East Asian Languages Computing
Library-related Computing Issues and Solutions

Display and search Chinese / Japanese / Korean characters in Orbis

Starting January 2006, the Chinese/Japanese/Korean scripts are displayed in the default "Brief View" in Orbis, along with the romanization. Orbis now also has a limited function for searching CJK characters. The issues with displaying and searching CJK scripts in Orbis are noted here.

There are some technical requirements for displaying and searching CJK characters in Orbis:

• To view CJK characters in Orbis, you need to install Unicode fonts on your computer.
• To search CJK characters in Orbis, you need to activate Microsoft IME (for Windows computers) or configure the Mac input menu.

A detailed instruction for installing Unicode fonts and configuring input methods is available here.

Please note that most library workstations have been configured correctly for viewing and searching CJK characters; contact library staff if you encounter any problem on library workstations.

Read Chinese / Japanese / Korean texts on the web

East Asian language support of your web browser (such as Internet Explorer) is necessary for displaying text in original languages on the web as well as in many library databases. The most recent version of Internet Explorer already has language support installed. Please keep your Internet Explorer or other web browsers up to date.

Input texts in Chinese / Japanese / Korean

Microsoft Global IME is a convenient tool for inputting text in any East Asian languages into web search interfaces. Computers with most recent versions of Windows (Windows 2000/XP) will automatically have IME components installed, but these input methods need to be activated.

To activate the input methods in your Windows 2000 computer:
Go to Control Panel --> Regional Options --> Click on "Input Locale" tab on the top --> If you don't see any languages other than English, click on "add" to select the language you want to use --> Then click on properties of that language to choose appropriate input methods. You may turn on multiple languages or multiple input methods for a single language, depending on your needs and preferences.

If you need to input a very rare character, there are a couple of options. You may use the IME pad that comes with the Chinese (Taiwan) input method in Windows XP (click "Tools" on the IME bar and select IME pad); this will allow you to "write" on the pad and select the right character. Or, you may look up the character in the UniHan database, and then copy and paste the character to your Word document.

Read PDF files in East Asian languages

To read articles in East Asian languages in pdf format, users may need to have the recent version of Adobe PDF Reader and the Adobe Asian Font packs installed.

To download Adobe Reader, click here.
To download Adobe Asian font packs, click here.

Computers in the library

In the East Asia Library, two public workstations, one network printer, and one photocopier are available in the Reading Room (SML 219) and one scanner is available in SML 212. There are many other public workstations in Sterling Memorial Library nave and stacks and most of them are capable of displaying East Asian language text. Please refer to this page for details on other library-related computer issues.

To access library-subscribed resources from off-campus, users have to set up their computers for off-campus access. Please refer to this page for details.

Resources for East Asian Languages Computing

*We acknowledge the difficulty of maintaining an up-to-date list of computing resources and encourage you to submit links you think that are useful.

1. General

• Virtual CALL (Computer Aided Language Learning) Library (University of Sussex)
• Yamada Language Center non-English Fonts Archive (University of Oregon)

2. Chinese

• Chinese Mac (A site designed to help with using the Chinese language on Apple Macintosh computers; also has links to Windows and Palm OS resources).
• Chinese Software Digest
• Big5 to GB Conversion
• ChineseComputing.com

3. Japanese

• Japanese-related Projects (Purdue University)
• Japanese Software Digest
• Japanese Encoding
• Jim Breen's Japanese Page
• Ken Lunde's Home Page
• Windows Forest/Mado No Mori

4. Korean

• Korean Software Digest