for Encoding=Cyrillic, so You should not select "Arial Cyr" in recent versions of |
This is Step 1 of the Initial Setup.
Unlike Windows 95/98/NT/2000, there are NO large-size font files, that include
symbols of many languages, in
There is no such thing as Script-Cyrillic, there are no
"Cyr" modifications of
Therefore, you need to install those free CP-1251(win) fonts that
were described in
In Netscape 4 you do NOT need any KOI8-R fonts.
So, to select Cyrillic fonts in Netscape 4 for
NOTE. If you work with Russian version of
This is Step 2 of the Initial Setup.
In all previous versions of Netscape,
this
Netscape 4 does NOT require you to have a Russian encoding as your Default one, everything works fine without this step, a user just needs to select Windows-1251 when it's time to write.
But it's very handy to have Á Russian encoding as a Default, anyway:
At the beginning, Netscape 4 has a Western Encoding as a Default,
that is, if just after the installation you look into
Here are the steps to make Cyrillic a Default encoding:
1. Main window of Netscape 4:
2. Messenger window (Mail and News(Discussions)):
Open Messenger (Communicator/Messenger in a main menu) and then repeat
the steps listed above for the main window of
Here are known to me special cases for Netscape 4:
Windows 95 PanEuropean
Do not set Cyrillic as a Default, if you encounter some problems:
one reader reported that he had Cyrillic as a Default and
could not switch his keyboard to Russian in the Composition
window where he wanted to write an e-mail letter. This person had 'EN'
indicator on his Taskbar,
pressed Alt/RightShift to switch to 'RU', but nothing happened.
When you select
Some Russian language Web pages have their Titles in
Netscape 4 uses for Cyrillic CP-1251(win) encoding, including Bookmarks window, and if you tuned-up your Netscape correctly, you will be able to see the Names (Titles) of CP-1251(win) pages.
NOTE. In the browser window (not in Bookmarks window) you can NOT see readable Win-1251 Russian in a Title of a page (top blue line of the browser window), if you have a non-RussianMS Windows:
non-RussianWindows 95 orWindows NT 4.0/2000 where Russian was not selected as 'Region' in Control Panel.
It's because Netscape uses a system font for it.
(For the same reason you never be able to see a KOI8-R title of a KOI8-Rpage - Windows system font are never KOI8-R fonts).For the same reason you can not see a Win-1251 Russian Bookmark item if you are not in the full Bookmark window
(that opens by Ctrl/B) and just doing a quick look at your bookmarks by a single-click on a word Bookmark in Netscape's menu.
If you want to use your 'old' Bookmarks taken from an older version
of Netscape, where Russian Names were in KOI8-R
(was explained in Bookmarks section of
See links to encoding conversion programs in
Based on the Initial Setup described above, you can now select needed
Cyrillic encoding for a Web page or for
a Messenger(Mail)/Newsgroups(DiscussionGroups) window.
| Netscape 4 |
|---|
For example, I go to a CP-1251(Win) site after I was on some KOI8-R page. Or I want to work in the Messenger(Mail) or Newsgroups(Discussions) window,
(Unlike all previous versions, It means that I need to switch to CP-1251(Win) encoding :
|
Later I decided to connect to some KOI8-R page. It means that I need to switch to KOI8-R encoding :
|
NOTE.
Sometimes users of Netscape 4 receive a letter from some one, who
incorrectly tuned-up his mail software. This letter went to
the network in Windows-1251 encoding instead of KOI8-R.
Below you'll find a method that allows a
Why did I write 'incorrectly' in the above paragraph?
All mail programs
(A user could write a letter in another Russian encoding, local
to his computer, but his text should be sent by his mail software to the Internet
in KOI8-R).
The sender of such incoming Windows-1251 message should be educated,
you should send him a reply asking to resend
the letter in KOI8-R, otherwise such person will remain a novice
forever and many of his recipients would not be able to read his messages
or even would not try to do so.
For example, in Russian Newsgroups Relcom.* and Fido7.* people usually
just ignore such CP-1251 messages.
You see, if some one was able somehow to 'brake' his mail software to
send a Russian message to the network in Windows-1251, that is, in
a local encoding of his Windows computer, then
a UNIX user could do the same and send a message in ISO-8859-5 encoding, Macintosh
There should be (and it is) one and only one network encoding and thus
all different computers can exchange Russian messages safely.
Historically, such de-facto standard is KOI8-R and alll servers as well all
client-side programs know that KOI8-R is a 'transport' encoding, that is, an
encoding in which Cyrillic messages 'travel' over the Internet.
