Viewing the Multilingual Pages

This tutorial is for the one time set up of non-English characters on an English language computer. These directions are for Microsoft Windows personal computers, Apple, Linux, and other operating systems are outside the scope of this document.

Computers used by non-English speakers, for the most part, will already have had the required software installed. The procedures listed in this tutorial are mainly for English computer users who wish show a non-English speaker a translated web page.

There are two methods in which to install the character sets required to see the Chinese, Korean, and Russian words (if the software is not installed, instead of the proper characters, a series of little boxes will be displayed in your browser).

The two methods are the easy way and the hard way. Unfortunately, you don't really have a choice as to which one to follow. When we created the Peoples Law Library, we configured the web pages to automatically tell your web browser (the program you are using now to view this page, most likely Internet Explorer or Netscape) that our Korean, Chinese and Russian pages are not in English and that it (the browser) needs to use something other than English letters to make the page. Since the pages are set up like this, the easy way should work for everyone (but it won’t).

The Easy Way

The easy way is just that, easy. When you view one of our Russian, Korean, or Chinese pages, a small window will pop up. It will tell you "To display this page correctly, you need to download and install the following components" (see the image below). The window will also estimate the amount of time it will take, it shouldn't take more than 15 minutes and in most cases around a minute. If you say "yes" the whole process happens for you and when finished, the page you requested will be in the language it's supposed to be in.

Once you install this, every web page you view from now on, in that language, will have those characters displayed.

If that didn’t work….

The Hard Way

The hard way is not necessarily hard, it just involves a few more steps. In fact, the hard way could be called "The almost just as easy way."

The first thing to check is to see if your browser is set to automatically download necessary components. You may need to check this if you did not see the window above. If you did see the window above, you can skip down to “Upgrading Windows.”

First, find the tools menu on your browser. Once you find that, pull down the Internet options button. Click on that.

Find the “Advanced” tab. Click on the tab and look for an item called “Enable Install on Demand (Internet Explorer). Check off the box next to that. Once that is enabled, revisit one of the foreign language pages.

Note: If you do not have access to the screens shown above you may not have the proper permissions to make changes. This usually occurs in office workplaces. Explain to your system administrator what you need to do and they will set your computer appropriately.

Upgrading Windows

If you visited any of our foreign language pages and instead of seeing Russian, Chinese or Korean words you saw an entire page of small rectangles, the easy way didn't work. Another way you know the easy way didn't work is the above process started but didn't finish. If a window appeared and asked you if you wanted to install the components (third image above) and then gave you an error message, then we have to take a few more steps.

The most common reason that the "install on demand" function doesn't work is that your browser hasn't been updated to the most recent version. Microsoft won't let the language component install without everything else being updated.

The easiest way to update your browser is through your Internet Explorer window. Under the "Tools" pull down menu there is an option called "Windows Update" (see the photo above).

Once you click on the "Windows Update" option, your browser will take you to the Microsoft web site.

This is a free service and it's generally a good idea to update your system anyway.

The "scan for updates" button begins the process. Microsoft looks at your system and determines what version you have and determines if there is any software that needs to be updated. Most likely if the language pack didn't install correctly, then there is going to be a lot of "fixes" to download. Most times, you can just leave everything selected and proceed with the update. Follow the instructions that Microsoft insists. Depending on the updates available, the downloads could take a LONG time. On a dial-up (modem) connection, as long as a couple of hours.

You also should know that sometimes, if you haven't updated in a long time, you may be required to download only one update and then restart your computer. If you do this, you should go back to the "Windows Update" page and repeat the first steps as many times as it takes until the page tells you there are no new updates.

After the updates have installed, you will most likely be asked to re-start your computer. After that is done, you can go back to the Peoples Law Library page you were visiting and you should be back to "The Easy Way." Everything should work as it is supposed to.

At this point, you should install the component you need and the page should display correctly.

One more thing to try

If the "easy way" does not happen like this, and you don't get the install on demand prompt, you can take another step. Sometimes, if the install doesn't work the first time on a website, the browser never asks to install the new character set on that site. To avoid this, try visiting one of these sites to "force" the browser to retry and install the downloads needed.

For Russian languages

http://www.google.com.ru/ 

For Chinese Pages

http://www.google.com/intl/zh-CN/ 

For Korean Pages

http://www.google.com/intl/ko/ 

After visiting one of these pages, the automatic install feature should install the character set needed to view the relevant Google search page. After it has been installed, you can return to the Peoples Law Library and the text should be visible in it's full non-English glory.

Source: Maryland Legal Assistance Network

About this website. The Maryland State Law Library, a court-related agency of the Maryland Judiciary, sponsors this site. The website was developed (1999-2007) as part of an access to justice initiative by the Maryland Legal Assistance Network (MLAN) in collaboration with a number of legal services providers serving low and moderate income Marylanders.  In the absence of file-specific attribution or copyright, the Maryland State Law Library may hold the copyright to parts of this website. You are free to copy the information for your own use or for other non-commercial purposes with the following language “Source: Maryland's People’s Law Library – www.peoples-law.org. © Maryland State Law Library, 2007.”

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