same - in Russian ( zdes - po-russki )
| You can read and write | in Browser | in News(Discussions) | in Mail(Messenger) |
Instructions for Cyrillic (mostly Russian) in MS Windows
Author: Paul Gorodyansky (click on this author name link for contact information)
In the U.S., same article is located here: http://www.siber.com/sib/russify/ms-windows/netscape.html
Webmasters: PLEASE, do NOT copy the files of this article to your
server!
Instead, put LINKS to the main location(s) listed above (those
servers are fast and reliable).
The point is that I update this text often,
but all copies of my article that I found were very old.
It is bad for the readers of such outdated copies (they will not be able to
tune-up Netscape correctly), and also it is bad for
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 efforts on the MS-Windows Netscape.
> It is the clearest step by step I've found on the Web.
> Rich Core
> 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 in the order of this
See references in Part 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:
Therefore, if an author of a page used, for example, a font of KOI8-R encoding family for a Russian text, and a user is trying to read this page in Netscape using a font that belongs to Cyrillic CP-1251(win) encoding, then such user will not be able to read this page at all.
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:
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).
Unlike the Internet, Microsoft Windows has a different standard forRussian - CP-1251.
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 Netscape:
So, you need to install at least 4 new Cyrillic True Type fonts in your Windows:
Below you will find download locations and
descriptions for free Cyrillic
fonts that I found on the Internet, tested, and suggest
to use in Netscape under
All these 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 SHIFT key on your keyboard while clicking on that file.
| in the U.S. | in Russia |
|---|---|
| file ForWWW.zip | file ForWWW.zip |
You can do it with
WinZip for Windows software if you have it
OR
simply with pkunzip
If you don't have pkunzip program, then get it by
downloading file
pkunzip.exe
into your C:\WINDOWS
To extract font files using pkunzip, type these two
C:\........> cd \RUSFONTS
C:\RUSFONTS> pkunzip forwww.zip
You can input these commands being in Windows, too. Just open the application
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
NOTE: I don't have Windows 95, but I know that people successfully use these instructions for theirWindows 95.
Windows 3.1, 3.11:
Windows 95 and Windows NT:
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 thePart 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 part 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.
NOTE. My method for version 2:
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 a
User Defined Encoding. See details below, in the section"Version 2.02 - additional setup for News and Mail".
ATTENTION! Error: 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 a section ofPart 5 "Test: you read in Russian in Netscape")
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 wrote '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 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 CYR-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 CYR-modifications of yourWindows 95 fonts, then it means that you need to install an additionalsoftware - MS Multilanguage Support.
My article is about Netscape only, therefore below you will find some links toWindows 95 instructions:
- BINCO.COM (Bulgaria) - "Cyrillic in Windows 95"
- A.Ivanov - (in Russian, KOI8-R) - "Windows 95"
(about MS Multilanguage Support - at the middle of the page)
- A.Chernov - "About Windows 95"
(about MS Multilanguage Support - at the middle of the page)
Thus, in Netscape 2,3 under Windows 95 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,
NOTE. I suggest to use this instruction only 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
Part 5, section"Test: you read in Russian in Netscape".
Therefore, such users should use inNetscape 3 under NT those free CP-1251 fonts 'ER' described above. They can skip the following instructions and go directly to the next section:"Step 2. Default Encoding".
Here is the instruction that allows
Now, when you call Netscape 3, you will be able to work normally with Cyrillic
Web pages that are in CP-1251(win) coding, after you install
Cyrillic fonts 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, 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:
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.
Netscape Communicator 4 (or simply Netscape 4) is a very new product, so it
has errors.
(This is why I still use
NOTE. In Netscape 4, unlike all previous versions, News part has a newname - Discussions. Mail part is called now Messenger.
If you ever want to send e-mail letters from Netscape 4, then first thing you need to do
is to change its default mail setting. Communicator allows now to send
e-mail letter as a HTML text, that is, a person who receives it, will read
the letter as a nice Web page instead of a plain text.
But, as I read in the following professional Newsgroups:
So, you need to go to
While you are working with this window, make sure that you did NOT change the
following part of mail settings:
click on the button 'More Options' at the bottom, and make sure that
you have
Netscape 4 for MS Windows offers a new method for
The developers' idea was to avoid using KOI8-R fonts, because
Netscape 4 uses only CP-1251(Windows) fonts (for reading and for writing)
and does a conversion CP-1251<-->KOI8-R
Important! Unlike all previous versions,
Netscape converts your stuff to KOI8-R
Netscape 4 works with Cyrillic in all its parts.