If you receive such incorrectly sent message, you still can read it
in
Here is how you achieve this:
You need - only once - select those fonts in
Now, when you want to read such letter arrived in Windows-1251 encoding, you need to switch to UserDefined to read it:
If you want to create your own Web page containing
Russian text and use Netscape 4's HTML
Without the tune-up decribed below, you may get 2 incorrect things in your HTML file created with Composer:
(Just a note - I don't use MS Front Page editor, but I know that
unlike Netscape's HTML editor, it is impossible
to tune-up
This will let you to have normal, readable Russian letters in your HTML file, instead of SGML entities representation.
In such case, it will be no hard-coded font names in your page,
no HTML tags
This will be a correctly designed HTML text.
Note. Creation of a KOI8-R page.
Just a reminder - as it was mentioned at the beginning
of this chapter,
Unlike Netscape 2,3 you do not need KOI8-R fonts and keyboard
So, if you want to create a KOI8-R Web page,
you select Cyrillic(KOI8-R), open Composer, and type using your standard
Windows keyboard tools, that is Windows-1251 keyboard layout.
When you ask Netscape to save this HTML text on the hard disk of your PC,
Netscape
Therefore, when you upload this HTML file to your Web space, future users will
see KOI8-R Russian text on your page, as you planned.
Below you will find problems descriptions and solutions for the problems.
You go to the Composition window when you want to write an e-mail or a message to a Newsgroup.
I found in Netscape 4.5+
if a Subject line of a message contains Russian, then such Subject
is being sent by Netscape in a MIME-encoded image (for example,
Subject: =?koi8-r?Q?=F3=20=D5=D7=C1=D6=C5=CE=C9=C5=CD?=
instead of having 8-bit Cyrillic letters in the Subject.
Your message looks Ok in Composition window, or in Sent folder, but really the Subject is MIME-encoded and you can see it, for example, via the menu View/PageSource for a message in Sent folder.
MIME is a Mail standard, so most Mail programs will understand such Subject, decode it, and show a recipient of your e-mail a normal Cyrillic text in such incoming e-mail.
But News software that shows you Newsgroups, has no such standard (yet),
so some programs may not be able to decode such Subject from MIME to
regular Cyrillic and a user will see an unreadable set of characters such as
Subject: =?koi8-r?Q?=F3=20=D5=D7=C1=D6=C5=CE=C9=C5=CD?=
(MIME Q-encoding)
or
Subject: =?koi8-r?B?1MXT1MnL?=,.
(MIME Base-64 encoding)
For example, you may see such unreadable Subject lines in DejaNews while reading Cyrillic Newsgroups.
If you want to use Russian not only in the body of your message, but also in a Subject line, then, especially for the messages that you send to Newsgroups, you can tune-up Netscape and ask it to use a regular Cyrillic letters in a Subject, ask Netscape do not encode it.
We did such tune-up for a body of the message
but
Here are the steps to make Subject lines of the messages you send have a regular Cyrillic text without any encoding:
user_pref("mail.strictly_mime_headers", false);
Also, you may want to copy to this file another line, that makes a handytune-up - you will not see a Netcenter's "Welcome" message every time you call the Messenger:user_pref("mailnews.start_page.enabled", false);
There is a small error when a KOI8-R page contains a form and
this form contains a
(you can check it using my KOI8-R test
You go to the Composition window when you want to write an e-mail or
a message to a
For writing an e-mail, you can either go to the Messenger
via the menu
(under the 'Communicator' item of main menu)
and then click on
Netscape 4.0x works with an error in Composition
There is no such error in newer
As I heard, there is also no such error even in ver. 4.0x of
Netscape sends your Cyrillic text in a wrong encoding, creating a non-readable message, and the cure for this problem is:
Same method can be used to solve a small problem in the News(Discussions)
window of
There is a problem for writing in Forms using
Below you will find the problem's details and solutions.
Unfortunately, different versions of MS
Netscape 4.0x, where you can normally write in Russian in Forms
under
So, if under your version of Windows, Netscape does not work with Russian as
described in this article, then wait for a new version of your Windows
If you need to fill out some Cyrillic Form, but under
your version of
Here are the methods for fixning this problem of
Users in the former USSR and all those who 'Russified'
their
can implement a very simple method that will allow
them normally write in Forms using
In such case the solution that allows normal writing in Forms using
There is a free program TTFConv that modifies
such 'old' non-Microsoft fonts by putting a Unicode indicator into a font
and thus
You need to download this very small program from here:
ftp://ftp.lesobank.ru/pub/soft/Soft_win32/TTF_convert/
Place this ttfconv.zip archive file into the directory where you put the
fonts while reading
Then you need to extract the files of TTFConv from this archive.
