9.18 Regional and Language Options


Windows XP is by far the most internationally oriented version of Windows to date. It can accommodate any conceivable arrangement of date, currency, and number formats; comes with fonts for dozens of Asian languages; lets you remap your keyboard to type non-English symbols of every ilk; and so on.

For the first time in Windows, you can install multiple input languages on your computer and easily switch between them when the mood strikes (see Section 3.5.4 for details about the Language bar). The key term here is input language ; the language for the operating system doesn't change. If you installed Windows XP in English, you'll still see the menus and dialog boxes in English. But when you switch the input language, your keyboard will type the characters necessary for the selected language.)

WORKAROUND WORKSHOP
UPS When the Lights Go Out

The typical UPS offers only a few minutes of battery power. The usual advice, then, is this: If you're working at your PC when the power fails, save your documents and shut down the PC (or activate hibernation mode) at the first opportunity.


figs/09inf03.gif

That advice won't help, however, if you're away from your desk when the power goes out, thereby missing your chance to save the documents.

Fortunately, you can hedge against such disaster by instructing your PC to enter hibernation mode ”thus saving all open documents ”when the UPS battery drops to a certain level.

To do so, click the Alarm Action button (on the Alarms Tab ”for USB-connected UPSes) or the Configure button (on the UPS Tab ”for serial-connected UPSes), and then, from the drop-down list, instruct the computer to Hibernate, as shown here. Now you're protected.

Next challenge: figuring out how on earth you're going to spend your time in a house with no PC and electricity.


9.18.1 Regional Options Tab

If you think that 7/4 means July 4 and that 1.000 is the number of heads you have, skip this section.

But in some countries , 7/4 means April 7, and 1.000 means one thousand. If your PC isn't showing numbers , times, currency symbols, or dates in a familiar way, click the Customize button to rearrange the sequence of date elements (see Figure 9-15).

Figure 9-15. Lower right: The Regional Options tab is a summary of the crazy settings that you can change by clicking the Customize button ”which opens the Customize Regional Options dialog box, shown at top left. Top left: The changes you make here are reflected in the date and time stamps on your files located in list-view folder windows, and in Microsoft Excel (in the case of your Currency-tab choices).
figs/09fig15.gif

NOTE

The Customize Regional Options box (Figure 9-15, left) is where you can specify whether you prefer a 12-hour clock ("3:05 PM") or a military or European-style, 24- hour clock ("1505").

9.18.2 Languages Tab

The symbols you use when you're typing in Swedish aren't the same as when you're typing in English. Microsoft solved this problem by creating different keyboard layouts, one for each language. Each keyboard layout rearranges the letters that appear when you press the keys. For example, using the Swedish layout, pressing the semicolon key produces an ”not a semicolon (;).

For a choice of keyboard layouts, use the Settings tab of this dialog box to install the appropriate driver. Click Details, click Add, and, in the resulting window, choose the languages you want (see Figure 9-16).

Figure 9-16. Top: After you've added a couple of layouts to the Language tab, specify the one you want by choosing its name from the top drop-down menu. Bottom right: The Language bar is a floating menu bar that lets you know which keyboard layout you're currently using ”a useful reminder when your typing seems to be producing only bizarre symbols. It automatically appears on your desktop when you install a second input language. Bottom left: This dialog box appears; change the options, if you like, and then click OK.
figs/09fig16.gif

After installing more than one keyboard layout, you can switch between them in either of two ways:

  • Use the Language bar, as shown in Figure 9-16. It's a floating, ghostly menu that lets you switch keyboard layouts no matter what you're doing on the PC (Figure 9-16, bottom).

    NOTE

    The Language bar also appears if you've turned on or installed handwriting-recognition systems, Microsoft speech-recognition systems, or additional input languages, including special input software designed to let you type Asian language characters.

  • You can also switch from one keyboard layout to the next by simultaneously pressing the left-side Alt and Shift keys. Clicking the Key Settings button at the bottom of the dialog box shown at top left in Figure 9-16 lets you change this key combination, or set up individual key combinations for each language layout you've installed.

NOTE

To view your new keyboard arrangement, use the Character Map program described on Section 7.1.4.2.

The Languages Tab also offers checkboxes that let you install the additional software required to word process in right-to-left languages (Hebrew, Vietnamese, and so on) and East Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean). Proceed at your own risk ”these files consume about 250 MB of disk space.

9.18.3 Advanced Tab

When running certain programs that are written to display their menus and dialog boxes in other languages, you can, in theory, use these language conversion tables to help Windows XP correctly display those languages. Microsoft offers you the option of applying the settings to the current user account and to the default user profile. (You have to be an administrator [Section 17.3.1] to install or remove these conversion tables.)



Windows XP Pro. The Missing Manual
Windows XP Pro: The Missing Manual
ISBN: 0596008988
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 230

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