Back on the old days before Unicode came out, there are some pseudo standards for Vietnamese fonts and input interface. The problem is they don't work in all applications and you need to download proprietary application to be able to type in Vietnamese. Not anymore with WinXP. WinXp has support for all kind of languages included Vietnamese. You just need to turn it on. Go to Control Panel/Regional and Language Options/Click on Languages tab, check both of boxes under Supplemental language support. WinXp then asks you for the CD to install some files. If these boxes already checked you may skip this step. Under Languages tab, click on Details and choose Add. Under Add Input Language dialog box, choose Vietnamese and hit OK. WinXp will add a switch box either in your task bar or Desktop for you to switch between English and Vietnamese. I would also set up the Preference's Key Settings to switch between English and Vietnamese.
OK and now how to type in Vietnamese characters? The Microsoft's Vietnamese keyboard layout is like this: 1Ă 2Â 3Ê 4Ô 5̀ 6̉ 7̃ 8́ 9̣ 0Đ [Ư ]Ơ
For example to type the word Việt you would type Vi39t.
If you don't like to install the Vietnamese keyboard support on your system or you don't have the CD to install, then you can also use my Online Vietnamese Keyboard. Just type it and then cut-n-paste the text over any application.
Labels: Computer
