## Cyrillic for MS Windows Netscape

same - in Russian ( zdes - po-russki )

You can read and write | in Browser | in News | in Mail

Instructions for Cyrillic (mostly Russian) in MS Windows Netscape ver. 1,2,3,4.

May 26, 1997.

You are reading the article that I uploaded to this place in the U.S.: http://www.siber.com/sib/russify/ms-windows/netscape.html

In Russia, same article is located here: http://www.relcom.ru/Russification/WinNetscape/

PLEASE, do NOT copy the files of this article to your server.
Instead, put LINKS to the main location(s) listed above. Thus, your readers will always see the current version of my text.
(I found several servers that have copied my files, and all of them have very old, outdated versions of this article).

DISCLAIMER: This is a result of my personal research, not related to a company I work for.

### TABLE OF CONTENTS

About Netscape 4 - in the Part 5.
See references in Part 8 for subjects that are NOT covered in this article.

1. Free Russian fonts for Windows

- Web: two types of Cyrillic coding in MS Windows
- Download free Russian fonts
- Fonts descriptions
  - MS Windows - built-in Russian fonts

2. Fonts installation in Windows
3. Selecting fonts in Netscape

- Version 1 Notes

4. Netscape ver. 2, 3 - tune-up for Russian.

- Introduction. 2-step Initial Setup
- Step 1. Fonts and Encodings
- Step 2. Default Encoding
- How to select a Russian coding for a page or Mail/News
  - Correct coding, but page is not readable. Why ?
- Cyrillic in Bookmarks window

  ####

- Test: you read in Russian in Netscape
- Version 2.02 - additional setup for News and Mail
- Version 2 and some special Cyrillic pages
- Incorrectly designed pages - not readable at all

5. Netscape ver. 4 - tune-up for Russian.

- Introduction. Beta 5 version of the Communicator 4.0
- Step 1 of the Initial Setup. Fonts and Encodings:
  - Fonts in 32-bit version - for Windows 95/NT
  - Fonts in 16-bit version - for Windows 3.1, 3.11
- Step 2. Default Encoding
- How to select a needed Russian coding

6. How to write in Russian in Netscape

- Introduction. Correlation with Part 4.
- How to switch a keyboard to Russian:
  - Windows NT 4.0, Windows 95, Windows 3.1,3.11

  ####

- Test: you write in Russian
- Free text editor - Transletterator -
  typing without any keyboard program
  (f.e. KOI8-R - without any Windows keyboard layout)

7. Netscape and other programs

- E-mail Notes
- Using downloaded Russian texts

8. Links to the Russification subjects
that are NOT discussed here -
UNIX; Mac; e-mail (Eudora,...); russification of Windows(this text - about Netscape); coding conversion: KOI8-R, CP-1251, Alt(DOS CP-866).
9. Optional Part
- can be useful for setup of non-Russian fonts, for example Bulgarian.
Read this part ONLY if you want to use Cyrillic fonts of your choice - not those that I suggest.

## 1. Russian Fonts for MS Windows

### 1.1. Web: two types of Cyrillic coding for a Windows client

Web servers use 2 different methods of Cyrillic coding in the MS Windows environment

- KOI8-R
- CP-1251 , often called Windows coding

So, you need 2 sets of Cyrillic True Type Windows fonts to read in Russian on both types of servers.

All these fonts allow you to read both English and Russian on the same page.

> News NOTE: All Russian language Newsgroups use ONLY KOI8-R (see for example relcom.talk).
> KOI8-R is a standard for Russian on the Internet - 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 for Russian - CP-1251.

World Wide Web has 2 types of screens:

- HTML pages - 'graphical' pages, such as some Home Page.
  For example, main page of Yahoo! search - http://www.yahoo.com/index.html.
- Plain Text pages, such as some FTP directory screen,
  for example, one at the McAfee antivirus site - ftp://ftp.mcafee.com/pub/antivirus/english/
  or a content of a text file in this directory, for example, file 00-index.txt: ftp://ftp.mcafee.com/pub/antivirus/english/00-index.txt

Each type of a page requires its own type of font to be used in Netscape:

- Proportional fonts - for HTML pages
- Fixed fonts - for Plain Text pages

So, you need to install at least 4 new Cyrillic True Type fonts in your Windows:

- Proportional and Fixed for KOI8-R coding
- Proportional and Fixed for CP-1251(Windows) coding

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.

### 1.2. Download suggested fonts

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 file(archive) ForWWW.zip that includes free Russian fonts. I found them on the Web and tested for all versions of Netscape and all Windows platforms.
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 files - C:\RUSFONTS.

> 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.

Two locations of Russian fonts file :

in the U.S. | in Russia
--- | ---
file ForWWW.zip | file ForWWW.zip
at SovInformBureau server | at Relcom server

You need to extract font files from ForWWW.zip archive after downloading.

You can do it with WinZip for Windows software if you have it OR simply with pkunzip MS DOS program.
If you don't have pkunzip program, then get it by downloading file pkunzip.exe into your C:\WINDOWS directory(folder).

To extract font files using pkunzip, type these DOS commands
(for example, in "MS-DOS PROMPT" window):

                    C:\WINDOWS> cd \RUSFONTS
                    C:\RUSFONTS> pkunzip forwww.zip

### 1.3. Descriptions for downloaded fonts

NOTE: Versions and dates of the downloaded fonts are important - 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).

These are KOI8-R fonts:

- 'ER Bukinist KOI-8 Normal' - Proportional font -
  file bkkoi8n.TTF , December 20, 1995, version 4.2
- 'ROL:KOI8/Courier' - Fixed font -
  file rolk8c.TTF , April 11, 1995, version 2.01
  This font looks nice on screen in Windows 3.x/95, when you work with some Plain Text page (see examples above), but it can not be used in Netscape under Windows NT 4.0.

  In Windows NT 4.0 you need to use the following Fixed KOI8-R font:

- 'ER Kurier KOI-8 Normal' - Fixed font -
  file cokoi8n.TTF , November 15, 1995, version 4.1

These are CP-1251 ('Windows' coding) fonts:

- 'ER Bukinist 1251' - Proportional font -
  file bk1251n.TTF , March 5, 1995, version 4.0.
- 'ER Kurier 1251' - Fixed font -
  file co1251n.TTF , September 17, 1995, version 4.1.

