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we just got our site translated to Japanese. I have word docs with the translation and pdfs so I can see what it is supposed to look like.
Can anyone give me an idea of how to get started creating the html version?
What do I need to install in order to see the characters?
Once that is installed, can I just copy from word to dreamweaver?
I have read here that I need to set the encoding to x-sjis, I just need some help getting to that point.
I am using Win2k, Office 2k and Dreamweaver 4.
ooops - I just realized I am in Search Engine World. I followed a link from Webmaster World to this forum and didn't realize it I had changed worlds. My question is more a design issue that seo. Perhaps it will be moved to the proper forum?
Thanks!
Some of our members dealing with the Japanese market will be along shortly to help you out. In the meantime, there are quite a few threads dealing with this subject, just look through this forum and you should find them.
Onya
Woz
Can anyone give me an idea of how to get started creating the html version?We have a lot of good tips on how to use various software for making HTML in our WYSIWYG and Text Code Editors [webmasterworld.com] forum. To start out with you need to set the proper character set encoding on each of your pages. For Japanese I use the following:
<html lang="ja">
<head>
<title>blah</title>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=x-sjis">
<meta http-equiv="content-language" content="ja">
</head>What do I need to install in order to see the characters?If you're using Windows 2000 then here's a good article: Enabling Japanese Support on Windows 2000 [seanspot.com]
Once you have all that set up you can see Japanese on your PC and then just copy and paste the Japanese text to your WYSIWYG editor. I don't use Dreamweaver so I can't help you with specifics for that program. However the tips I gave should help get you started.
[edited by: bill at 8:28 am (utc) on Nov. 25, 2004]
The references that Bill offers are excellent resources.
Just a few comments of things to watch out for. If you are using a non-Japanese operating system be very careful when copying the Japanese over into the HTML. Japanese is a double byte language so it may look like you are copying over the proper amount of text but it may chop the first or last few characters. If your translator sent you PDF copies of the translation use them to compare. If you have any ascii characters showing you have chopped a character somewhere.
Also, when editing text links be very careful in both the editing (reason indicated above) as well as the placement of the link reference since where it is in English is unlikely to be in the same place in Japanese.
I have used Dreamweaver once or twice with Japanese but it was on a Japanese OS. It should handle it fine but just watch the placment of the curser.
Be sure to add in the encoding and language reference and you should be fine. Obviously, get it reviewed by someone who can view and actually read Japanese.
Bill
very important
...get it reviewed by someone who can view and actually read Japanese.Can't emphasize this enough...
The translator will look everything over before it goes live. I just didn't want to create extra work for her.
Thanks again.
I found the following method for copying Japanese text from Word 2000 to Dreamweaver on a PC (not directly supported - lame):
1. With Japanese text in your Microsoft Word 2000 document, Save As an Encoded Text file in Shift-JIS format.
2. Open the text file using Notepad, and copy the characters. (Don't worry if you see strange characters.)
3. Paste into Dreamweaver.
from www.riverlion.com/jpfaq/ [riverlion.com]
Kind of a long way around, but it works.
One problem I ran into was that I copied my template from the English version and made changes to it but the Japanese characters just turned to garbage. I finally realized I still had a link to my stylesheet with fonts defined. So watch out for that one.
I have found no other way than screen captures to get my graphics programs (Jasc Paint Shop Pro v7) to handle Japanese characters. Another long way around, but it works.
One problem I still haven't resolved is how to have Japanese characters in Library items in Dreamweaver. There are no <head> tags in libraries, just html. So when I copy things in I get garbage. When I add the library to a page which has the encoding set, some of the characters are converted to Japanese, and others are not. Any one know a solution to this one?
I should mention that I am on Win2k in English and using English versions of all software. I have a Japanese doc from the translater so I won't be (am incapable of) inserting characters through IME, just copying and pasting.
Thanks!
I have found no other way than screen captures to get my graphics programs (Jasc Paint Shop Pro v7) to handle Japanese characters
I don't have Dreamweaver so I'm hoping someone else can jump in here...
another update on this japanese version and then a question. Actually I don't have much to update. I never did find a solution to the problem with using Dreamweaver libraries. I got around it by making most of the libraries part of templates (which work fine with japanese) and for the remaining libraries I resorted to copy-n-paste. Not an elegant solution, but fortunately there aren't many pages that use these libraries, so updates won't be such a problem.
Now on to my question: when I said we just got our site translated to Japanese, that was a bit of an exageration. We only had a few pages translated, basically the home page and some pages with legalese. We don't have anyone who speaks Japanese so our thought was to give the Japanese market a "first approach" to our site in their native language and then continue in English.
I have the menu items for site navigation in English when they lead to pages in English and Japanese for the few pages in Japanese. The Japanese pages all have a note at the beginning of the page stating that the rest of the site is in English.
Do you think this is a clear approach? Or should I have all menu items in Japanese with a mouse over in English for the pages in English? Any other ideas would be welcome.
Thanks for your help.
it avoids the need to keep changing language...we also have a link to a language switching page on all pages...but by and large most people seem to arrive to the pages in their language of choice
having too much of a mix of languages looks confusing
I agree with Eric_Jarvis about keeping the language consistent throughout. The vast majority of your Japanese visitors will probably not have much English language ability. Don't expect too many of them to wander off through your English only content.
Having a language switching option on the page is also a good idea.