Now you can modify the font file:
If you still can not read this page, then it may be one of the following
situations:
Reminder - how to select a needed Cyrillic encoding:
So, for testing the settings you made to read in Russian, you can use:
My Test pages let you also check
It means that you found a page where the author did some wrong things
during
We are talking about the "FONT" element of the HTML language.
Netscape ver. 2,3, and 4 allows you to write in Russian.
NOTE: I will refer to versions 2.01 and 2.02 as Netscape 2 in my text.
Such keyboard programs tools are the subject of this Chapter.
In Netscape 2,3 you often need to write in
Such programs and tools are often called Keyboard Switchers.
I want to remind you again, that Microsoft uses CP-1251(Windows)
encoding for Russian, so it is usually easy to initiate CP-1251 keyboard
tools in
Important!
Below you find some information about Cyrillic writing that will
help you to produce CP-1251 or KOI8-R text.
Click on a line that corresponds to your version of Windows:
Windows 95/98 Note.
Windows NT Note.
Note.
MS Windows uses CP-1251 encoding for Russian, so when
you see 'Russian' in
Here are the instructions for writing in Russian in Netscape under
To produce Russian CP-1251(win) text in Netscape,
you need to do
Below are the steps to initiate Windows' built-in
Russian keyboard layout for CP-1251(win).
Windows 95/98 users probably did it already while reading my
instructions for
Installation of a standard Russian CP-1251 keyboard layout:
This keyboard layout is a standard layout of Russian letters on the keyboard used
in the former USSR.
Now you can write in CP-1251 Russian encoding using a language
indicator 'RU'.
If in the future you don't need to write in Russian CP-1251 anymore,
you can easily remove this 'RU' keyboard indicator from your Tasbar:
In Netscape ver. 2 and 3 you must have an ability to write
in
Netscape 4 works differently, it
does not require any KOI8-R font or
So, you will need KOI8-R keyboard tools in Windows only for the
older versions of
KOI8-R keyboard: Netscape 2,3 under Windows 95/98/NT/2000
In these versions of Netscape you need to do the following 2 things
to produce Russian KOI8-R text:
In Windows, keyboard layout "Russian" is already taken for the CP-1251 encoding.
So, you need to install KOI8-R keyboard support
instead of some other language that you are not going to use.
I use Icelandic-IS in the instruction below, but you can do the same
for Portuguese(Brazilian)-PO if you wish.
The following instruction will help you to install
KOI8-R keyboard layout as
and you will be able to switch between them
How to have a KOI8-R keyboard layout as 'IS' on Taskbar
I developed my KOI8-R keyboard files in such a way, that the
location of Russian letters in the
To create keyboard layout files for
Let's start the installation of my KOI8-R standard Russian keyboard layout.
For Windows 95/98:
For Windows NT 4.0/2000:
After you download the archive file into C:\RUS-KBD folder,
you will need to extract files from this archive.
To have KOI8-R keyboard layout as 'IS', we need to install first a
Windows' own "Icelandic" keyboard layout, and only then replace it with
Russian KOI8-R layout
(same should be done for "Portuguese(Brazilian)" if you choose it):
We can replace now this Icelandic keyboard layout with Russian KOI8-R one.
Now you can write in KOI8-R Russian encoding using a language
indicator 'IS'.
Do not forget that in Netscape 2,3 you need to select first
the corresponding Encoding via Options/DocumentEncoding
(that will activate KOI8-R fonts),
and only then begin to input KOI8-R text in the 'IS'
mode of the keyboard:
If in the future you don't need to write in KOI8-R anymore,
you can easily remove this 'IS' keyboard indicator from your Tasbar:
Moreover, when you do so, you'll get again my KOI8-R layout as 'Icelandic',
so you will not need to repeat the installation (it's because we registered
KOI8-R as "Icelandic" and Registry was not changed since then).
I did not see Russian Windows 3.1, made by Microsoft for the former USSR,
but in the regular
You can download WinKey package to your PC (as an archive file
winkey.zip) by clicking with your mouse on an underlined file name
in the following table.
After you download this archive file into some empty directory on your PC,
you need to extract files of the WinKey package from this archive.
1. Run file(program) INSTALL.EXE that is located in the directory
where WinKey's files are (for example, by double-click on INSTALL.EXE).
WinKey will install itself into the directory(folder) C:\WINKEY.
So, after installation is over, you can erase those installation files
you have in the temporary directory where you have downloaded winkey.zip.
or put WinKey into your Start/Programs menu:
Call WinKey. Now, until you close it, you will have an active WinKey
You probably should read WinKey HELP - just double-click on this
active icon-'flag'.
But generally, WinKey works in the following way. It allows you to type
both in CP-1251(Win), and in KOI8-R.