NOTE: MS Windows - built-in Russian fonts

Microsoft Corp. uses CP-1251 coding for Russian in its products, so sometimes in Netscape you can use CP-1251 fonts that came with your Windows 95, Windows NT, or Russian version of Windows 3.x (they look nicer on your screen than those free CP-1251 fonts mentioned above):

- Windows 3.x - if you have a Russian Windows 3.1, 3.11 developed by Microsoft for Russia, then you can use its CP-1251 fonts, such as "Arial Cyr", etc.
- Windows 95 and NT - they have, unlike Windows 3.1, large-size font files that contain symbols of many languages, including Russian.
  So, you may use any font for CP-1251 that shows its Cyr-modification.
  The easiest way to check it is to call WordPad editor and look at its list of fonts. You will see, for example, "Arial"; "Arial Cyr"; etc.

  Windows 95. To see Cyr-modifications of Windows 95 fonts, you probably need to install first an additional software - MS Multilanguage Support.
  (As I heard, you don't need it if you have Windows 95 Russian Edition or Windows 95 CE Edition).
  My article - about Netscape only, so I give you the links to Windows 95 instructions.
  Read about MS Multilanguage Support at the beginning of the following pages:
  - 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"

## 2. Fonts Installation in Windows

Follow instructions below for Windows 3.1,3.11 and for Windows 95/NT to install downloaded fonts in your Windows system.

> NOTE: I don't have Windows 95, but I know that people successfully use these instructions for their Windows 95.

Windows 3.1, 3.11 :

1. In Windows 3.1, you have such group (window) as MAIN. It is where, for example, File Manager program is located.
   In this MAIN group there is an icon CONTROL PANEL. Open this application by double-click.
2. You will see, in this CONTROL PANEL window, several icons. One of them is FONTS.
   Open now this FONTS application by double-click.
3. You will see a list of fonts and several buttons on the right.
   One of them is ADD. Click on it. It will offer you to choose drive and directory.
4. Select directory, where you have all these unpacked font files - C:\RUSFONTS.
   There is a button on the right - SELECT ALL. Click on it.
5. Click on OK button. You will be back to the screen with the list of fonts.
6. Click on CLOSE button.

Windows 95 and Windows NT :

1. Click on START, SETTINGS, CONTROL PANEL
2. Click on FONTS icon
3. In the menu, select FILE, INSTALL NEW FONTS
4. Select folder, where you have all these unpacked font files - C:\RUSFONTS.
   There is a button on the right - SELECT ALL. Click on it
5. Click on OK button

Now you have these Russian fonts installed in Windows and ready to use in any Windows application that allows fonts selection, including Netscape.

## 3. Selecting fonts in Netscape

NOTE: When I write "Netscape 4", I mean Netscape Communicator 4.0 Preview Release 5 (Beta 5).
( more details about ver. 4.0 - in Part 5 ).

You can select the fonts of your choice in Netscape (from the set of fonts already installed in your Windows).

Netscape 1 :

- Options / Preferences / Fonts

Netscape 2,3 :

- Options / General Preferences / Fonts

Netscape 4 (Beta 5) :

- Edit / Preferences / Appearance / Fonts

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 fonts - Proportional and Fixed - for every Encoding that Netscape offers you there.
When you click on the arrow at the right of the small window with a word 'Latin1' in it, you will see a full list of Netscape's Encodings.
Beginning from version 3, Netscape has there 2 Cyrillic Encodings:

- Cyrillic - it means CP-1251(Win)
  and
- Cyrillic(KOI8-R).

###
Netscape ver. 1

In Netscape 1 there is only one Encoding in this Fonts window - Latin1 - that can be used for Russian.
So, for each type of Cyrillic page you need to select a corresponding pair of fonts for Latin1 in the window Options / Preferences / Fonts.

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 10

Now you can read Russian pages on such server (Proportional font - for HTML screens) and
read some Russian text file in FTP directory at this server (Fixed font - for Plain Text screens).

But because ver. 1 has only one suitable Encoding - Latin1 - you need to select a corresponding pair of fonts (KOI8-R or CP-1251) in this Fonts window every time you want to switch from some KOI8-R page to a CP-1251 page, or back.

NOTE: If you ever want to send Cyrillic e-mail from Netscape 1, then make sure that you did NOT change its e-mail settings.
Go to Options / Preferences, find a tab "Mail and News Preferences", and check that at the bottom of Mail pane of this window you have the correct setting in "Send and Post" - "Allow 8-bit".

## 4. Netscape ver. 2, 3 - tune-up for Russian

NOTE: I will refer to versions 2.01 and 2.02 as Netscape 2 in my text.

This Part 4 explains my Russian setup for Netscape 2 and 3 that will allow you to

- switch easily between KOI8-R and CP-1251
- read and write in Russian in all parts of Netscape:
  - Browser itself, including Forms and text on their buttons
  - News, including Subject lines
  - Mail, including Subject lines
  - Bookmarks (you can read Cyrillic Names of bookmark items)
  Reminder: Only KOI8-R is used in Netscape's Mail and News, because KOI8-R is the coding for the transmitting of Russian texts over the Internet.

Part 6 explains how to write in Russian in Netscape (after you finish this setup).

> 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), but not 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 "Send and Post" - "Allow 8-bit".

Detailed instructions for this Russian setup are below, but generally you need to do the following:

- 2-step Initial Setup to make all parts of Netscape 2,3 work with Cyrillic:
  1. Select Cyrillic fonts once in Options / General Preferences / Fonts
     for the Encodings that I suggest
  2. Make one Encoding to be your Default Encoding.
     This my 'discovery' allows you to use Cyrillic in Forms and News/Mail (including Subject line).

- Based on this Initial, one-time setup, you will be able to select a Cyrillic Coding for a page you want to see or for your Mail/News window.

Here are my instructions - 2-step setup for Cyrillic in Netscape 2 and 3.

### Step 1. Fonts and Encodings

In version 1 of Netscape, every time I want to change Cyrillic coding - switch between KOI8-R and CP-1251 - I must change fonts:
go to Options / Preferences / Fonts and change both Proportional and Fixed fonts for Latin1 Encoding.
( I explained it in my Version 1 Notes above. )

Beginning from version 2, Netscape allows to change codings easily, without changing fonts again and again:

- it has, in addition to Latin1, several other Encodings in Options / General Preferences / Fonts.
  To see full list of Encodings, click on the arrow at the right of the small window with a title "For the Encoding", where you see 'Latin1'.
  The existence of such list allows to install both CP-1251 and KOI8-R Cyrillic fonts.
- it has a new item - Options / Document Encoding,
  which allows me, when I go to some Cyrillic Web site, to choose a corresponding Encoding that I have installed Cyrillic fonts for.

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.
(Remember, to select an Encoding from the list, just click on the arrow at the right of the small window with a title "For the Encoding", where you see 'Latin1' or current encoding).

