[ESW Wiki] Update of "geoQuickTips" by RichardIshida

Dear Wiki user,

You have subscribed to a wiki page or wiki category on "ESW Wiki" for change notification.

The following page has been changed by RichardIshida:
http://esw.w3.org/topic/geoQuickTips


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
  Author: Andrew Cunningham
  
- = Quick Tips =
+ == Quick Internationalization Tips for the Web ==
  
- '''[[RI''' I think we should call this something like "Quick tips to internationalize your XHTML and CSS" ]]
+  1. Encoding: Use Unicode wherever possible for content, forms, scripts, databases, etc.; always declare the encoding in the page, and, where appropriate, using the HTTP header.
  
+  2. Escapes: Only use escapes for characters in exceptional circumstances; use numeric character references rather than character entities if possible.
-  1. Use UTF-8 [[DRC delete ''or Unicode''. Doing so is clearer, besides UTF-8 is a form of Unicode]] and for the document encoding.
-  2. Otherwise select an appropriate encoding, that supports all the languages and characters required, and is accessible and common to your users.
-  3. Always declare the character encoding, using either the http header or specifying it in document.
-  4. Escapes: Only use escapes for characters in exceptional circumstances.
-  5. Indicate the primary language, using the lang and/or xml:lang attributes on the html element '''[[RI''' this should say text-processing language, not primary]]
-  6. Identify language changes: Use the lang and/or xml:lang attributes around text
-  7. For right-to-left documents: Add dir="rtl" to the html element and use additional bidi markup only where it is needed. 
-  8. Right-to-left and left-to-right marks: Use to correctly control neutral characters such as punctuation and spaces
-  9. Use dir attribute to control directionality of block level elements or inline elements that occur within nested directional runs.
  
- [[NT: Use dir attribute to change directionnality  of a part of a text (nested within a given directionnal run).
+  3. Language declaration: Declare the default text-processing language of the document in the document element (eg. the html tag), and use attributes to declare language changes in your document.
  
+  4. Separate presentation and content: Use stylesheets for  presentational information, and use markup in a semantically meaningful way.
- ***
- permute 9. and 8. (put 9 after 7)?
- ]]
  
-  10. Check your work: Validate, techniques, tutorials, FAQs at http://www.w3.org/International 
+  5. Images, animations & examples: Check these for inappropriate cultural bias and translatability. 
  
+  6. Forms: Take care to support localized formats for names and addresses, times and dates, etc.
- [[NT: 8-bis. RLE and PDF: use to change the directionality of the title element (to ltr)
- ]]
  
- '''[[RI''' Here are some other ideas I had (wording needs some work):
+  7. Text authoring: Use simple, concise text for international sites; avoid scripting techniques that compose sentences from multiple strings.
  
+  8. Navigation: Include clearly visible navigation on each page to any localized pages or sites, and use the target languages for navigation prompts.
-  * Encoding: Use a Unicode encoding wherever possible for the page and any scripts and databases, and always declare the encoding in the page, and where appropriate using the HTTP header.
-  * Escapes: as above plus "and use NCRs rather than character entities if possible."
-  * Language declaration: Declare the default text-processing language of the document in the html tag, and use attributes to declare language changes in your document.
-  * Separate presentation and content: Use CSS for all presentational information, and use markup in a semantically meaningful way.
-  * Images, animations & examples: Check these for inappropriate cultural bias.
-  * Forms: Take care with formats for names and addresses, times and dates, etc.
-  * Text authoring: Use simple, concise English for multilingual readers. Avoid fragmenting sentence-like structures.
-  * Navigation: Where you have localized versions of your pages or site, make navigation between versions clearly visible on each page and use the language of the target page.
-  * Right-to-left text: Add dir="rtl" to the html tag and only re-use it where necessary to change directionality.  Use markup rather than CSS or Unicode control codes. (Or at least, do not mix these)
-  * Check your work: Similar to above
- ]]
  
+  9. Right-to-left text: For XHTML, add dir="rtl" to the html tag and only re-use it where necessary to change directionality; do not mix markup with CSS or Unicode control codes.
+ 
+  10. Check your work: Validate! Use techniques, tutorials, and FAQs at [[http://www.w3.org/International http://www.w3.org/International]]
+

Received on Monday, 17 October 2005 16:16:06 UTC