The tune-up is similar to one for
Netscape 4 tune-up is not the same for different versions of Windows:
This is Step 1 of the Initial Setup.
Windows 95/NT has, unlike
Therefore, you can use for Cyrillic any font from your Windows
that has a CYR-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:
Windows 95 Note. If you do not see such CYR-modifications of yourWindows 95 fonts, then it means that you need to install an additionalsoftware - MS Multilanguage Support.
My article is about Netscape only, therefore below you will find some links toWindows 95 instructions:
- BINCO.COM (Bulgaria) - "Cyrillic in Windows 95"
- A.Ivanov - (in Russian, KOI8-R) - "Windows 95"
(about MS Multilanguage Support - at the middle of the page)
- A.Chernov - "About Windows 95"
(about MS Multilanguage Support - at the middle of the page)
Under Windows 95/NT you need to use in Netscape 4 only these type
of Russian CP-1251(win) fonts, that is those
that are included into your Windows.
(Netscape 4 for Windows 95/NT does NOT let you read Cyrillic pages
using those free CP-1251 fonts
In Netscape 4 you do NOT need any KOI8-R fonts.
So, to install Russian fonts in Netscape 4 under
This is Step 1 of the Initial Setup.
Unlike Windows 95/NT, 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 Windows 3.x fonts.
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.
Important! In all previous versions of Netscape,
this
Netscape 4 does NOT require you to make a Russian encoding be your
Default one, everything works fine without this step
(except the cases where something does not work
because of
At the beginning, Netscape 4 has a Western Encodings as a Default, that is, if just after the installation you look into View/Encoding, you will see Western marked. It's how this should be. If it has already been changed, you can easily put it back:
Therefore, try to work with Netscape's original
Here are known to me cases for Netscape 4:
Netscape 4 uses for Cyrillic only CP-1251(win) encoding, including
Bookmarks window (where you can go, for example, by pressing Ctrl/B).
Therefore, if you want to use your 'old' Bookmarks taken from an older version
of Netscape, then you need to know the following:
If in your 'old' Bookmarks you had all Russian Names in KOI8-R encoding,
then you will need to convert your Bookmark.htm file using
KOI8-R-->CP-1251 scheme to make your Bookmarks readable in
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)/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 Discussions window, 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 :
|
1. Composition window error
and a small error in the News(Discussions) window.
You go to the Composition window when you want to write an e-mail or
a message to a
Netscape 4 works with an error in Composition
Same method can be used to solve a small problem in the News(Discussions).
When you open a Newsgroup in this window, a Subject of a currently
selected article is shown in a special line in the middle of the screen
(this line separates a list of articles and a text of a current article).
Unfortunately, different versions of MS
Netscape 4, 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
Such users can implement a very simple method that will allow
them normally write in Forms
(found by D.Filatkin):
After you done with this Form, DO NOT FORGET select again this 'built-in'
Fixed font instead of the temporarily selected
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:
By selecting a corresponding encoding, check if you can read Russian
in forms:
It means that you found a page where the author did some wrong things
during
1. FACE=.
But in the following situations his Russian page will be unreadable:
There are a lot of such users - they have low-end PCs,
for example, 386/4Mb or 486/8Mb, and they just can not afford
more expensive PCs to install
Netscape 3 under NT 4.0 can be fixed to force it to understand Russian in UNICODE
fonts, but not every user can find such instructions on the Web
(there is one in this article's
You see, the Web is for everyone, therefore
a developer should never make any assumptions
about some user's machine and fonts.
I saw even more strange things happening when the author uses a program
that helps him to build a Web page
2. SIZE=.
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 Part.
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
The subject of this article - only Netscape. Also, you probably
have already typed in Russian in some other Windows applications. So,
I am not going to write a lot about the keyboard tools, but rather give some
links to the Web pages, that contain detailed instructions about this subject.
Important! Sometimes I receive letters from new users
with questions like this, "You suggested to use a KOI8-R font
Below you find some information about Cyrillic writing that will
help you to produce CP-1251 or KOI8-R text.
I have only NT 4.0, and never saw NT 3.51.