#### 1. KOI8-R coding - initial setup of fonts

Go to Options / General Preferences / Fonts,
select suggested Encoding, then select a pair of suggested fonts for this Encoding.

Fonts | Encoding for ver. 3 | Encoding for ver. 2.01, 2.02
--- | --- | ---

- Proportional font -
  'ER Bukinist KOI-8'
- Fixed font -
  'ROL:K8/Courier'

  for NT 4.0 Fixed font -
  'ER Kurier KOI-8'

Cyrillic(KOI8-R)
Latin2
(Central European)

Now click on OK button.

NOTE 1. 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 Á User Defined Encoding. See details below, in the section Version 2.02 - additional setup for News and Mail.

NOTE 2. Windows NT 4.0 and KOI8-R forms in Netscape 2,3:

Users who live in the countries of the former USSR and who 'Russified' their Windows 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.
(You can check it using a section "Test: you read in Russian in Netscape")

#### 2. CP-1251(Win) coding - initial setup of fonts

Go to Options / General Preferences / Fonts,
select suggested Encoding, then select a pair of suggested fonts for this Encoding.

Fonts | Encoding for ver. 3 | Encoding for ver. 2.01, 2.02
--- | --- | ---

- Proportional font -
  'ER Bukinist 1251'
- Fixed font -
  'ER Kurier 1251'

Cyrillic
Korean - works fine :-)

Now click on OK button.

Instead of these free CP-1251(win) fonts you, probably, can use in Netscape 2,3 some higher quality fonts that are included into MS Windows (built-in fonts - "Arial",...), because Microsoft Corp. has CP-1251 coding as a standard for Russian.
You will understand why I wrote 'probably' when you read the following notes regarding Windows 3.x, Windows 95, and Windows NT 4.0.

1) Windows 3.1, 3.11 and built-in CP-1251 fonts.

If you have a Russian Windows 3.1, 3.11 developed by Microsoft for Russia, then you can use its CP-1251 fonts in Netscape 2,3:

- Proportional font - "Arial Cyr"
- Fixed font - "Courier New Cyr"

2) Windows 95 and built-in CP-1251 fonts.

Windows 95 has, unlike Windows 3.1, large-size font files that contain symbols of many languages, including Russian.
You may use for CP-1251 the following Windows 95 fonts (Cyr-modifications of the fonts) in Netscape 2,3:

- Proportional font - "Arial", Script-Cyrillic
- Fixed font - "Courier New", Script-Cyrillic

To use Cyr-modifications of Windows 95 fonts, you probably need to install first an additional software - MS Multilanguage Support.
(as I heard, you don't need it if you have Windows 95 Russian Edition or Windows 95 CE Edition).
My article - about Netscape only, so I give you the links to Windows 95 instructions.
Read about MS Multilanguage Support at the beginning of the following pages:

- 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"

3) Windows NT 4.0 and built-in CP-1251 fonts.

Windows NT 4.0 has, unlike Windows 3.1, large-size font files that contain symbols of many languages, including Russian.
You may use for CP-1251 the following Windows NT 4.0 fonts (Cyr-modifications of the fonts) in Netscape 2:

- Proportional font - "Arial", Script-Cyrillic
- Fixed font - "Courier New", Script-Cyrillic

Netscape 3 has an error (already corrected in Netscape 4) - it does not work with Russian CP-1251 fonts included into Windows NT 4.0.
See below a short instruction that corrects this situation, that is, Netscape 3 will work normally with the built-in CP-1251 fonts of Windows NT 4.0, such as, for example, "Arial, Script-Cyrillic".

> 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 read a text on buttons of CP-1251 forms.

Here is the instruction that allows Netscape 3 under Windows NT 4.0 work normally with the built-in CP-1251 fonts:

1. Exit Netscape
2. Call Regedit.exe - a program for editing Windows NT 4.0 registry
3. Locate a fonts section of Netscape 3 :
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Netscape/NetscapeNavigator/INTL
4. At the right window with a list of fonts, click with the right button of your mouse on some empty spot and select New. Then select an item String Value
5. You will see a new line in the window and need to type the following (instead of the text you see there): UseUnicodeFont. Now pressEnter
6. Double-click on this new line and in the small window that appears, type a digit 1 as a value
7. Exit Regedit

Now you can call Netscape 3 and install those built-in CP-1251 fonts for the Encoding-Cyrillic:

- Proportional font - "Arial", Script-Cyrillic
- Fixed font - "Courier New", Script-Cyrillic

(After this tune-up you will not be able anymore to work with those free CP-1251 fonts 'ER' that were described above)

### Step 2. Default Encoding

Reminder: All Russian language Newsgroups use ONLY KOI8-R (see for example relcom.talk).
KOI8-R is a standard for Russian on the Internet - 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 for Russian - CP-1251.

By experimenting with Netscape, I found out that in order to use KOI8-R everywhere in Netscape (Forms, News, Mail,...), KOI8-R setting must be selected as your
Default Encoding:

- in ver. 3 :
  1. Select Cyrillic(KOI8-R) in Options / Document Encoding
  2. Click on Options / Document Encoding / Set Default
- in ver. 2 :
  1. Select Central European (Latin2) in
     Options / Document Encoding
  2. Click on Options / Save Options

You need to do it only once during this initial setup.

#### 2-step initial setup is finished !

So, I selected (once, during Initial Setup) Cyrillic fonts in
Options / General Preferences / Fonts,
and never go to this Fonts window again, never select fonts again (as I needed to do in ver. 1).

Beginning from version 2, Netscape offers an easy way of switching from one coding to another, without changing fonts
( you sure need to do first my "2-step Initial Setup" described above ) :

###
How to select a Russian coding for a page or Mail/News

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 coding :

1. Go to Options / Document Encoding
2. Select my KOI8-R setting
   (that is, the Encoding, for which I have installed my KOI8-R fonts during "Initial Setup") :

   - in ver. 3 -- Cyrillic(KOI8-R)
   - in ver. 2 -- Central European (Latin2)

Later I decided to connect to some CP-1251 page. I need to switch to CP-1251 coding :

1. Go to Options / Document Encoding
2. Select my CP-1251 setting
   (that is, the Encoding, for which I have installed my CP-1251 fonts during "Initial Setup") :

   - in ver. 3 -- Cyrillic(Win1251)
   - in ver. 2 -- Korean

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 a coding(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 codings, I use KOI8-R for English servers, too.

So, I go to Options / Document Encoding ( View / Encoding in ver. 4 ) to change a coding very seldom, may be once a month - when I go to a server that uses only CP-1251 (most servers allow users to choose a coding).