How to choose your current Alternative Keyboard:
WinKey comes with its own keyboard layout
WinKey allows a user - via menu
I also created for WinKey 2 more layouts -
You can download these 2 standard Russian keyboard layouts (they are
inside an archive file kbd31.zip) by clicking with your mouse on an
underlined file name in the following table.
After you download this archive file into some empty directory on your PC,
you need to extract files from this archive.
To use my standard Russian Layouts in WinKey, do the following
(as was explained above, WinKey switches a
Important!
You will be able to check your KOI8-R and CP-1251 settings for writing in
forms offered on some Web pages, in Mail(Messenger), and in
News(Discussions).
The methods of switching your keyboard to Russian were described in
the previous sections of this chapter, and encodings, remember, can be
selected in the following way:
So, to check your setup for writing, you can use the following.
Note. Netscape 4.
Send an e-mail letter to someone whose e-mail system (for example,
You can write both a Subject line and a letter itself:
Try to write a message
to relcom.test Newsgroup
(or to some other test-oriented Newsgroup, for example,
snews://secnews.netscape.com/netscape.test
or news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.test).
You can write both a Subject line and a message itself
You may go to this Newsgroup again in a minute or so to read your
posting.
If you need to type in Russian only occasionally,
then you can avoid installing Russian keyboard tools and use instead
the Transletterator.
Transletterator is a free text editor,
which does not require any keyboard program to type in Russian.
In the menu OPTIONS of this program you can see that
That is, you can type a KOI8-R text using this editor, and then just copy
this
If you want to know about such method, then read further, otherwise
click on Netscape's BACK button to return to the part of this article where
you come from or go to the next
into the directory you created
Transletterator requires one special free library
To have an icon of Transletterator in Windows,
or to place a link to this editor into the START/PROGRAMS menu in
Instead of working with some keyboard tools, Transletterator just uses
a simple table that consists of 2 columns, where a button of your keyboard
has a corresponding Russian letter in the next column.
The current table is selected via the menu OPTIONS / TRANSLATION TABLE.
The author have included into the package one such
A table of this editor is a plain text file,
so you
Note. I made 2 new tables, and you can download them from my
Home Page:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PaulGor/,
from the section
But if you want to create another table, suitable for your needs,
then you can use Russian alphabet from my Test
For example, you want to create your own KOI8-R table for Transletterator
(that is, create your own KOI8-R keyboard layout):
You can take a Russian letter from the Netscape's window where
you have my KOI8-R Test
Same way you can type in CP-1251(Win) in
Using my method, you can send e-mail
in Russian in Mail window of Netscape 2.01, 2.02, 3, and 4.
But Netscape 2 does not know about Cyrillic encodings.
To see what Charset is assigned to your Russian letter,
open Sent folder in Mail.
What to do when you found some Russian plain text file
on Internet (for example some book as STRUG.TXT file), in some FTP directory ?
Let's take Word for Windows as an example of a Word Processor for
the found Russian text file.
Same can be done in Write, WordPad, and other Windows word processors,
that allow fonts selection, because the Cyrillic fonts discussed in this article are not
some special fonts. They are normal True Type fonts for MS Windows.
Done!
Here is the table with links regarding the subjects that I don't know about.
If you did not find an answer for your Cyrillic question
neither on my page, nor on the pages listed above, then see
below a list of the following Russian-language
For instance, you are looking for the information about Russian
in
That's all!
My Home Page "Useful Cyrillic(Russian) stuff":
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PaulGor/.
If your want to ask me a question, then PLEASE,
do not do it until you read a chapter
My e-mail address: paulgor@compuserve.com
These instructions are ThankYouWare.
The author does not and cannot warrant the information, documentation, or
software included in this document or the performance or results obtained
by using this information, documentation, or software.
In some versions of
To make the subject shown in this line readable,
you need to
Netscape 4.0x (4.0 - 4.08) - problem with writing in Forms.
Netscape and different modifications of MS Windows.
There is no such error in newer
It is known, for example,
that
has problems under some versions of MS Windows:
In these modifications of MS Windows, you can not see what you
But friends, we used, for example, same installation file
of
So, blame it to Microsoft, whose various 'flavors' of the same
operating system, for example,
Let's imagine that I am inserting same coin into 10 public phones made
by the same manufacturer, and in 3 of them the coin can not go through.
My opinion is that it's not a fault of the
If you do not have such problem, then skip the following
section and go directly to the next
or go up to the Table of Contents
Start / Settings / Control Panel / Regional Settings
Russian - Set as system default locale.