You can read about both
You need to do the following to write in Russian in Netscape under
To produce Russian CP-1251(win) text in Netscape,
you need to do
Here are the steps to initiate NT's built-in
Russian keyboard
Now you can write in CP-1251 encoding. You can check it
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 NT only for the
older versions of
Netscape 2,3 under Windows NT 4.0 and KOI8-R keyboard
In these versions of Netscape you need to do the following 2 things
to produce Russian KOI8-R text:
NT's keyboard layout "Russian" is already taken for the CP-1251 encoding.
So, you have 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 prefer it.
The following instruction will help you to install
KOI8-R keyboard layout as
and you will be able to switch between them
I developed my KOI8-R keyboard file for NT in such a way, that the
location of Russian letters in the
Definitely, you need to have a KOI8-R font to do so
Let's start. First, you need to create a directory(folder) where you will
keep my KOI8-R keyboard files for
After you download this file into C:\RUS-NT, you will need to
extract files from this archive.
To have KOI8-R keyboard layout as 'IS', we need first to have a
standard "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 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 will not need anymore this 'IS'
keyboard mode used for KOI8-R
You can skip the following sections, devoted to
As I already mentioned, I do not have Windows 95,
and keyboard tools are part of Windows.
Microsoft uses this encoding for Russian, but nevertheless
you probably will need to install an additional package to activate
Russian CP-1251
After you install a standard for Windows 95 Russian keyboard layout for
CP-1251(win) encoding, you will get a
In some versions of
To make the subject shown in this line readable,
you need to
2. Netscape 4 - a problem with writing in Forms.
Netscape and different modifications of MS Windows.
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
Here are the methods for
Start / Settings / Control Panel / Regional Settings
Russian - Set as system default locale.
In the 'Russified'
In particular, it offers a font "Courier".
And you need to select this font as a Fixed width font,
instead of the usually selected font
Now you can normally write in Forms. And you can keep using this "Courier"
In such case the solution is not so simple.
Only for the time you are filling a Form, you need to
Now you will be able to see what you are writing in a Form's
input fields.
It's absolutely necessary. Because, as I wrote at the beginning of this
5. How to read Cyrillic in
Correct encoding, but page is not readable. Why ?
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 Part 6).
Cyrillic(KOI8-R) or Cyrillic(Win1251)
Cyrillic(KOI8-R) or Cyrillic, that means CP-1251(win)
Two Russian Test pages that I
These Test pages allow you to check both Proportional
and Fixed fonts:
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
In Netscape 2,3,4 you can read a text on a form's button
and in a form's pop-up
(with one exception in Windows NT 4.0 - for users in the
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)
In Netscape 2,3 add a bookmark -
You will be able to read this KOI8-R Name when you go to
your
Netscape 4 requires CP-1251 in Bookmarks, and
as a test you may add a CP-1251 Bookmark of the
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,
The author either included this feature himself or used a software that helped him,
for example,
This program includes such font information automatically, and the author
did not remove it from the final version of the page.
We are talking about the "FONT" element of the HTML language.
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 at the beginning:
FONT FACE=Arial Cyr or FONT FACE=Arial Size=1
Usage of the elements FACE= and SIZE=
is considered a bad HTML
"What's Wrong With FONT?"
and
"FONT FACE considered harmful".
The point is that some developers forget that not all their
future readers may have this font,
for example, "Arial", with all its characteristics.
For example, the author works under Russian
(If he opens a Wordpad after the installation of
On his PC everything is fine, because Script-Cyrillic of this
There is a font "Arial", but it does not contain Russian letters!
There is no such thing as Script-Cyrillic in
It happens in Russia (I mean, non-Russian
To work with Russian Web pages, people use non-Microsoft fonts,
for example,
for example,
There is a font "Arial" in such Windows 95,
but it does not contain Russian letters!
(This is important only if the author wants readers outside of Russia,
because in Russia all
A user may not have at all the font of
There are Russian letters in "Arial", but
The page will be unreadable.
There are a lot of Netscape 3 users. They usually work with 'old' Russian fonts
of
Also, users who live outside of Russia, can get another
But the reader does not have such font, because he uses UNIX, Mac, or
That is, such developers narrow their customer base a lot,
loose many potential readers/clients.