#### Correct coding, but page is not readable. Why ?

If some Russian language server does not specify which coding it uses, then try to use both CP-1251 and KOI8-R settings, one after another, until you see normal Russian text.
If you still can not read this page, then it may be one of the following:

1. You just left another server that has temporarily changed your settings (sometimes it happens). And now your current page is not readable, in spite of the fact that the right coding was selected.
   In such case, you just need to re-read this page - click on the Reload button.

2. You use Netscape 2, and have connected to a special page, that can be processed normally only by a more recent version of Netscape. In such case you need some additional tune-up. See below section "Version 2 and some special Russian pages".

3. You have connected to a page that was incorrectly designed. You just can not read it, because the page's author did some wrong things. See below section
   "Incorrectly designed pages that are not readable at all".

### Cyrillic in Bookmarks window

When you select Bookmarks / Add Bookmark for some Web page, the Title of this page (a line above Netscape menu) is stored as a Name of an item in your Bookmarks.
Some Russian language Web pages have their Titles in Russian - KOI8-R or CP-1251, depending on a page's coding.

So, when you open your Bookmarks window, you can read KOI8-R Names but not CP-1251 Names, or vice versa.

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:

1. I go to my Bookmarks window and place a cursor on such unreadable CP-1251 item.
2. I select Item / Properties in a menu and replace this CP-1251 Name with some English text.

### Test: you read in Russian in Netscape

To check my method for reading (about writing - in the Part 6), you may use:

1. Web pages.
   Two Test pages that I prepared - in KOI8-R and CP-1251(win) coding.
   These Test pages allow you to check both Proportional and Fixed fonts:

   Russian Test Pages (include alphabet)
   in the U.S. | in Russia
   --- | ---
   KOI8-R fonts Test page | KOI8-R fonts Test page
   CP-1251 fonts Test page | CP-1251 fonts Test page

   Reminder: For a coding change - KOI8-R--CP-1251 - in Netscape 2,3 see above the section "How to select a coding for a Russian page".
   (ábout coding change in Netscape 4 - in Part 5)

2. Forms.
   In Netscape 2,3,4 you can read a text on a form's button:
   (with one exception in Windows NT 4.0 - for users in the former USSR.
   See above the Note "Windows NT 4.0 and KOI8-R forms in Netscape 2,3")

   - KOI8-R form at AltaVista Search page - "AltaVista - Russian page"
   - Kiarchive Search KOI8-R form of Relcom server
   - Kiarchive Search CP-1251 form of Relcom server
3. News.
   In Netscape 2,3 - KOI8-R Cyrillic in relcom.talk Newsgroup.
   You can read both Subject lines and messages themselves.
   (Netscape 4 requires CP-1251 for News(Discussions) - see Part 5)
4. Bookmarks.
   In Netscape 2,3 add a bookmark - Bookmarks / Add Bookmark - for the KOI8-R page of the Ural-Relcom site "Russian Literature".
   You will be able to read these KOI8-R Names when you go to your Bookmarks window (Ctrl/B).
   (Netscape 4 requires CP-1251 in Bookmarks - see Part 5.
   As a test you may add a CP-1251 Bookmark of "YUNPRESS AGENCY")

Next two small sections are devoted to Netscape 2. If you do not need such information, you can skip it and go to one of the following parts:

- last section of this Part 4 -
  "Incorrectly designed pages - not readable at all"
  or
- Part 6. "How to write in Cyrillic in Netscape"

###
Version 2.02 - additional setup for News and Mail

Version 2.01 works better with Cyrillic than 2.02 - having KOI8-R fonts as Latin2 in 2.01 allows us to use KOI8-R fully in News and Mail.

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:

- Post a message("To:News") to a Newsgroup in News
- Reply to some message in a Newsgroup in News
- Write a KOI8-R e-mail letter in Mail

To fix it in 2.02, you need to do the following:

1. In addition to Latin2, you need to select same pair of KOI8-R fonts for

                  User Defined  Encoding in

                  Options / General Preferences / Fonts .

   Again, you need to do it only once during this initial Fonts setup.
2. When you want to work with a Composition window
   (Post a message / Reply to a message in News or write a KOI8-R letter in Mail), you need first to switch to
   User Defined Encoding in Options / Document Encoding.

###
Version 2 and some special Cyrillic pages

There are some Web pages that use a special feature to specify their Cyrillic coding - KOI8-R or CP-1251 - within the HTML text of the page.
If you look at the HTML text of such page using View / Document Source, you will see, for example, the following line close to the top:

    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.

For example, you went to a Web site using Netscape 2.01 or 2.02, and were told to use KOI8-R there.
You selected your KOI8-R setting in Options / Document Encoding, but still do not see normal Russian text.
So, this is it - you went to such special page.

What happens is that Netscape 2 does not know anything about KOI8-R and CP-1251 (versions 3,4 already know about these codings).
When a page explicitly desribes a coding, and this coding 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 special 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. Netscape 3,4 works fine with such pages.

Couple examples of such pages:

1. KOI8-R page in Finland:
   Lahti Research Center .
2. CP-1251 page in Moscow:
   "Windows NT: Frequently Asked Questions (NT FAQ)"

You may run into even more rare sutiation when such special page has a Form.
In version 2 you can not work with such Form:

- If a Form on such page has a description of its coding in the HTML text, for example

           FORM ACCEPT-CHARSET="KOI8-R, US-ASCII" ...

  then you can not write in this Form and can not read Russian text on its buttons.
  One example of such Form - KOI8-R Test Form at A.Chernov's page.
- If a Form does not have its own description of Cyrillic coding, then you can write in this Form, but still can not read Russian text on its buttons.

Again, versions 3,4 work fine with such Forms because they know about KOI8-R and CP-1251.

###
Incorrectly designed pages - not readable at all

Sometimes you just can not read a Russian page, in spite of the fact that you have setup Netscape correctly.
It is not a special - for version 2 - page, that was decribed in the previous part, and you are using Netscape 3 anyway.
Such page is NOT readable with any browser - MS Internet Explorer, Netscape, WebSurfer, etc.

It means that you found a page where the author did some wrong things during development - explicitly named font and/or font size to be used, but in your system, for example, Windows 3.1, there is no such font.
The author either included this feature himself or used a software that helped him to build a page - MS Front Page or MS Internet Assistant (I don't have them).
These programs include such fonts 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 style - see WWW developers Newsgroup comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html and 2 articles about it:
"What's Wrong With FONT?"
and
"FONT FACE considered harmful".

