Note: As of Fall 2003 this page will be updated only to provide links to sites that deal with Russification issues. The older material contained on this page will be left for some time, but will eventually be phased out.
The keyboard layout provided by Microsoft is based on the Russian typewriter layout. Many in the West prefer a homophonic layout. Links to such keyboards as well as further information on Russification can be found at the following sites:
If you already have your system configured and you are using a
recent
version of Netscape (4.0 or above) go directly to Basic
directions for using Netscape.
Macintosh Club of St. Petersburg
provides Ultimate Cyrillic Script.
Russification of the Macintosh by Matvey Palchuk.
Ukrainianization of the Macintosh by Zenon M. Feszczak.
Some Mac Fonts and Keyboards are available on this server. Click here to access them.
Finally, Macintosh users should also get the Mac versions of Gavin Helf's ER Fonts available at the BRAMA archive.
For direct links to fonts and keyboard drivers for the Mac, go to the AATSEEL Fonts and Keyboards Page.
If you already have your system configured and you are using a recent version of Netscape (4.0 or above) go directly to Basic directions for using Netscape.
The Problem: When creating a word processing file using Cyrillic on a Mac, one cannot simply place it on a DOS disk, insert it into a PC and expect to see the Cyrillic undamaged. Even using the same program (MS Word for Mac and MS Word for Windows) and fonts in the same codepage is of no avail. If one saves the file as text, the Cyrillic will be undamaged, but all formatting is lost. The same problem exists when going from a PC to a Mac.
A Solution: when you have created your file using Cyrillic on a Mac, save it as RTF (also known as interchange format). If you are using MS Word, the file will remain open. Go to the very first line of the file, near the very beginning of the line, and look for the word "mac". Replace "mac" with "ansi" and save the document again. Put it on a DOS disk and you can call it up on a PC with all your formatting and Cyrillic text undamaged. (You may have to choose "Select All" and then choose a Cyrillic font.) The process works in reverse on a PC to Mac exchange: look for "ansi" and replace it with "mac".
Caveats: this is not a perfect solution to everyone's problems. In order for this to work, you must have fonts in the same codepage on both the Mac and the PC. This is where Gavin Helf's ER fonts are of great use. If you create a document on the Mac using ERBukinistMac, you can use the PC equivalent to view and print the file on the PC. This process is good only for those who want to leave their documents in the same codepage. If you want to switch from the Mac codepage to the Windows codepage AND preserve your formatting at the same time, it won't help. But for someone who works on a Mac but has only a PC printer on which to print out, this will be of great use. Finally, I have tested this process only with Microsoft Word.
Changing Codepages: It is possible to change the codepage of a Cyrillic document. There are several utilities available which will do the job. All require, however, that you save the document as text before performing the operation. This results in a loss of all formatting.
If you have access to a Macintosh, another option is to use Add/Strip or PowerReplace in conjunction with tables created by Andreas Prilop. There are tables to convert Cyrillic, Central European Latin, and Greek. For Cyrillic files, for example, this combo will allow you to save documents as RTF (thus preserving your formatting) and then transfer between the Macintosh codepage and codepage 1251 and vice versa. (Sorry, no tables to and from KOI8 are available yet.) Be sure to read the documentation fully before attempting to use the software.
Matvey Palchuk also discusses this problem on his page devoted to Word-processing in Cyrillic. He provides several options that are not discussed here.
The web page, Non-English
and the Net, provides an in-depth discussion of the problem of
using
non-English languages on the Internet.
Using a quality application can help relieve some of the problems associated with sending Cyrillic text via e-mail. Eudora Light (a commercial version with more features is also available) allows one to encode messages and to use transliteration tables to work with Cyrillic text. Macintosh users can go to Matvey Palchuk's site to learn how to configure Eudora for Cyrillic. Eudora Light is also available in a Windows version.