It is especially funny to see a commercial page of this
See - if you can :) - an example of such page -
This program automatically inserts HTML tags
If the author does not erase such tags, then this page will be
unreadable even under Russian versions of Windows where
font "Arial" does contain Russian letters
It's because this font belongs to the Russian CP-1251(win) encoding,
while the text of this new page contains KOI8-R letters!
None of the standard MS Windows fonts contain Russian letters
in the KOI8-R encoding.
Sometimes the author did not write a font name, but
included a font size. As I mentioned, it is considered a bad style
of the HTML, and such page is often not readable. On the author's PC
everything is fine, because with his font this page is readable with,
for example,
FONT SIZE=1 or FONT SIZE=-2.
But on a reader's PC, readers's font can NOT provide such sizing,
and the page is not readable.
The point is the same - a developer must remember, that every user has
his own set of fonts, and it is a mistake to make a presumption
about a potential user's environment.
In the articles mentioned above, it is suggested to use HTML elements
SMALL and BIG instead of SIZE=. They allow to control
a size of a text on the screen.
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:
Options / Document Encoding ( View / Encoding in ver. 4 ).
Thus, you make work a specific set of Russian fonts, that was selected for
this Encoding during the initial tune-up.
In the previous parts 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 (for example,
KOI8-R) only in Netscape, then you may NOT need any
keyboard program.
See below section
"Free text editor Transletterator".
In Netscape 2,3 you often need to write in
Keyboard Programs
They allow you to activate a Russian keyboard layout.
NOTE. I have no information of how to obtain or how to
work with commercial keyboard programs.
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.
You see, keyboard issues belong to Windows discussions, while
Netscape is just one of the Windows applications.
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
It can be some separate keyboard
program or a keyboard tool included into your
Below you will find some information about such keyboard programs and tools.
The keyboard instructions I point to offer you different keyboard layouts
to use for both CP-1251(win) and KOI8-R encodings. Often such instructions also
tell how you can built your own layout (but it's not a simple task).
Click on a line that corresponds to your version of Windows:
Windows NT and Russian keyboard
For example, there is a part of this document called
I am not going to write here about the Russification of Windows,
but only about writing in Netscape under
1. NT keyboard and Russian CP-1251(win) encoding
Make sure that you have option "Enable Indicator on Taskbar"
checked (it's at the bottom of this window).
It will allow you to see an
As it is written in this window, you need to press LeftAlt+RightShift
to switch between Russian and English.
Click on OK.
It will install Russian keyboard file kbdru.dll.
When you do this, look how WordPad itself will change a current font
to its 'Cyr'-modification, for example,
In other programs you will need to select needed Cyrillic font
NOTE.
If you don't have Russian letters written on the buttons of your keyboard,
then you may want to install a 'phonetic' CP-1251 keyboard layout for NT,
so 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/Paul_Gorodyansky/.
See there a section called
I want to remind you that
2. Windows NT 4.0 keyboard and Russian KOI8-R encoding
Remember, in Netscape 4, when you work with e-mail(Messenger)
or with Usenet Newsgroups(Discussions), you need to select
CP-1251(win) encoding via View/Encoding.
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
the language which I selected:
or
After you done with it, you will have 3 keyboard layouts:
That is, when you switch to 'IS', Russian letters and other symbols
will be on the same places of your keyboard where they are in the 'RU'
mode of your keyboard. This makes easier an input of a KOI8-R text.
Now you need to download into this folder my small file(archive)
KBDNTKOI.zip by clicking on the underlined file name in the table below.
(See downloading instructions above, in "Part 1").
in the U.S.
in Russia
file KBDNTKOI.zip
file KBDNTKOI.zip
(See .ZIP files instructions above, in "Part 1").
As a result, the following new files will appear in this folder:
kbdkoi8.dll, kbdic.dll, kbdbr.dll, koi8-IS.reg,
koi8-PO.reg.
Click on OK.
If you don't have full NT installation package, you can type
C:\RUS-NT when NT asks you for an alternate location, and
file kbdic.dll will be taken from there.
Using Windows Explorer, open folder C:\RUS-NT and do the following:
You should get a message that the layout was successfuly installed in the
Registry.
(If you selected "Portuguese(Brazilian)" then do the same for the file
koi8-po.reg)
(Or using 'PO' if you selected "Portuguese(Brazilian)" for this).
You can check it immediately - in WordPad. Just select a KOI8-R font
described above, in
NOTE.
