Understanding: Following sections apply only to those who use Window 3.X and NETSCAPE 2.X, if you are using another browser, the idea is very similar.
Vietnamese home pages use some kind of fonts to display desired characters. These have names such as: VIQR, VPS, VISCII, VNI, ... Usually at the beginning of a home page, the author specify what font to use to view properly, and a tagged text to let viewer jump to a place to down load the required fonts.
Most assume that one knows how to set the browser up for Vietnamese viewing. I had trouble with this, and decided to help others with this snag. Since, my next objective is to show you how to make your home page displaying Vietnamese, I recommend you to down load files that you can do Vietnamese word processing as well.
Before you do any down load, Please start WINDOWS WRITE: from File -> Run -> write -> character, -> fonts, a window of fonts installed on your PC will be displayed. These are ALL fonts available for your use. Select cancel to exit it.
Most of Vietnamese softwares are kept at:
ftp://ftp.media.mit.edu/pub/Vietnet You can open a new window and go there, while at that site, you can see that there are softwares for many platforms: MAC, Unix, Windows... Under sub-directory /util are two utilities to zip and unzip files. You down load these for future use. It is recommended to create separate directories such as follow:
C:\zip, C:\unzip, C:\fonts\VPS, C:\fonts\VISCII...
After running the self extracted unzip file, You get one file named unzip.exe, It is best to move it to C:\dos so You can use it from every where.
For VPS font, you down load file VPSwin25.zip to C:\fonts\VPS. The file name, may vary slightly, for example VPSwin21.zip is the old version... After the down load, exit to DOS and issue command: unzip VPSwin25.zip. At completion, You will see file setup.exe. From File manager, and go to C:\fonts\VPS. Double click on setup.exe to install VPS software to your PC.
At the completion of the installation you will have a group named "Hoäi chuyeân gia Vieät Nam". The icon "VpsKeys 2.5" allows you to do Vietnamese word processing.
Following are keys that help you to that:
Daáu saéc: number key 1
Daáu huyeàn: number key 2
Daáu hoûi : number key 3
Daáu ngaõ: number key 4
Daáu naëng: number key 5
Daáu muõ: number key 6
Daáu ö, ô: number key 7
Daáu aê: number key 8
Daáu Ñ, ñ number key 9
The on-line help will clarify any trouble you may have. If you still have further question, Please drop me an E-mai at:
"nguyenvanson@netzero.net"
Start WINDOWS WRITE once more, then select character -> again, you should see a new set of fonts started with VPS, those are new fonts that you can use for you web browser. If you do not see any new names, do the following:
a/ Select Main, -> Control Panel, -> Fonts, -> Add; move to C:\fonts\VPS, -> select All, -> OK to install all those fonts.
b/ Start your internet session, go to Options, -> General Preference..., at Use Proportional Fonts, go to choose font... then pick one of those that started with VPS.
c/ Do similar thing with Use Fixed Fonts...
d/ Select OK to start viewing Home page written in VPS (Vietnamese Professional Society)
It is obvious by now that you need to do similarly for other two: VNI, VISCII... to enjoy them. The VNI is not kept at the same site. During your web surfing, you will eventually get to a site that asks for VNI and it will show you where to get the fonts.
NOTES:
1/ Although I have both VPS, and VISCII installed, I still have trouble to view the Lotus Home Page at < A href="http:// users.deltanet.com/~qnguyen/index.htm">http:// users.deltanet.com/~qnguyen/index.htm while using Netscape 2.01. After recommendation of Mr. Quang Nguyen at Lotus, I down loaded Netscape 3.0 at http://www.netscape.com and am now able to view that home page.
2/ Some home pages like the one of Mr. Liem Tran at http://www.mpce.mp.edu.au/~ttran still display exactly as typed VISCII, not the way Vietnamese should be. Those pages use VIQR, 7 bits version of VISCII. You need to download file Wvn7to8 at http://www.algonet.se/~permobil/thu/wvn7to8/wvn7to8.htm
After the download, you create a new item "Wvn7to8" in your Netscape group. When you encounter cases like that of Mr. Liem Tran, you just click on the icon "Wvn7to8" to run file wvn7to8.exe. You can make it displayed as a small window at a corner of you screen. Now every thing will displayed as they suppose to.
I hope after this, you can enjoy viewing Vietnamese on your PC.
HAPPY SURFING...