Beyond Borders: Web Globalization Strategies

MANAGING THE MULTILINGUAL BROWSER

Current versions of Netscape Navigator 6.x, Internet Explorer 5.x, and Opera 6 support viewing all major character sets, with minor adjustments. For the process to work, however, your computer must have the necessary fonts installed. For starters, let’s focus on Japanese.

Open your browser and visit the IBM Japan site at www.ibm.co.jp. Does the site look more like Figure 2.10 or more like one of the examples in Figure 2.11? If the bulk of the text looks scrambled, as in Figure 2.11, your computer probably does not have a Japanese font installed. As for the Japanese characters that do appear correctly, they have been embedded into graphics, so they don’t rely on your system’s fonts. In the early ...