If you don't have Russian letters written on the buttons of your keyboard,
then you may want to install a 'phonetic' KOI8-R keyboard layout for NT,
so 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/Paul_Gorodyansky/.
See there a section called
The layout is exactly the same as my CP-1251 phonetic layout mentioned
in the previous section.
Windows 95 and Russian keyboard
My article - about Netscape, and Netscape has nothing to do
with keyboard layouts.
Therefore, if you want to write in Russian in Netscape, please,
see below the links to some instructions devoted to the
1. Windows 95 keyboard and Russian CP-1251(win) encoding
(about MS Multilanguage Support - in the middle of the page)
(about MS Multilanguage Support - in the middle of the page)
(in Windows 95 "Russian" means CP-1251)
You will be able to switch between English and Russian using the LeftAlt+RightShift
keyboard combination or a mouse click on this
language indicator.
To produce Russian CP-1251(win) text in Netscape,
you need to do
I want to remind you that
NOTE. If you don't have Russian letters written on the buttons of your keyboard, then you may want to install a 'phonetic' CP-1251 keyboard layout forWindows 95, so on your keyboard Russian letters will be where similar English are, for example,English 'R' - Russian 'P'.
If you need such thing, you can download it from thePaul Dziemiela's page - "Guide to Cyrillic for Windows 95".
He calls such phonetic layout a Transliterated Layout.
(Paul also offers Ukrainian layouts).
Another way to write in CP-1251 under
WinKey - free keyboard program.
I use it all the time in Windows 3.1 without any problems, and as I heard, it also works underWindows 95 (some people reported problems, though related only to the interface of WinKey underWindows 95) .
With WinKey you can use either a standard Russian CP-1251 keyboard layout, or a phonetic one.
WinKey is described in details in the next section, devoted toWindows 3.1.
| 2. Windows 95 keyboard and Russian KOI8-R encoding |
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
Remember, in Netscape 4, when you work with e-mail(Messenger)
or with Usenet Newsgroups(Discussions), you need to select
CP-1251(win) encoding via View/Encoding.
Netscape 4 will - 'behind the scenes' - translate your input from the
local
So, you will need KOI8-R keyboard tools in
Therefore, if you use Netscape 4, then you can skip the rest of this
section and go immediately to the section
Netscape 2,3 under Windows 95 and KOI8-R keyboard
In these versions of Netscape you need to do the following 2 things to produce Russian KOI8-R text:
Because I do not have Windows 95, please see the following instructions
that explain how to activate KOI8-R keyboard tools under
Choose one of the following methods (based on either a simplicity of the
implementation, or an author's location of Russian letters on the keyboard that is
suitable for you):
Another way to write in KOI8-R under
WinKey - free keyboard program.
I use it all the time in Windows 3.1 without any problems, and as I heard, it also works underWindows 95 (some people reported problems, though related only to the interface of WinKey underWindows 95) .
With WinKey you can use either a standard KOI8-R keyboard layout, or a phonetic one.
WinKey is described in details in the next section, devoted toWindows 3.1.
You can skip the following sections, devoted to
I did not see Russian Windows 3.1, made by Microsoft for the former USSR,
but in the regular
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.)
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.
You need to place this file into some empty directory(folder).
(See instructions for downloading files from the Web above, in
"Part 1").
| in the U.S. | in Russia |
|---|---|
| file winkey.zip | file winkey.zip |
| at SovInformBureau server | at Relcom server |
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.
(See instructions for processing of .ZIP files above, in
"Part 1").
As a result, WinKey installation files will appear in this directory.
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.
2. How to make WinKey calls handy in the future:
or put WinKey into your Start/Programs menu:
Call WinKey. Now, until you close it, you will have an active WinKey
If you don't see it at the moment(it is behind some other window),
just press Scroll Lock button, and you will see it immediately.
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.
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
How to choose your current Alternative Keyboard:
WinKey comes with its own keyboard layout
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:
Note. WinKey allows a user - via menu
If you need such thing, you can download my layouts for your
You will be able to check your KOI8-R and CP-1251 settings for writing in forms offered on some Web pages, in Netscape Mail, and in News(Discussions).
The methods of switching your keyboard to Russian were described in the previous sections of this part, 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.
As it was mentioned in the previous sections of this part,
Attention! Remember, Netscape 4 has problems with forms
under some versions of Windows.
