Integrating Technology in the Second Language Classroom

  
Jean LeLoup & Bob Ponterio 
SUNY Cortland 
© 2003, 2017
 Character sets

And these same MIME headers are also used in web pages so that a web browser such as Internet Explorer, Chrome or Firefox knows how to display each page, no matter where it was created and no matter where it is being viewed. As long as the computer knows which character set is represented, it knows which character to display.

Keyboards

You also have to get the characters into the computer in the first place. Windows and Mac have long allowed this to be done using keyboard shortcuts. The best way to enter characters in Windows is to select a keyboard layout that includes the characters that you want to type. For typing western European languages on American keyboards, the safest bet and the easiest to use if you already know how to type on an American keyboard is the US-International keyboard. In Windows 7, 8, 10, look for the Keyboards and Languages tab on the Region and Language control panel to change or add keyboards. Although many programs might have built-in keyboard shortcuts, the advantage of using the keyboard in the operating system (Windows, Mac) is that will work for all programs.

For online help with keyboards see:

Keyboard Help

Non-English Keyboards Windows 7 ; General for Windows & Mac ; Windows 10

A tutorial on character code issues


Character set lookup tables (including HTML codes for web pages)



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