1. FACE=. The point is that some developers forget that not all their future readers may have this font , for example, "Arial", with all its characteristics.
The author works under Windows 95, using its large-size font files that contain symbols of many languages, including Russian.
On his PC everything is fine, because Script-Cyrillic of this Windows 95 font is used. But the author has forgotten about the following possible variants:

1. User works with UNIX or Macintosh. This user does not have font "Arial" at all, or his "Arial" does not contain Russian letters.
2. User works under regular Windows 3.1, where fonts do not contain symbols of many languages, so "Arial" does NOT contain Russian letters.
   There is no such thing as Script-Cyrillic in Windows 3.x fonts!

   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 Windows 95 on them.
   According to the information published by Microsoft, the sales of Windows 95 were much less than predicted in 1996, while the number of Windows 3.1,3.11 sold was more that expected.
   Anyway, the number of Windows 3.1,3.11 installations in the world is MUCH higher than the number of Windows 95 and NT, altogether.

3. Author listed font "Arial Cyr" from the Russian version of Windows 3.x, developed by Microsoft for the former USSR. But a reader does not have such font, because he uses UNIX, Mac, or regular U.S. version of Windows 3.x.

Such developers narrow their customers base a lot - only Windows 95/NT or, as in the case #3, Russian version of Windows 3.x.

That is, the authors of such pages loose many potential readers/clients. It is especially funny to see a commercial page of this kind - it should invite more customers instead of limiting their number.
See - if you can :) - an example of such page - ITAR TASS information agency, where they offer to buy their service (as of today they did not fix it yet).

2. SIZE=. 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.

Next part is devoted to new Beta 5 version of Netscape 4.
If you do not need such information, you can skip it and begin to read Part 6. "How to write in Russian in Netscape".

## 5. Netscape 4 - tune-up for Russian

Netscape Communicator 4.0 (called Netscape 4) is not ready yet - they offer now only Beta version of it to be tested. Currently it is Preview Release 5 (that is, Beta 5).
It is a Beta version, so it has some errors. This is why I still use ver. 3.01.

NOTE: News part has a new name in the Communicator - Discussions.

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 ASCII text.
But, as I read in the following professional Newsgroups:

comp.infosystems.www.browsers.ms-windows
and on Netscape's own News server:
snews://secnews.netscape.com/netscape.navigator

this is not good - many e-mail programs can NOT receive such letters correctly.

So, you need to go to Edit / Preferences / Mail & Groups, click on '+' sign to see the options, select Messages and at the top of the window uncheck a box "By default, send HTML".

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 'As Is' selected for the option "Send messages that use 8-bit characters".

Netscape 4 for MS Windows offers a new method for Russian - without KOI8-R fonts and without KOI8-R keyboard tools.

The developers' idea was to avoid using KOI8-R fonts, because MS Windows (unlike the Internet) uses CP-1251 as a coding for Russian.
Netscape 4 uses only CP-1251(Windows) fonts (for reading and for writing) and does a conversion KOI8-R--CP-1251 'behind the scenes'.

Important ! Unlike all previous versions, Netscape 4 Beta 5 uses CP-1251 coding in Mail and News.
Netscape converts your stuff to KOI8-R 'on the fly' before sending it to the Internet, and converts all messages coming from the Internet to you from KOI8-R to CP-1251.

Netscape 4 Beta 5 works nicely with Cyrillic in all its parts.
The tune-up is similar to one for Netscape 2,3 described above:

- 2-step Initial Setup - Fonts and Encodings; Default Encoding
- Method of selecting a coding for a Russian page or Mail/Discussions, based on this Initial Setup

NOTE:

> Unfortunately, different versions of MS operating systems work differently with Cyrillic, therefore Netscape (and other applications, for example, MS Word) may work nicely under one version of Windows 95, and have problems with Cyrillic under another version, for example, Windows 95 OSR2.

> Netscape 4 Beta 5, where you can fully use Russian in Mail and Forms under regular Windows 95 and original Windows NT 4.0 (without Service Packs), has some problems under Windows 95 Rus (as I read in relcom.comp.os.windows) and under Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 2,3 (checked myself):

> - When you write in some form, you are submitting the correct data, but you can not see what you type, because your input on the screen is not readable.
> - When you write a reply to some e-mail or to a Newsgroup's article, you don't have initially normal Russian in the Composition window. For example, you can not read a Russian text of your Signature.
>   It is easy to correct - just switch to any other coding via View/Encoding, and then switch immediately back to Cyrillic(Win1251)

> So, if on your machine Netscape does not work with Russian as described below, then wait for a new version of your Windows operating system or for a new version of Netscape.

Below are my Netscape 4 (Beta 5) instructions for Cyrillic:

- Step 1 of the Initial Setup. Fonts and Encodings:
  - Fonts in 32-bit version - for Windows 95/NT
  - Fonts in 16-bit version - for Windows 3.1, 3.11
- Step 2 of the Initial Setup. Default Encoding
- How to select a needed Russian coding

### Fonts in 32-bit Netscape 4 - for Windows 95/NT

This is Step 1 of the Initial Setup.

Under Windows 95/NT you need to use Russian fonts that are included into your Windows 95/NT.
32-bit Netscape 4 for Windows 95/NT does NOT work with those free CP-1251 fonts (from Windows 3.1), that were described in Part 1.

You need to go to Edit / Preferences / Appearance / Fonts and select built-in fonts of your Windows 95/NT that contain CP-1251 Cyrillic in them. Usually, there are 3 such fonts: Arial, Times New Roman, and Courier New.
You do not need any KOI8-R fonts.

NOTE: To make Cyrillic work in Windows 95 fonts, you probably need to install an additional package - MS Multilanguage Support. See links to the instructions in the section "MS Windows - built-in Russian fonts" above, in Part 1.

Let's begin:

1. Edit / Preferences / Appearance / Fonts
2. In the small window with a title "For the Encoding", where you see 'Latin1', select encoding Cyrillic (it means Cyrillic CP-1251).

3. Select a pair of CP-1251 fonts (Cyrillic variants of the fonts, included into your Windows 95/NT) for this Encoding, for example:

   - Variable Width Font
     (it's what was called a Proportional font in earlier versions - a font for HTML Web pages):
     - in Windows 95 - "Arial"
     - in Windows NT - "Arial Cyr"

   - Fixed Width Font
     (for Plain Text screens):
     - in Windows 95 - "Courier New"
     - in Windows NT - "Courier New Cyr"

4. Now click on OK button.

Next section is devoted to Netscape 4 under Windows 3.x.
You can skip it and begin to read "Step 2. Default Encoding in Netscape 4".