Send an e-mail letter to someone whose e-mail system (for example,
You can write both a Subject line and a letter itself:
Important! Netscape 4 has an error in the Composition window, where you type your letter. It sends your text in a wrong encoding, but you can fix this problem (you can find more details inPart 4, section"Problems with Cyrillic in Netscape 4" ):
- when you see your Composition window, temporarily select any encoding other than Cyrillic(Windows-1251), for example, Western
- go to View/Encoding again and select Cyrillic(Windows-1251).
Now you can safely type your text.
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
(relcom.test Newsgroup requires that you begin a Subject
line with English words
You may go to this Newsgroup again in a minute or so to read your
posting.
If you need to type in KOI8-R only in
Netscape, then you can avoid installing an additional KOI8-R
keyboard support. Instead, you can use free text editor,
which does not require any keyboard program to type in Russian.
This editor works with any Windows
In the menu OPTIONS of this program you can see that
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).
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
Transletterator requires one special library
If you don't have such file, you can download it (as .ZIP):
VBRUN200.zip, and then extract VBRUN200.dll from it and place this .DLL
file into your Windows\System directory(folder).
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.
That is, you may have several Tables (files .TBL) for different encodings and
different layouts.
The current table is selected via the menu OPTIONS / TRANSLATION TABLE.
The author have included into the package one such
It's some kind of a 'phonetic'
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/Paul_Gorodyansky/,
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.
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 correctCharset - koi8-r.
Newer versions create correct Charset in the News window, too, when you prepare your message to a Newsgroup.
To see what Charset is assigned to your Russian letter,
open Sent folder in Mail.
Then
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 ?
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 differentencodings -
KOI8-R, CP-1251,CP-866(Alt DOS).
You can convert such plain ASCII text file from one encoding to another, using a conversion program. See links to such programs inPart 8 of this article.
Warning: Even if you have some Windows True Type fonts ofCP-866(Alt DOS) encoding (you may find such fonts on the Internet), you can NOT use them to read a CP-866 text file inMS Word - Russian letter 'a' is not shown there(I did not see Word 7, though).
So, you need to convert such CP-866 text into KOI8-R or CP-1251.
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!
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:
| Instruction | Author |
|---|---|
| 'Russify Everything' | "SovInformBureau" - USA |
| 'KOI8-R References' | A.Chernov - Russia |
'Windows 95 stuff' | at A.Chernov's page |
| 'Windows 95' (in KOI8-R) | A.Ivanov - Latvia |
| 'Cyrillic in Windows 95' | BINCO.COM - Bulgaria |
'Russian in NT' (in CP-1251) | RWNTUG - Russia |
'KOI8 keyboard in Windows 95/NT' | M.Chikalov - Russia |
| 'Cyrillic keyboard in Windows 95' | Paul Dziemiela - USA |
'Cyrillic for PC, Mac, and UNIX' | "Friends and Partners" - USA |
'Russian in Forte Agent' | Timur Kadyshev - Russia |
'Russian in Eudora' | LvNet-Teleport - Latvia |
| 'KOI8-R plug-in for Eudora' (in CP-1251) | E.Surovegin - Russia |
'Convert: KOI8-R<->CP-1251<->...' Windows 95/NT; Windows 3.1,3.11 And here is its Copy in the U.S. |
A. Lobastoff - Russia, Novosibirsk |
'Convert: KOI8-R<->CP-1251<->...' MS DOS; UNIX | K. Gredeskoul - Australia |
'Cyrillic Converters' | D. Fedorov - Brazil |
'MacOS and KOI8-R' | I.Moiseev - Russia |
'Ukrainianization' | BRAMA - USA |
That's all!
Paul Gorodyansky, Software Engineer, U.S.A.
(before 1991 - Pavel Gorodyanskiy, Moscow,
My Home Page: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Paul_Gorodyansky/.
My e-mail address: paulgor@geocities.com
(if you use Netscape 4, do not
These instructions are ThankYouWare.
It takes a lot of my resources to maintain this page, both time
that I spend answering e-mail letters,
looking for a new information on the Web (and in the Usenet Newsgroups),
and updating my instructions, and money that I pay
to my
If you find my instructions useful, you may want to say
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.
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
In no event will the author be liable to you for any damages arising from
your use or, your inability to use this information, documentation, or software,
including any lost profits, lost savings, or other incidental or
consequential damages, even if the author has been advised
of the possibility of such damages, or for any claim by another party.