TechNote (Archived)

Document encoding for multilingual HTML pages

Using English Dreamweaver to develop non-English pages

Developers using the English version of Dreamweaver can develop a wide range of non-English HTML pages with document encoding, a system for electronically displaying appropriate characters for different languages. Document encoding is achieved in two steps:

1. Input: Input involves selecting the correct language-specific character set. This can be done for certain languages on an English operating system. Other languages require a localized operating system.
2. Encoding: Encoding involves adding HTML code that tells both Dreamweaver and the browser which character set should be used to display the page.

Input

Document encoding requires that the developer has a method of inputting the appropriate characters for the language being developed. This is achieved using different methods depending on the platform and the language. For instance, a developer creating a page in French would follow the steps below:

Windows platform:

1. Access the keyboard language settings from within the Control Panel (Settings > Control Panel from the Start button). The keyboard language settings are accessed in slightly different locations depending upon operating system.
   • Windows XP: Double-click Regional and Language Options, switch to the Languages tab, click the Details button, then chose the Settings tab.
   • Windows NT / Windows 2000: Double-click the Keyboard icon, then select the Input Locales tab.
   • Windows 95/98: Double-click the Keyboard icon, then select the Language tab.
2. Select the Add button.
3. Choose the appropriate language. In this case, choose French. The "Enable Indicator on Task bar" option should be selected because it provides an icon on the system task bar for easily switching from one language to another.
   
   Note: If the language is not available from this selection, it may need to be installed from the operating system application CD. Check with the operating system help files or the manufacturer for assistance. Double-byte languages such as Chinese, Japanese or Korean will require running the localized operating system as well as the localized version of Dreamweaver.
4. The Keyboard indicator appears in the system tray as a blue box containing two letters. Select the keyboard for the language required. In this case, choose French.
   
   Note: A newly-launched application assumes the default-language setting (usually English), so check the Keyboard indicator after launching Dreamweaver to make sure the appropriate language is selected.
   
   

Jump to Encoding

Macintosh platform:

1. From the Apple menu, choose Control Panels > Keyboard. This launches the Keyboard selector. On Mac OS X, choose International from the System Preferences, and switch to the Keyboard Menu tab.
   
   
2. Choose the appropriate language. In this case, choose French.
   
   Note: If the language is not available from this selection, it may require purchase of a language kit.
3. The Keyboard selector appears in the upper right-hand corner of the screen with the chosen language represented by the country's flag. The example below is the flag displayed if French is chosen.
   
   
4. To access the diagrams for keyboard layouts, click the Flag icon to select the appropriate language and then choose Key Caps from the Apple menu.
   
   Note: Key Caps might be found under a Apple submenu such as Appleware.

Encoding

Once the operating system is ready to input the characters required for the language, the HTML document has to be encoded. Setting the Fonts/Encoding preference in Dreamweaver writes code to the head of an HTML document that tells a browser accessing the Web page what character set it should use to display the text in the browser. Most 4.0 and later browsers detect the required character set and use it to display the HTML page properly.

1. To change the encoding settings for an individual HTML page, choose Modify > Page Properties while in the Document window. A portion of the window is displayed below.
   
   The default setting for the English version of Dreamweaver is Western [Latin1]. It is also the desired setting for a page displayed in French.
   
   
   
   Note: Dreamweaver MX adds support for UTF-8. Choosing the UTF-8 encoding type allows developers to code nearly any language on the page, and this choice allows developers to code more than one language within a single document. Some language scripts will only display properly in the Dreamweaver MX Design view with the UTF-8 encoding choice.
   
   See UTF-8 Issues in Dreamweaver MX (TechNote 16338) for additional information and an explanation of known issues.
2. The encoding choice will determine what character set is used by both Dreamweaver and the browser to display the content. The screen shot above shows the choices available by default with Dreamweaver. Notice that there may be more than one choice per language.
   
   Note: Remember that document encoding is a two-part process: 1) specifying the encoding for the HTML page so that the browser knows what character set it should use to display the text and 2) choosing the appropriate language-specific character set from the operating system. (See Input above.)
3. To temporarily change the default encoding to be used when creating new documents in Dreamweaver, choose Modify > Page Properties > Document Encoding.
4. To permanently change the default encoding to be used when creating new documents in Dreamweaver, choose Edit > Preferences.
   
   After changing the default encoding to be used when creating new documents, select the Fonts/Encoding category. A portion of the window is displayed below. The Default Encoding options are the same as for the Document Encoding setting used for individual pages.
   
   
5. As the encoding is set, code is written to the head of the HTML file. This is an example of the code that would be written to the head of the document when French (Western [Latin1], ISO-8859-1) is selected:

    <META http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> 

   • Western [Latin1], ISO-8859-1, is the default encoding option used if developing HTML in English or most Western European languages.
   • Japanese, Chinese and Korean are double-byte languages. They require either a localized version of the operating system (Windows) or a language kit (Macintosh) as well as an input method.
   • Some languages have more than one encoding option. These options may or may not be supported by a particular browser. See the World Wide Web Consortium site for a list of the major character sets supported by popular browsers.
   • The Font Settings option should be set to match the correct language. The Proportional Font, Fixed Font and HTML Inspector font may need to be changed to a font that contains the appropriate character set for the language.
   Note: With the UTF-8 choice on Dreamweaver MX on Windows, you may also check the Use Dynamic Font Mapping box. This can help ensure that the correct fonts are used, but it will also slow down the performance of the page.

Note: Encoded HTML documents created outside of Dreamweaver may not display correctly in Dreamweaver. This includes documents that have been hand-coded or created in another HTML editor.

Additional Information

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To learn more about configuring your operating system for multilingual input and for document encoding, visit the sites below:

• Basic concepts in International Setup (Microsoft article discussing multilingual configuration)
• Locales & Languages (Microsoft FAQ document)
• List of Language Group IDs and supported locales (table listing the locales broken into Language Groups)
• Windows Keyboard Layouts (pop-up menu provides visual representation of keyboard layouts)
• Configuring and Using International Features of Windows
• Windows 2000: General Questions
• Glossary (for software globalization information)
• Unicode Home Page
• Unicode Transformation Formats version 8 (UTF-8)
• Unicode Organization's Language Samples
• Browsing the Alphabets of the World
• World Wide Web Consortium's discussion of document encoding

Third party links

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