Alec's Latvian Page

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I suppose you have received Windows 98. If not, it is a good time to obtain it - I have resisted, myself, for a long time, but a few months ago capitulated - and I am happy now - it is invaluable, trust me. To be able to read and to write in Latvian, you can download Multilanguage Support for Windows 95. To install it, you have to create a special directory for that file, lang.exe, say C:\lang, paste that file in this directory, and twice click on it (or type in the Run field: C:\lang\lang.exe). After a prompt, enter y, and this directory will be filled with various *.ttf and *.kbd files. Then go to your Control Panel, click twice on Add/Remove Programs, click on Windows Setup, check the box for Multilanguage Support, then click on Have Disk and type C:\lang (your directory) in the required field. Then click OK, OK, and, perhaps, another OK - if you are prompted to reboot your system. After rebooting you will be able to read the Latvian texts. You won't need the created directory, C:\lang, anymore, so you can delete it now.

To be able to type in Latvian, you have to return to the Control Panel again, click twice on the Keyboard, then click on Language, click on Add, choose Latvian, click OK, OK - then you are almost done. Now you can type in Latvian in WordPad and other editors if you set Lv instead of En in your taskbar. I said almost done, because you have to reconfigure your browser, too.

For Netscape 3.0 you have to click Options-General Preferences-Fonts, choose for the encoding User Define, and then clicking 'Choose Font...' choose Times New Roman (Regular, Size 12, Script Baltic) as the Proportional Font (click OK) and Courier New (Regular, size 10, Script Baltic) as the Fixed Font (click OK), then click OK, and you are done. If you have not experimented with other fonts before, you have to change only the Script (in the instructions given above), because both Times New Roman (size 12) and Courier New (size 10) are default Netscape fonts. Now you are able to read any Latvian pages written using Windows CP 1257 (i.e., Baltic Rim) encoding, by clicking Options-Document Encoding-User Defined. If you have Netscape Gold, you are able to create pages in that encoding as well - it is enough to click on letters En in your taskbar, and choose Latvian - then you will see Lv instead of En - and you can switch between keyboards using Left Alt + Shift as well (if you didn't change that when you added the Latvian keyboard).

Updated on February 28, 2001.