In the 'Russified'
In particular, it offers a font "Courier" which has Russian letters in it
in this 'Russified'
You need to select this font as a Fixed width font,
instead of the usually selected font
Now you can normally write in Forms using
And you can keep using this "Courier"
Next section explains how a user of a non-Russified Windows
can solve the problem with writing in Forms using
If it's not your case, you can skip it and
go directly to the next
or go up to the Table of Contents
Netscape 4 uses for writing in Forms a Fixed width font selected for the
encoding Cyrillic, and somehow this
The solution is to use another Cyrillic Fixed
Forms problem can be solved by modifying this font and then selecting
it in
(Even Word 97 begins to recognize such non-Microsoft fonts)
or take a copy I have:
ttfconv.zip
(Downloading of a .ZIP file was explained in the
(Opening a .ZIP archive was explained in the
(if you installed non-Microsoft fonts of
"ER Kurier 1251"
C:\........> cd \RUSFONTS
C:\RUSFONTS> ttfconv co1251n.ttf
"ER Kurier 1251"
Now you need to tell Netscape that you want to use font
(Netscape 4 uses a Fixed font for writing in Forms):
From now on you will be able to see what you are writing in
a Form's input fields while using
5. How to read Cyrillic in
NOTE. In the browser window you can NOT see
readable Russian in a Title of a page (top blue line)
if you have non-Russian
non-Russian
It's because Netscape uses a system font to show this Title line.
Correct encoding, but page is not readable. Why ?
My Test Pages are of this type - you need manually
switch to a needed Cyrillic encoding via your browser's menu.
It's because my audience includes users of older browsers
(for example,
In such case, you just need to re-read this
So, test your tune-up for reading now:
You can check how your KOI8-R and CP-1251 settings work for reading
of Web pages; for reading texts in forms
(About writing - in the next Chapter 6).
Cyrillic(KOI8-R) or Cyrillic(Windows-1251)
Cyrillic(KOI8-R) or Cyrillic(Win1251)
Two Russian Test pages that I
These Test pages allow you to check both Proportional
and Fixed fonts.
In Netscape 2,3,4 you can read a text on a form's button
and in a form's pop-up
Note. Fixable errors while reading Cyrillic on a KOI8-R form:
By selecting a corresponding encoding, check if you can read Russian
on a page and in a page's form:
in the U.S.
in Russia
KOI8-R fonts Test page
KOI8-R fonts Test page
CP-1251(win) fonts Test page
CP-1251(win) fonts Test page
Remember, Russian language Newsgroups use KOI8-R encoding.
Read Cyrillic articles in the relcom.talk Newsgroup.
You can read both Subject lines and messages themselves:
(Netscape 4 itself translates KOI8-R Internet articles
into your local CP-1251(win) encoding and then shows them to you)
You will be able to read this KOI8-R Name when you go to
your
You will be able to read this CP-1251(windows) Name when you go to
your
Sometimes you just can not read a Russian page, in spite of the fact that you
have setup Netscape correctly.
Such page is NOT readable at all on your PC with any
But in your system, for example,
If you take a look at the HTML text of such page, selecting from the menu
View / Document Source,
then you will see, for example, the following line before a Russian text:
FONT FACE=Arial or FONT FACE=Arial Size=1
Usage of the elements FACE= and SIZE=
is considered a bad HTML style.
If your are interested in the details and would like to know what categories
of users will not be able to read Russian on such page, then read my short
summary of this issue (it's a separate page):
6. How to write in Russian in
But you will be able to do so in all parts of
Netscape only if you read carefully my tune-up instructions
in
To write in Russian in Netscape, you need to do 2 things:
So, let's begin:
Thus, you make work a specific set of Russian fonts, that was selected for
this Encoding during the initial tune-up.
(In the previous chapters I gave the instructions of how to install these Russian
fonts and how to select an encoding for a Russian page).
So, a keyboard program need to be used to let you type in Russian,
that is, let you switch to a Russian keyboard layout.
NOTE. If you need to write in some Russian encoding
See below a section "Free text editor Transletterator".
Keyboard Programs
They allow you to activate a Russian keyboard layout.
NOTE. I do not have commercial keyboard programs,
and don't know if they are good or not,
but here are some links for you if you decide to buy one:
In the regular Windows 3.x there are no Native Language Support tools,
so it takes equal efforts to install KOI8-R and CP-1251 keyboard tools there.
Sometimes I receive letters from new users
with questions like this, "You suggested to use a KOI8-R font
The point is that neither fonts, nor Netscape have control
over a keyboard layout. Fonts contain just images of the
letters.
The placement of the letters on the
For example, a KOI8-R keyboard layout offered in this chapter is exactly the same
as standard Windows Russian layout for CP-1251.