### Fonts in 16-bit Netscape 4 - for Windows 3.1, 3.11

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 Windows 3.x.
There is no such thing as Script-Cyrillic, no Cyr variations in Windows 3.x fonts.
Therefore, you need to install those free CP-1251 fonts that I suggest in Part 1.
You do not need any KOI8-R fonts.

Select Cyrillic fonts in Netscape 4 for Windows 3.x

Go to Edit / Preferences / Appearance / Fonts and select CP-1251(Windows) fonts described in this article:

1. Edit / Preferences / Appearance / Fonts
2. In the small window with a title "For the Encoding", where you see 'Latin1', select Encoding Cyrillic (it means Cyrillic CP-1251).

3. Select a pair of CP-1251 fonts:

   - Variable Width Font
     (it's what was called a Proportional font in earlier versions - a font for HTML Web pages):
     "ER Bukinist 1251"
   - Fixed Width Font
     (for Plain Text screens):
     "ER Kurier 1251"

4. Now click on OK button.

NOTE. If you work with Russian version of Windows 3.x, made by Microsoft for Russia, then you can install its built-in CP-1251 Russian fonts - "Arial Cyr" and "Courier Cyr", correspondingly.

####
Default Encoding in Netscape 4

This is Step 2 of the Initial Setup.

The last thing do to is to select CP-1251(Win) as your Default Encoding.
It will allow you, for example, to read Russian names in your Bookmarks.
(If you want to use your 'old' Bookmarks taken from an older version of Netscape, then you will need to convert all your KOI8-R names stored there into CP-1251 names. You can easily convert your Bookmark.htm file - see links to coding conversion programs in Part 8).

In previous versions of Netscape, this Step 2 was absolutely necessary to let you write in Russian.
Beta 5 of Netscape 4 does NOT require the setting of Cyrillic as a Default Encoding. You can write in Russian without making CP-1251 Cyrillic your Default Encoding.
Even Bookmarks are readable (CP-1251 Names) under Windows 95 (at least in the version I saw) and under Windows 3.1.
In Windows NT 4.0, you need to do it only if you want to read Cyrillic CP-1251 Names in your Bookmarks.

So, you may first try to work without this step.
If you see that something does not work correctly, then do it:

1. View / Encoding / Cyrillic(Win1251)
2. View / Encoding / Set Default

#### 2-step Initial Setup is finished !

####
How to select a needed coding in Netscape 4

Based on the Initial Setup described above, you can now select needed Cyrillic coding for a Web page or for a Mail/DiscussionGroups window.

Netscape 4 Beta 5 For example, I go to a CP-1251(Win) site after I was on some KOI8-R page. Or I want to work in Mail/Discussions window, where - in Netscape 4 - CP-1251 coding is used. It means that I need to switch to CP-1251(Win) coding :

1. Go to View / Encoding
2. Select my CP-1251 setting - Cyrillic(Win1251)

Later I decided to connect to some KOI8-R page. It means that I need to switch to KOI8-R coding :

1. Go to View / Encoding
2. Select Cyrillic(KOI8-R)

To test Cyrillic reading in Netscape 4 Beta 5, you can use a corresponding section of Part 4 - "Test: you read in Russian in Netscape".
(About writing - in the next Part 6.)

I want to remind you that Netscape 4 has some problems under some versions of MS Windows. See the Note at the beginning of this Part.

## 6. How to write in Russian in Netscape 2,3,4

Netscape ver. 2,3, and 4 allows you to write in Russian.
But you will be able to do so in all parts of Netscape 2.01, 2.02, and 3 only if you use my method - 2-step Initial Setup, explained above, in Part 4.
For example:

- if you forget about Step 2, then in Netscape 2,3 you will not be able to write in Russian in a Subject line of Mail and News, and will not be able to work normally with Forms.
- if you do not install KOI8-R into Latin 2 in Netscape 2, then you will have troubles writing in Mail/News/Forms.

NOTE: I will refer to versions 2.01 and 2.02 as Netscape 2 in my text.

To write in Russian in Netscape, you need to do 2 things:

1. Select needed coding in the menu
   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 this Initial Setup.
   In the previous parts I gave the instructions of how to install these Russian fonts and how to select a coding for a Russian page.
   Reminder: unlike all previous versions, Netscape 4 needs a CP-1251 coding in its Mail and News(Discussions).
2. Switch your keyboard to Russian mode.
   So, a keyboard program need to be used to let you type in Russian, that is, to switch to a Russian keyboard layout.

   Such tools are the subject of this Part.

   NOTE : If you need to write in some Russian coding (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 KOI8-R - in Mail and News, and also in KOI8-R forms, for example, at the famous Search server AltaVista - "AltaVista - Russian page".

So, let's begin:

### Keyboard Programs

There are several free keyboard programs for Windows, and also several methods of using keyboard tools included into Windows 95/NT (NLS - Native Language Support tools).

Such programs and tools are often called Keyboard Switchers.

I want to remind you again, that Microsoft uses CP-1251(Windows) coding for Russian, so it is usually easy to initiate CP-1251 keyboard tools in Windows 95, Windows NT, or in Russian version of Windows 3.x, made for the former USSR.
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.

The subject of this article - only Netscape. Also, you probably have already typed in Russian in some other Windows application. So, I am not going to write a lot about these programs, but rather give some links to the Web pages, that contain detailed instructions about this subject. You see, keyboard issues belong to Windows discussions, while Netscape is just one of the Windows applications.

Below you find some information about Cyrillic writing in Windows NT, Windows 95, and Windows 3.x :

- Windows NT and Russian keyboard
- Windows 95 and Russian keyboard
- Windows 3.1, 3.11 and Russian keyboard

#### Windows NT and Russian keyboard

I have only NT 4.0, and never saw NT 3.51. You can read about both NT 4.0 and NT 3.51 in the official document of the Russian NT Users Group (in Russian, CP-1251): "NT: Frequently Asked Questions (NT FAQ)".
For example, there is a part of this document called "How to russify NT".
I am not going to write here about the russifications of an operating system, but only about Netscape under Window NT 4.0.

