Getting Other Languages to Show Up...

[Abstract]

I have a question for you wise Mac users out there.

How do I get another language, say Chinese, to show up in programs like Firefox or Safari? While it seems to show up using the language preferences box, allowing me to type in Chinese if I wanted to, it doesn't seem to let me view chinese characters properly in programs like Safari and Firefox.

Anyone know what I can do? A friend just sent me an article with English and Cantonese together. I'm trying to learn how to speak Cantonese, since my parents are from HK, after all.

 

[annk]

If the characters aren't showing up, you can change the text encoding until you hit the right one. In Safari go to View, then Text Encoding. I don't have Firefox on the machine I'm writing from, but I seem to remember this is more or less the same on all browsers.

Here's a great link to info on Chinese on Mac:

http://www.yale.edu/chinesemac/pages/start.html

You didn't ask about word processing, but my experience is that Word is difficult to imput Chinese - the formatting is awful, and you get unpleasant surprises when you open the document after saving. Apple Works is great, works like a dream

 

[bousozoku]

Attached is a look at the Firefox menu where you change the encodings. Hopefully, the page is marked correctly but they're usually not.

 

[syniac]

As for typing in a non-Roman language, TextEdit is the best IMO. People tend to adore Mellel, but every time I've succumbed to the trend it's displayed nothing but square boxes, even after fiddling with preferences for a few minutes. I get bored after that, and go back to TE. Mellel goes in the trash.

Cantonese on Mac can be done through Unicode, in which case any information on that (and there's plenty out there) will apply; or it can be done through the pre-Unicode methods, in which case you should research the different encodings so you can make an informed judgement on which to choose when a web page won't display.