Translated Sites and HTML Characters

01-15-2005, 20:00

When creating a website in a language other than English, should I use the
HTML character entities to depict letters such as ö = ö or should I
just type in the character ö directly.

--
JayB

01-15-2005, 22:00

On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 23

06 GMT, JayB <jerryb@qwest.net> wrote:

> When creating a website in a language other than English, should I use
> the
> HTML character entities to depict letters such as ö = ö or should I
> just type in the character ö directly.

Use the ISO-8859-1 charset and type in the ö directly. Most, if not all,
user agents will render the character correctly.

To display your pages in ISO-8859-1, just add the following <meta> tag to
your <head> element:

<meta http-equiv="Content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1;" />

Putting in the characters as-is will *definitely* help you in the search
engines. Non-english-speaking people will, of course, search for words
containing characters from their own alphabet.

Grey

--
The technical axiom that nothing is impossible sinisterly implies the
pitfall corollary that nothing is ridiculous.
- http://www.greywyvern.com/webslavent.php?msg=53 - Opera puffin mascot
campaign!

01-16-2005, 08:00

JayB wrote:

> When creating a website in a language other than English, should I use the
> HTML character entities to depict letters such as ö = Ã¶ or should I
> just type in the character Ã¶ directly.

Whichever you prefer, but if you are doing the latter, pay attention to
the character set your server sends in the HTTP headers.

--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
Contact Me ~ http://tobyinkster.co.uk/contact

01-16-2005, 13:00

JayB jerryb@qwest.net wrote:
> When creating a website in a language other than English, should I use the
> HTML character entities to depict letters such as ö = ö or should I
> just type in the character ö directly.
>

It depends entirely on the context. If it's a single language site then
choose the correct character set and encoding and use the characters
directly (assuming you can). If it's multiple languages then it may be a
safer bet in the long term to use utf-8.

The key either way is to ensure that what you input is in the right
encoding. In most languages it will be best to input the characters
directly. In some it can be a safer bet to use the numerical entities,
I've been known to do so with Simplified Chinese and with Arabic. Of
course it's also easier to so if you don't have an easy way of entering
characters in that language.

Without knowing the precise details of what you intend then it's hard to
say what's your best option.

--
eric
www.ericjarvis.co.uk
"live fast, die only if strictly necessary"

01-16-2005, 19:00

"Eric Jarvis" <web@ericjarvis.co.uk> wrote in message
news:MPG.1c54a60d3d96333398db82@news.individual.ne t...
> JayB jerryb@qwest.net wrote:
>> When creating a website in a language other than English, should I use
>> the
>> HTML character entities to depict letters such as ö = ö or should I
>> just type in the character ö directly.
>>
>
> It depends entirely on the context. If it's a single language site then
> choose the correct character set and encoding and use the characters
> directly (assuming you can). If it's multiple languages then it may be a
> safer bet in the long term to use utf-8.
>
> The key either way is to ensure that what you input is in the right
> encoding. In most languages it will be best to input the characters
> directly. In some it can be a safer bet to use the numerical entities,
> I've been known to do so with Simplified Chinese and with Arabic. Of
> course it's also easier to so if you don't have an easy way of entering
> characters in that language.
>
> Without knowing the precise details of what you intend then it's hard to
> say what's your best option.

I'm doing a website for a farm and they would like translated versions in
Spanish, Somali and Turkish.

--
JayB

01-16-2005, 21:00

JayB jerryb@qwest.net wrote:
>
> "Eric Jarvis" <web@ericjarvis.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:MPG.1c54a60d3d96333398db82@news.individual.ne t...
> > JayB jerryb@qwest.net wrote:
> >> When creating a website in a language other than English, should I use
> >> the
> >> HTML character entities to depict letters such as ö = ö or should I
> >> just type in the character ö directly.
> >>
> >
> > It depends entirely on the context. If it's a single language site then
> > choose the correct character set and encoding and use the characters
> > directly (assuming you can). If it's multiple languages then it may be a
> > safer bet in the long term to use utf-8.
> >
> > The key either way is to ensure that what you input is in the right
> > encoding. In most languages it will be best to input the characters
> > directly. In some it can be a safer bet to use the numerical entities,
> > I've been known to do so with Simplified Chinese and with Arabic. Of
> > course it's also easier to so if you don't have an easy way of entering
> > characters in that language.
> >
> > Without knowing the precise details of what you intend then it's hard to
> > say what's your best option.
>
> I'm doing a website for a farm and they would like translated versions in
> Spanish, Somali and Turkish.
>

Go with Unicode. It will allow you to do text navigation to the other
languages on a single page. For all of those I'd use the straightforward
character entities rather than the numerical ones, assuming I'd got a
translator who knows how to produce Unicode documents properly.

I don't know about Somali (the only African languages I've dealt with
so far have been Swahili and Hausa). but I'm pretty sure the standard non-
Unicode encoding for Turkish is different from the one for Spanish and
English.