You need to do the following to write in Russian in Netscape under Windows NT 4.0:

1. CP-1251(Windows) coding. Here are the steps to initiate Russian keyboard layout in NT 4.0:
   1. START / SETTINGS / CONTROL PANEL
   2. In the CONTROL PANEL window - double-click on the icon KEYBOARD
   3. In the KEYBOARD window, select "Input Locales" tab
   4. In the "Input Locales" click on ADD
   5. Find RUSSIAN in the list and then click on OK
   6. You are back to the "Input Locales" window, and layout RUSSIAN is below the layout ENGLISH.
      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 indicator - EN/RU - on the Taskbar.
      As it is written in this window, you need to press LeftAlt+RightShift to switch between Russian and English.
      Click on OK.
   7. NT will begin an installation of this layout using it's CD-ROM (or directory where you have those NT installation files).
   8. Installation is over. Now you can write in CP-1251 Russian
      (you can check it immediately - in WordPad)

   NOTE. Netscape 4 uses only CP-1251 coding.
   I want to remind you that Netscape 4 has some problems in Mail and Forms under some versions of Windows NT 4.0. See the Note at the beginning of Part 5.

2. KOI8-R coding.
   M.Chikalov offers his program, that, after you run it (1 time), installs KOI8-R keyboard layout in NT:
   "KOI8 keyboard layout support for Windows-95 and Windows NT 4.0".
   Now, when you click on language indicator on your Taskbar - EN/RU - you will see:
   - EN - English
   - RU - Russian
   - RU - Russian(KOI8-R)
   and will be able to select what you need at the moment.

   At the bottom of Mike's page you find a link to his additional program which installs for you a 'phonetic' layout - both for KOI8-R and CP-1251 (if you want), so on your keyboard Russian letters will be where similar English are, for example, English 'R' - Russian 'P'.
   It is very useful for people who don't have Russian letters written on their keyboard buttons.

You can SKIP the following sections, devoted to Windows 95 and Windows 3.x and go immediately to the section "Test: You write in Russian in Netscape".

#### Windows 95 and Russian keyboard

As I mentioned, I don't have Windows 95, but I have some information regarding writing in Russian there:

1. CP-1251(Windows) coding.
   To write in CP-1251, you probably need to install MS Multilanguage Support software.

2. KOI8-R coding.
   There are some methods that let you have KOI8-R keyboard layout in Windows 95.

Both these subjects are described in details on the following pages:

- BINCO.COM (Bulgaria) - "Cyrillic in Windows 95" (only about MS Multilanguage Support)
- A.Ivanov - (in Russian, KOI8-R) - "Windows 95"
- A.Chernov - "About Windows 95"

NOTE. Netscape 4 uses only CP-1251 coding.
I want to remind you that Netscape 4 has some problems in Mail and Forms under some versions of Windows 95. See the Note at the beginning of Part 5.

On the following pages you find some programs, that, after you run them once, will install KOI8-R keyboard support in your Windows 95:

- M.Chikalov offers his program, that, after you run it (1 time), installs KOI8-R keyboard layout in Windows 95:
  "KOI8 keyboard layout support for Windows-95 and Windows NT 4.0".
  Now, when you click on language indicator on your Taskbar - EN/RU - you will see:
  - EN - English
  - RU - Russian
  - RU - Russian(KOI8-R)
  and will be able to select what you need at the moment.
- Paul Dziemiela - "Guide to Cyrillic for Windows 95 "
  Paul offers both the regular Russian(and Ukrainian) keyboard layouts, and 'phonetic' layouts - so on your keyboard Russian letters will be where similar English are, for example, English 'R' and Russian 'P'.
  It is very useful for people who don't have Russian letters written on their keyboard buttons.

Another way to write in CP-1251 and KOI8-R under Windows 95 is to use a separate keyboard program (as an opposite to using NLS - built-in keyboard support tools) :

- WinKey - free keyboard program.
  I use it all the time in Windows 3.1 without any problems, and as I heard, it also works under Windows95 (some people reported problems, though).
  WinKey is described in details in the next section, devoted to Windows 3.1.

You can SKIP the following sections, devoted to Windows 3.x and WinKey, and go immediately to the section "Test: You write in Russian in Netscape".

#### Windows 3.1, 3.11. Keyboard program WinKey.

I did not see Russian Windows 3.1, made by Microsoft for the former USSR, but in the standard Windows 3.1, 3.11 there are no built-in keyboard support for national languages, that is, no NLS.
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 getting .ZIP files above, in "Part 1").

WinKey - Keyboard Switcher

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.

#### WinKey installation under Windows 3.x/95

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).

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".

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:

- Windows 3.1,3.11 - WinKey icon in a Program Manager's group:
  1. Place your cursor on any icon in a Group where you want to put WinKey. For example, Accessories.
  2. Select File / New in Program Manager's menu.
  3. Choose Program Item and press OK.
  4. In the next window, type `c:\winkey\winkey.exe` in the Command line and press OK.
  5. Now you have WinKey icon and can call it any time you want.

- Windows 95 -
  put WinKey icon onto Desktop :
  1. Click with right mouse button on any empty spot on your Desktop
  2. Select New / ShortCut in the menu
  3. In the next window, type `c:\winkey\winkey.exe`

  or put WinKey into your Start/Programs menu:

  1. START / SETTINGS / TASKBAR
  2. Select Start Menu Programs tab
  3. Click Add
  4. In the next window, type `c:\winkey\winkey.exe`
  5. Click Next and then double-click the menu where you want to place WinKey - for example, PROGRAMS
  6. In the next window, type `WinKey` and then click on Finish.

#### How to use WinKey under Windows 3.x/95

Call WinKey. Now, until you close it, you will have an active WinKey icon - it looks like a national flag.
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.

To close WinKey application, click once on this active icon - 'flag'
(in Windows 95 - with right button of your mouse) and select CLOSE.

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 Default Keyboard - English, and Alternative you choose by yourself, for example, KOI8-R.

How to choose your current Alternative Keyboard:

1. Click once on this active icon-'flag'
   (in Windows 95 - with right button of your mouse)
2. Select in the menu Alternate Keyboard
3. Select needed coding - it will be marked by WinKey

Now Scroll Lock will switch your keyboard from English to whatever Russian coding you have selected, for example, KOI8-R.

### Test: you write in Russian in Netscape

To check my method for writing in ver. 2.01, 2.02, 3, and 4 you may use:
(I want to remind you that Netscape 4 has some problems under some versions of MS Windows.
See the Note at the beginning of Part 5)

1. Forms.
   - KOI8-R form at AltaVista Search page - "AltaVista - Russian page"
   - Kiarchive Search KOI8-R form of Relcom server
   - Kiarchive Search CP-1251 form of Relcom server
2. News.
   In Netscape 2,3 check KOI8-R writing by posting your message (To:News) to relcom.test Newsgroup (you can write both Subject lines and messages themselves).
   This Newsgroup requires that you begin a Subject line with English words Test. Ignore.

   > Reminder: Netscape 4 requires CP-1251 in its News(Discussions) - see Part 5.