This article is about Netscape and not about Russification
of Windows. Therefore, in this chapter I explain keyboard stuff necessary
to write in Russian in Netscape, and it will let you also write in Russian
in almost every other Windows application, but not everywhere in Windows.
(For example, I can not explain how to write in MS-DOS window, or how
to Russify Windows completely to let you write in, say,
If you are not using Russian or PanEuropean version
of
Here is my short installation instruction for this package:
in the U.S.
"Cyrillic and MS Multilanguage Support"
in Russia
"Cyrillic and MS Multilanguage Support"
I have only NT 4.0 and never saw NT 3.51.
You can read about both
1. Keyboard and Russian CP-1251(win) encoding
That is, they have activated Cyrillic keyboard layout and, in case of Russian,
have now a 'RU' indicator on the Taskbar.
If not, they should read the same instructions below.
Windows NT 4.0 does not require an installation of
Important note for Windows 2000 only.
Before going any further you must activate
(if you did not do it already)
If not, then click on this box to activate Cyrillic support and
then click on the button "Apply" below at the right.
You will be asked to insert
Make sure that you have option
It will allow you to see an
As it is written in this window, you will use a combination of buttons
LeftAlt+RightShift to switch between Russian and English.
Click on OK.
It will install Russian (CP-1251 encoding) keyboard file kbdru.
NOTE.
If you don't have Russian letters written on the buttons of your keyboard,
then you may want to install, instead of this standard layout,
my 'phonetic' CP-1251 keyboard layout:
on your keyboard Russian letters will be on the places where similar English are,
for example,
If you need such thing, you can download it from my Home Page:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PaulGor/.
See there a section called
You can check it immediately - in WordPad editor (Start/Programs/Accessories).
Just select a CP-1251 font (fonts were explained in the
(Really, Wordpad itself will switch your keyboard to 'RU', but in most
other Windows appications you will need to do it yourself).
And if you need it again later, you can easily add this
keyboard layout using the same method:
I want to remind you that
2. Keyboard and Russian KOI8-R encoding
Remember, in Netscape 4, when you want to write an e-mail(Messenger)
or write to a Newsgroup(Discussions), you need to select
Windows-1251 encoding via View/CharacterSet
Netscape 4 will - 'behind the scenes' - translate your input from the
local
Therefore, if you use Netscape 4, then you can skip the rest of this
section and go immediately to the section
I offer 2 choices to avoid a problem if a user needs
a language which I selected to replace:
or
After you done with it, you will have 3 keyboard layouts:
That is, when you switch to 'IS', Russian letters and other symbols
can be found on the same places of your keyboard where they are in the 'RU'
mode of your keyboard. This makes an input of a KOI8-R text easier with
a standard Russian keyboard used in the former USSR.
NOTE.
If you don't have Russian letters written on the buttons of your keyboard,
then you may want, instead of the standard layout,
install my 'phonetic' KOI8-R keyboard layout:
on your keyboard Russian letters will be where similar English are,
for example,
If you need such thing, you can download it from my Home Page:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PaulGor/.
See there a section called
The layout is exactly the same as my CP-1251 phonetic layout mentioned
in the previous section.
First, you need to create a directory(folder) where you will
keep my KOI8-R keyboard files for
Now you need to download into this folder my small file(archive)
that contains KOI8-R layout files. Click on the underlined file name
in the table below.
(See downloading instructions above,
in
in the U.S.
in Russia
file KBD95KOI.zip
file KBD95KOI.zip
in the U.S.
in Russia
file KBDNTKOI.zip
file KBDNTKOI.zip
(See .ZIP files instructions above,
in
As a result, my KOI8-R keyboard files will appear in this folder.
Click on OK.
If you don't have full Windows installation package, you can type
C:\RUS-KBD when Windows asks you for an alternate location, and
file kbdic will be taken from there.
Using Windows Explorer, open folder C:\RUS-KBD and do the following:
You should get a message that the layout was successfuly installed in the
Registry.
You can check it immediately - in WordPad editor
(Start/Programs/Accessories).
Just select a KOI8-R font described above,
in
And if you need it again later, you can easily add this
keyboard layout using the same method:
NOTE.
You may find it annoying to use 3 keyboard
For example, you are in the
So, if you do not use often one of the encodings, say, KOI8-R, you
can avoid installation of this
That is, you will switch from
English to CP-1251 Russian via
That is, you will switch from
English to CP-1251 Russian via
You can skip the following section devoted to the keyboard tools under
Windows 3.1, 3.11. Keyboard program WinKey.
So, I use a free keyboard program(keyboard switcher) WinKey.
You can use WinKey in any application that allows
fonts selection(to be able to select Russian fonts),
and therefore in Netscape also.
