Developing multilingual web sites

From: Aaron Delwiche (aaron@lemon.com.hk)
Date: Mon Mar 20 2000 - 05:38:42 EST


Hello,

I am currently working on a multilingual web site that includes content in
five different languages (English, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese,
Korean, and Japanese). I am developing these pages with a text editor (e.g.,
UltraEdit and Homesite) and graphics applications such as Adobe Photoshop.
My operating system is Windows 2000 .

During the past week, I have received a batch of multilingual content that
is mostly in Unicode format. I can easily view the content in Outlook
Express, and I can also view it Wordpad. However, when I export the files to
text/HTML format, all of the unique character information is lost. I am
searching for reliable tools that will export Unicode format to the
appropriate native code format (e.g. Big 5, Shift JIS).

I have installed multiple language support under Windows 2000, and have also
experimented with third-party software such as Union Way and Richwin. So
far, I have been unable to discover a workable solution. I have several
questions:

1. Has anyone on this list encountered similar problems when developing
multilingual websites?

2. Can anyone point me to reliable software that will make it possible to
create multilingual graphics with applications such as Adobe Photoshop or
Macromedia Fireworks?

3. Does anyone know of useful on-line articles that provide a detailed
explanation of the differences between Unicode and the native character
sets?

4. What happens to native code text when it is copied and pasted to the
clipboard under Windows 2000? Does it preserve the native code format?

5. What is the time-frame on the death of ASCII? One year? Two years? Five
years?

I hope these questions do not seem inappropriate or excessively basic. I
just figure that people on this list are the most reliable experts on the
topic of multilingual computing.

Best regards,

Aaron Delwiche
Director of Interface Development
___________________________________________
L E M O N

12/F Tin On Sing Commercial Bldg
41-43 Graham Street, Central, Hong Kong
tel (852) 2537-2313 fax (852) 2537-5678
__________________________________________



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