   You may go to this Newsgroup again in a minute or so to read your posting.

3. Netscape Mail.
   In Netscape 2,3 check KOI8-R writing by sending an e-mail to someone whose e-mail system can receive Cyrillic correctly.
   For example, send your letter to a person who receives e-mail in Netscape.
   You can send e-mail to yourself if your e-mail system receives Cyrillic correctly.

   > Reminder: Netscape 4 requires CP-1251 in its Mail - see Part 5.

###
Free text editor Transletterator

If you need to type in KOI8-R only in Netscape, then you can avoid installing of 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 platform - 3.x,95,NT :

- Transletterator by Tyson Graaff

In the menu OPTIONS of this program you can see that
Ctrl/R lets you type in Russian, and Ctrl/E - in English.
You sure need to select a corresponding font to type in Russian:
OPTIONS / FONT (or Ctrl/F).

That is, you can type a letter in KOI8-R using this editor, and then just copy this text - Edit/Copy and Edit/Paste - to Netscape's Composition window where you need it to send an e-mail or a message to a Newsgroup. Same you can do to fill out some KOI8-R Form.

If you want to know about such a method, then read further, otherwise just press buttons Ctrl+Home to go to the Table Of Contents of this article or go to the next Part 7. Netscape and other applications.

#### Installation of the Transletterator :

1. You need to create a directory(folder) for this package, for example, C:\RUSEDIT.

2. Download the package (it's in .ZIP archive) from the author's page mentioned above - TRANSLTR.zip - into the directory you created
   (See .ZIP downloading instructions above, in "Part 1").

3. Extract files from archive.
   (See corresponding instructions above, in "Part 1").

Transletterator requires one special library file - VBRUN200.dll, that must be present in the directory(folder) Windows\System.
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).

#### How to make Transletterator calls handy in the future

To have an icon of Transletterator in Windows, or to place a link to this editor into the START/PROGRAMS menu in Windows 95/NT, you need to perform the same operations that were discussed in the section "How to make WinKey calls handy in the future".

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 codings and different layouts.

The current table is selected via the menu OPTIONS / TRANSLATION TABLE.

The author have included into the package one such table - koi8.TBL.
It's some kind of a 'phonetic' layout - Russian letters are where similar English are.

A table of this editor is a plain text file, so you can - in 10 minutes - make your own table with any layout - for KOI8-R or CP-1251 coding.
To do so, you may use a Russian alphabet page from my CP-1251 and KOI8-R Test Pages - see above, in Part 4, a section "Test: you read in Russian in Netscape".

For example, you want to create your own KOI8-R table for Transletterator (that is, create your own KOI8-R keyboard layout):

1. Go to my KOI8-R Test page (it has KOI8-R alphabet on it)
2. Call an editor that comes with Windows -
   Write(Windows 3.x), or WordPad(Windows 95/NT)
3. In the editor, select a KOI8-R font (see Part 1):
   - Write: in the menu CHARACTER / FONTS
   - WordPad: in the menu FORMAT / FONTS
4. Type the rows of the table for all KOI8-R letters(both lowercase and uppercase). The format is the following:
   "Symbol of your keyboard","Russian letter"
   For example, for a 'phonetic' layout - "R","P".

   You can take a Russian letter from the Netscape's window where you have my KOI8-R Test page - by Edit/Copy and Edit/Paste.

5. Save the file you created - as a plain text file (type - .TXT) -
   FILE / SAVE AS / my-koi8.tbl
6. Call Transletterator and in the menu OPTIONS / TRANSLATION TABLE select your file - my-koi8.tbl

Same way you can type in CP-1251(Win) in Transletterator - just create another table using my CP-1251 Test page with the alphabet.

## 7. Netscape and other applications

### E-mail Notes

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 codings.
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 coding.

> Newer versions of Netscape already know about KOI8-R that is used to send Russian messages across the Internet, so they assign correct Charset - 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

- in ver. 2 - Options / Show All Headers
- in ver. 3 - Options / Show Headers / All
- in ver. 4 - View / Headers / All

Then click on your letter to open it and you will see assigned Charset in Content-Type field.

### Using downloaded Russian texts

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 different coding -
> KOI8-R, CP-1251, CP-866(Alt DOS).
> You can convert such plain ASCII text file from one coding to another, using a conversion program. See links to such programs in Part 8 of this article.

> Warning: Even if you have some Windows True Type fonts of CP-866(DOS) coding (you may find such fonts on the Internet), you can NOT use them to read a CP-866 text file in MS 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.

- For example, I downloaded some KOI8-R plain text file from WWW - STRUG.txt, and saved it in some directory(folder).

- I call Word, choose File-Open, change Type of file to Text Files(*.txt).
  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).
- Then I select entire text - Ctrl-A, and choose the corresponding Russian font in Fonts window - 'ER Bukinist KOI-8 Normal' in this case because this file is in KOI8-R.
  Cancel selection (press Home button).
  Now I can read in Russian.
- I must save it now as a normal Word file, STRUG.DOC, choosing
  Type - Word Document in Save As dialog.

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:

1. Load this .DOC file into their MS Word
2. Select entire text - Ctrl-A
3. Choose their Russian font of this family
4. FILE / SAVE

## 8. Links to other Russification instructions

I explained here how to use Russian in Netscape for Microsoft Windows.
If you want to know

- how to russify fully your Windows
- how to use Russian on UNIX and Macintosh computers
- how to use Russian for e-mail (Eudora,...)
- how to convert a plain text file from one coding to another,
  for example, KOI8-R -- CP-1251 -- Alt(DOS CP-866)

then read the following pages:

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) | NT FAQ - 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
'Convert: KOI8-R, CP-1251, Alt,...' Windows 95/NT; Windows 3.1,3.11 Site's hours: 9am-9pm local time (GMT+5) And here is its Copy in the U.S. | A. Lobastoff - Russia, Novosibirsk
'Convert: KOI8-R, CP-1251, Alt,...' MS DOS; UNIX | K. Gredeskoul - Australia
'MacOS and KOI8-R' | I.Moiseev - Russia

That's all !

Paul Gorodyansky, Software Engineer, U.S.A.
(before 1991 - Pavel Gorodyanskiy, Moscow, Russian-French firm "InterQuadro")

My Home Page: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Paul_Gorodyansky/.

Click here to send me an e-mail: paulgor@geocities.com

> If this e-mail address does not work at the moment(I really never had any problem with it), then try another one: paul_gorodyansky@compuserve.com, but in such case you need to send a Russian text within an attached .ZIP file.

Last updated: May 26, 1997

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