--
eric
www.ericjarvis.co.uk
"live fast, die only if strictly necessary"

01-15-2005, 20:00	#1 (permalink)
JayB Civilians	Translated Sites and HTML Characters When creating a website in a language other than English, should I use the HTML character entities to depict letters such as ö = ö or should I just type in the character ö directly. -- JayB

01-15-2005, 22:00	#2 (permalink)
GreyWyvern Civilians	Re: Translated Sites and HTML Characters On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 2306 GMT, JayB <jerryb@qwest.net> wrote: > When creating a website in a language other than English, should I use > the > HTML character entities to depict letters such as ö = ö or should I > just type in the character ö directly. Use the ISO-8859-1 charset and type in the ö directly. Most, if not all, user agents will render the character correctly. To display your pages in ISO-8859-1, just add the following <meta> tag to your <head> element: <meta http-equiv="Content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1;" /> Putting in the characters as-is will definitely help you in the search engines. Non-english-speaking people will, of course, search for words containing characters from their own alphabet. Grey -- The technical axiom that nothing is impossible sinisterly implies the pitfall corollary that nothing is ridiculous. - http://www.greywyvern.com/webslavent.php?msg=53 - Opera puffin mascot campaign!

01-16-2005, 08:00	#3 (permalink)
Toby Inkster Civilians	Re: Translated Sites and HTML Characters JayB wrote: > When creating a website in a language other than English, should I use the > HTML character entities to depict letters such as ö = Ã¶ or should I > just type in the character Ã¶ directly. Whichever you prefer, but if you are doing the latter, pay attention to the character set your server sends in the HTTP headers. -- Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS Contact Me ~ http://tobyinkster.co.uk/contact

01-16-2005, 13:00	#4 (permalink)
Eric Jarvis Civilians	Re: Translated Sites and HTML Characters JayB jerryb@qwest.net wrote: > When creating a website in a language other than English, should I use the > HTML character entities to depict letters such as ö = ö or should I > just type in the character ö directly. > It depends entirely on the context. If it's a single language site then choose the correct character set and encoding and use the characters directly (assuming you can). If it's multiple languages then it may be a safer bet in the long term to use utf-8. The key either way is to ensure that what you input is in the right encoding. In most languages it will be best to input the characters directly. In some it can be a safer bet to use the numerical entities, I've been known to do so with Simplified Chinese and with Arabic. Of course it's also easier to so if you don't have an easy way of entering characters in that language. Without knowing the precise details of what you intend then it's hard to say what's your best option. -- eric www.ericjarvis.co.uk "live fast, die only if strictly necessary"

01-16-2005, 19:00	#5 (permalink)
JayB Civilians	Re: Translated Sites and HTML Characters "Eric Jarvis" <web@ericjarvis.co.uk> wrote in message news:MPG.1c54a60d3d96333398db82@news.individual.ne t... > JayB jerryb@qwest.net wrote: >> When creating a website in a language other than English, should I use >> the >> HTML character entities to depict letters such as ö = ö or should I >> just type in the character ö directly. >> > > It depends entirely on the context. If it's a single language site then > choose the correct character set and encoding and use the characters > directly (assuming you can). If it's multiple languages then it may be a > safer bet in the long term to use utf-8. > > The key either way is to ensure that what you input is in the right > encoding. In most languages it will be best to input the characters > directly. In some it can be a safer bet to use the numerical entities, > I've been known to do so with Simplified Chinese and with Arabic. Of > course it's also easier to so if you don't have an easy way of entering > characters in that language. > > Without knowing the precise details of what you intend then it's hard to > say what's your best option. I'm doing a website for a farm and they would like translated versions in Spanish, Somali and Turkish. -- JayB

01-16-2005, 21:00	#6 (permalink)
Eric Jarvis Civilians	Re: Translated Sites and HTML Characters JayB jerryb@qwest.net wrote: > > "Eric Jarvis" <web@ericjarvis.co.uk> wrote in message > news:MPG.1c54a60d3d96333398db82@news.individual.ne t... > > JayB jerryb@qwest.net wrote: > >> When creating a website in a language other than English, should I use > >> the > >> HTML character entities to depict letters such as ö = ö or should I > >> just type in the character ö directly. > >> > > > > It depends entirely on the context. If it's a single language site then > > choose the correct character set and encoding and use the characters > > directly (assuming you can). If it's multiple languages then it may be a > > safer bet in the long term to use utf-8. > > > > The key either way is to ensure that what you input is in the right > > encoding. In most languages it will be best to input the characters > > directly. In some it can be a safer bet to use the numerical entities, > > I've been known to do so with Simplified Chinese and with Arabic. Of > > course it's also easier to so if you don't have an easy way of entering > > characters in that language. > > > > Without knowing the precise details of what you intend then it's hard to > > say what's your best option. > > I'm doing a website for a farm and they would like translated versions in > Spanish, Somali and Turkish. > Go with Unicode. It will allow you to do text navigation to the other languages on a single page. For all of those I'd use the straightforward character entities rather than the numerical ones, assuming I'd got a translator who knows how to produce Unicode documents properly. I don't know about Somali (the only African languages I've dealt with so far have been Swahili and Hausa). but I'm pretty sure the standard non- Unicode encoding for Turkish is different from the one for Spanish and English. -- eric www.ericjarvis.co.uk "live fast, die only if strictly necessary"

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