Authoring Techniques for XHTML & HTML Internationalization: Outline View

Character sets, character encodings and entities

Choosing a page encoding

How to's

The Unicode Standard is very readable and contains a large amount of useful information besides code point listings.
The Unicode Standard 4.0

Reference links

Various resources about Unicode and multilingual support in HTML, fonts, web browsers and other applications.
Alan Wood’s Unicode Resources

Sources

HTML 4.01 spec
5.2.1 Choosing an encoding
Character Model for the World Wide Web 1.0
3.7 Character Escaping

Specifying a page encoding

Sources

HTML 4.01 spec
5.2.2 Specifying the character encoding

Using the HTTP header

Background information

Provides a description of how the charset information is passed with the HTTP header, and more background.
Declaring the document encoding

Reference links

IANA charset registry
Explains how to set the HTTP charset parameter of the Content-Type header on various servers and with various dynamic technologies.
The HTTP charset parameter

Sources

HTML 4.01 spec
5.2.2 Specifying the character encoding
RFC2616: Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1

Declaring the encoding in-document

Background information

Shows how to set the character encoding in a meta statement.
Declaring the document encoding
Describes possible problems when serving HTML files with an XML declaration.
Serving HTML & XHTML
Shows how to set the character encoding in an XML declaration.
Declaring the document encoding

Reference links

IANA charset registry

Sources

HTML 4.01 spec
5.2.2 Specifying the character encoding
XHTML 1.0 spec (2nd Edition)
C.9 Character encoding
General requirements for specification of encoding in XHTML documents.
3.1.1. Strictly Conforming Documents (towards the bottom of the section)
XHTML 1.0 requirements for use of the XML declaration.
3.1.1. Strictly Conforming Documents

Other

Reference links

IANA charset registry

Sources

How do I set character encoding in my web authoring applications?
FAQ: Setting encoding in web authoring applications
HTML 4.01 spec
5.2.2 Specifying the character encoding

Representing characters using escapes

Background information

Background reading about the use of escapes, including some examples not found here.
What are entities and NCRs?
Background reading about the use of escapes, including some examples not found here.
What are entities and NCRs?

Sources

Character Model for the World Wide Web 1.0
3.7 Character Escaping
Advises use of CSS escapes in style attributes.
4.4.1 Referring to characters not represented in a character encoding

Language

Specifying language codes

How to's

RFC 3066: the IETF document that defines how to use language tags to identify languages.
RFC 3066 Tags for the Identification of Languages
ISO 639 language codes
ISO 639: Codes for the Representation of Names of Languages
ISO 3166 country codes
ISO 3166: Codes for Country Names
IANA's language tag registry.
IANA Assigned Language Tags
RFC 3066: a brief summary.
Using Language Information in XHTML, HTML and CSS, Specifying language attribute values

Background information

Use of language codes: additional useful information.
Language tagging in HTML and XML

Sources

lang in HTML spec.
8.1 Specifying the language of content: the lang attribute
xml:lang in XML spec.
2.12 Language Identification
Should I use two-letter or three-letter language codes?
W3C I18N FAQ: Two-letter or three-letter language codes

Test data

Automatic font assignment for CJK text
Test results

Specifying the default text processing language of a document

How to's

Use of language attributes: additional advice.
Using Language Information in XHTML, HTML and CSS, Why and how to declare language

Background information

Should I declare the language of my XHTML document using a language attribute, the Content-Language HTTP header, or a meta element?
W3C I18N FAQ: Using HTTP and meta for language information
Why use the language attribute? A number of useful reasons.
Why use the language attribute?

Sources

Web Content Accessibility Guideline: calls for markup to express natural language in a document.
Guideline 4. Clarify natural language usage
Web Content Accessibility Techniques for HTML: advises use of lang attribute on html tag.
2.2 Identifying the primary language
lang tag in HTML spec.
8.1 Specifying the language of content: the lang attribute
xml:lang in XML spec.
2.12 Language Identification
xml:lang and lang in XHTML 1.0 spec.
C.7. The lang and xml:lang Attributes
Content-Language in the HTML specification: only says that the html language attribute has a higher precedence.
8.1 Specifying the language of content: the lang attribute
Content-Language in the HTTP1.1 specification.
14.12 Content-Language

Specifying the primary language metadata of a document

Background information

Should I declare the language of my XHTML document using a language attribute, the Content-Language HTTP header, or a meta element?
W3C I18N FAQ: Using HTTP and meta for language information
Why use the language attribute? A number of useful reasons.
Why use the language attribute?
Why use the language attribute? A number of useful reasons.
Why use the language attribute?

Sources

Content-Language in the HTTP1.1 specification.
14.12 Content-Language
Content-Language in the HTML specification: only says that the html language attribute has a higher precedence.
8.1 Specifying the language of content: the lang attribute
Content-Language in the HTML specification: only says that the html language attribute has a higher precedence.
8.1 Specifying the language of content: the lang attribute
xml:lang in XML spec.
2.12 Language Identification
xml:lang and lang in XHTML 1.0 spec.
C.7. The lang and xml:lang Attributes
Content-Language in the HTTP1.1 specification.
14.12 Content-Language

Identifying in-document language changes

How to's

Use of language attributes: additional advice.
Using Language Information in XHTML, HTML and CSS, Why and how to declare language

Background information

Why use the language attribute? A number of useful reasons.
Why use the language attribute?
Language tagging in HTML and XML: a variety of useful information.
Language tagging in HTML and XML

Sources

Web Content Accessibility Guideline: calls for markup to express natural language in a document.
Guideline 4. Clarify natural language usage
Web Content Accessibility Techniques for HTML: advises use of lang attribute when language changes in a document.
2.1 Identifying changes in language
lang tag in HTML spec.
8.1 Specifying the language of content: the lang attribute
xml:lang in XML spec.
2.12 Language Identification
xml:lang and lang in XHTML 1.0 spec.
C.7. The lang and xml:lang Attributes

Specifying the language of a link destination

How to's

:before and :after in the CSS 2.1 spec.
12.1 The :before and :after pseudo-elements

Sources

hreflang in the HTML spec.
12.2 The A element

Test data

Hreflang content generation
Test results

Notes on document use

This document is in early draft form. It is undergoing constant and frequent modification and does not yet contain accurate content.

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(digit): supported in version X and above
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