(Reminder: you can write in Russian only in versions 2.01, 2.02, 3, and 4 of Netscape.)
You need to place this file into some empty directory(folder).
(See instructions for downloading files from the Web above, in
in the U.S.
in Russia
file winkey.zip
file winkey.zip
at SovInformBureau server
at Relcom server
(See instructions for processing of .ZIP files above, in
As a result, WinKey installation files will appear in this directory.
WinKey installation under Windows 3.x/95
IMPORTANT NOTE:
I use WinKey only as a keyboard program.
During installation, WinKey offers you, in addition
to be a keyboard switcher, to change your Windows
environment- replace existing system fonts with its own
Cyrillic fonts. I did not allow to change my Windows:
when WinKey setup program asked,
"Do you want to install our system
fonts?", I answered "NO".
2. How to make WinKey calls handy in the future:
put WinKey icon onto Desktop:
How to use WinKey under Windows 3.x/95
If you don't see it at the moment(it is behind some other window),
just press
To close WinKey application, click once on this active
(in Windows 95 - with right button of your mouse) and select CLOSE.
WinKey uses a Scroll Lock button to switch a keyboard from English to
Russian and back.
Scroll Lock switches your keyboard from Default Keyboard to
Alternative Keyboard, where
(in Windows 95 - with right button of your mouse)
Now Scroll Lock will switch your keyboard from English
to whatever Russian encoding you have selected, for example, KOI8-R.
You can see a picture of a layout to find out
which keyboard buttons are assigned to the letters and other symbols
in a Russian layout:
(in Windows 95 - with right button of your mouse)
For users who do not have Russian letters drawn on the buttons
of their keyboard, I made a 'phonetic' layout for KOI8-R and for CP-1251.
That is, Russian letters will be where similar English are, for example,
English 'R' and Russian 'P', 'A'-'A', etc.
If you need such thing, you can download my 'phonetic' layouts for
your
That is, Russian letters are located on the same places as in
You need to place this file into some empty directory(folder).
(See instructions for downloading files from the Web above, in
in the U.S.
in Russia
file KBD31.zip
file KBD31.zip
(See instructions for processing of .ZIP files above, in
After extracting these files from KBD31.zip archive, you need
to copy them into KEYBOARD sub-directory of C:\WINKEY
directory.
Next time you click once on WinKey icon (Flag), you will be able:
After this, you will be able to switch between English and selected Russian
using handy WinKey's hot
and then
If you want to use one Russian layout most of the time,
for example, use
Test: you write in Russian in Netscape
Cyrillic(KOI8-R) or Cyrillic(Windows-1251)
Cyrillic(KOI8-R) or Cyrillic(Win1251)
Select a corresponding encoding and try to write:
As it was mentioned in the previous sections of this chapter,
Attention! Remember,
Remember, KOI8-R is an encoding for Russian on the Internet,
including e-mail.
(Netscape 4 itself will translate it from your local
encoding to the Internet's KOI8-R before sending).
Netscape 4 note.
Netscape 4 has a fixable error in the Composition window,
where you type your letter, and the solutions are described
in
Remember, Russian language Internet Newsgroups use KOI8-R encoding.
(relcom.test Newsgroup requires that you begin a Subject
line with English words
(Netscape 4 itself will translate it from your local
encoding to the Internet's KOI8-R before sending).
Netscape 4 note.
To prepare a message to a Newsgroup, a user works in the
same Composition window where e-mails are prepared.
Therefore, a
(For example, you need to type in KOI8-R Russian only in
This editor works with any Windows
Ctrl/R lets you type in Russian, and
You sure need to select a corresponding font to type in Russian:
OPTIONS / FONT (or Ctrl/F).
Installation of the Transletterator
or download my copy of this package:
TRANSLTR.zip.
(See downloading instructions above,
in
(See extracting instructions above, in
If you don't have such file, you can download it
and then extract VBRUN200.dll from this archive file and place this
VBRUN200.dll file into your Windows\System directory(folder).
How to make Transletterator calls handy in the future
That is, you may have several Tables (files .TBL) for different encodings and
different layouts.
It's some kind of a 'phonetic'
Write(Windows 3.x), or WordPad(Windows 95/98/NT/2000)
"Symbol of your keyboard","Russian letter"
For example, for a 'phonetic'
FILE / SAVE AS / my-koi8.tbl
7. Netscape and other applications
E-mail Notes
So, when you write a KOI8-R e-mail letter, ver. 2 specifies
wrong Charset for it, not KOI8-R.
This may confuse some e-mail programs that know about KOI8-R encoding.
Newer versions of Netscape already know about KOI8-R that is used to
send Russian messages across the Internet, so they assign correct
Newer versions create correct Charset in the News window, too,
when you prepare your message to a Newsgroup.
Then
Then click on your letter to open it and you will see assigned Charset
in Content-Type field.
Using downloaded Russian texts
It is not very handy to read/print such text in Netscape. It is much better
to use some Word Processor for it.
NOTE: Russian plain text files on the Internet may
exist in different
KOI8-R, CP-1251,
You can convert such plain ASCII text file from one encoding
to another, using a conversion program.
See links to such programs in
Warning: Even if you have some Windows True Type fonts of
So, you need to convert such CP-866 text into KOI8-R or CP-1251 first.
Locate the directory and select file STRUG.TXT.
Word asks me about Conversion and I select Text Only.
Now my Russian text is in Word (using default font,
so it's probably not readable).
Cancel selection (press Home button).
Now I can read in Russian.
Type - Word Document in Save As dialog.
Now I can print it, read it later, or send to friends.
My friends must have fonts of same family
that downloaded text was (KOI8-R or CP-1251) to read my .DOC
file in their Word.
If family - the same, but font is different, then they need to do the following:
8. Links to other Russification instructions
And it's all I know in the area of 'Russification'. Therefore, if you want to know
then use the links to other people's pages listed below and also a list
of
If you go to a page devoted to some program and don't find what you need,
you can always
It is better than asking me about it: I don't have the information
and the author does.
Instruction
Author
Word 97 - problems on screen/printers:
in the U.S.
my collection
'Russify Everything'
"SovInformBureau", USA
Russian (localized)
RNUG, Russia
'Full Russification of
(or my copy of it - full95.htm)
RTW95, Russia
'Full Russification of
RWNTUG, Russia
'Cyrillic for UNIX, PC, and Mac'
"F&P", USA
Russian in
Russian in
K.Kazarnovsky, Russia
T.Kadyshev, Russia
'Russian in Eudora'
LvNet-Teleport, Latvia
'KOI8-R plug-in for Eudora'
E.Surovegin, Russia
Convert:
Windows 95/98/NT/2000; Windows 3.1,3.11
Here is a
(see
A.Lobastoff, Russia
Convert:
MS DOS; UNIX
For MS DOS, see
K.Gredeskoul, Australia
'Cyrillic Converters'
D.Fedorov, Brazil
'Transliteration Converter'
(text as "privet" to real Russian)
R.Koshelev, Russia
Dictionary and Proofing Tools
Informatic, Russia
Alki Software, USA
I don't use ICQ, but have some links for Cyrillic in ICQ:
and its tune-up sub-page:
"Russian font" (in CP-1251)
I don't use IRC, but have some links for Cyrillic in IRC:
As I heard (I don't have AOL), AOL browser
does not work fully with Cyrillic.
But AOL allows to use another browser instead
and I have some links with the instructions:
'Russification of Macintosh'
M.Palchuk, USA
'MacOS and KOI8-R'
I.Moiseev, Russia
'Ukrainianization'
BRAMA, USA
Note. Some of Newsgroups may not be available on the News
server of your Internet Service Provider. In such case you can use a free News
service provided by DejaNews, where you can read a
(otherwise you may not be able to see Russian in the list of subjects when
DejaNews presents one for you)
As I mentioned several times on this page,
Russian language Newsgroups use KOI8-R encoding.
So, to read Newsgroup messages in DejaNews, you need to switch Netscape to Cyrillic(KOI8-R).
(Switching between different Cyrillic encodings for various Netscape versions
was explained in this article)
NOTE. You will be able to read Russian subject lines in a list of found
articles that DejaNews presents to you. But when you open a single message,
you may not be able to read the subject
If the themes of the above Newsgroups are not related directly to your question,
you may search Russian forums using DejaNews page:
Note. You can not use Cyrillic in this field.
Then you may want to type one of the following:
palmtop
palmtop OR Pilot
palmtop OR (Windows AND CE)
For example, you can search all Russian forums by typing
relcom.*, fido7.*
Paul Gorodyansky, Software Engineer, U.S.A.
(before 1991 - Pavel Gorodyanskiy, Moscow,
(I am spending a lot of time answering e-mails
and do not want to end up as this person who closed his page,
because people did not read his text but instead
immediately asked him a question:
(if you use Netscape 4.0x (4.0-4.08), then
do not
Donations
It takes a lot of my resources to maintain this
If you find my instructions useful, you may want to say
P.O. Box 328,
Los Altos, CA 94023-328
USA
Disclaimer
This article is a result of my personal research,
not related to a company I work for.
This information, documentation, and software is provided "as is".
To the extent you use or implement this information,
documentation, or software in your own setting, you do so