Authoring Techniques for XHTML & HTML Internationalization 1.0
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This document contains resource information relating to the Working Draft, Authoring Techniques for XHTML and HTML Internationalization 1.0 dated 9 October 2003. Links to the full document and to an outline view are provided at the beginning of each section.

Table of contents

-Introduction

Who should use this document

How to use this document

Standards addressed

User agents addressed

-Document structure & metadata

Internationalizing the page header

International layout considerations

* Document structure

* Sentence fragmentation & reuse

* Ordering text

* Separating semantics from presentation

-Character sets, character encodings and entities

Choosing a page encoding

Specifying a page encoding

Referring to specific characters

* Specifying the encoding of a link destination

-Fonts

Choosing & specifying fonts

Dealing with undisplayable characters

* Installing multilingual fonts

* Pages containing multiple languages

-Specifying the language of content

Specifying the overall language of a document

Identifying language change

Specifying the language of a link destination

Specifying language codes

-Handling bidirectional text

Enabling easy localization for RTL scripts

General use of bidi markup

Basic setup for pages in RTL scripts

Changing the directionality of a block element

Mixing text direction inline

Handling parentheses & other mirrored characters

Overriding the Unicode bidirectional algorithm

* Enabling mirroring of layout

-* Handling vertical text

-* Text formatting

* Acronyms & abbreviations

* Use of pre text

* Applying visual style conventions

-* Lists

* Implementing language-specific list markers

-* Tables

* Mirroring tables in bidirectional text

* Specifying table dimensions

* Alignment issues

* (Other issues)

-* Links

* Keyboard access to links

* Using non-ASCII characters in link targets

* Including encoding & language information in links

* Linking in a multilingual site

-* Objects

* Determining the runtime locale for an object

* Dealing with embedded objects with different encodings

-* Images

* Creating culturally appropriate graphics

* Using text in graphics

* Using image maps

* Dealing with directional bias in graphics

* Creating localizable graphics

-Handling data that varies by locale

* (Other stuff: measurements, addresses, telephone numbers, personal names, paper sizes...)

-Forms

* Dealing with character sets & encodings

* Keyboard access to forms

* Creating culturally appropriate forms

* Creating buttons

-* Keyboard shortcuts

-* Writing source text

* Writing clear, understandable text

* Using metaphors, examples and humour

* Using abbreviations & acronyms

-* Navigation

* Navigating to the preferred localized web site

* Implementing international contact pages

-* File management

-* Supplying data for localization

1 Introduction

1.1 Who should use this document

1.2 How to use this document

1.3 Standards addressed

1.4 User agents addressed

3 Character sets, character encodings and entities

3.1 Choosing a page encoding

Implementation guidelines

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

Reference links

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

Sources

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

3.2 Specifying a page encoding

Reference links

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

Sources

[XHTML 1.0] 3.1.1. Strictly Conforming Documents (towards the bottom of the section)
General requirements for specification of encoding in XHTML documents.
[HTML 4.01] 5.2.2 Specifying the character encoding
HTML 4.01 spec
[XHTML 1.0] C.9 Character encoding
How to specify character encoding for XHTML served as text/html using compatibility markup.
[RFC2616] RFC2616: Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1

3.3 Referring to specific characters

Sources

[CharMod] 3.7 Character Escaping
Character Model for the World Wide Web 1.0
[HTML 4.01] 5.3 Specifying the character encoding
HTML 4.01 spec

3.4 * Specifying the encoding of a link destination

4 Fonts

4.1 Choosing & specifying fonts

4.2 Dealing with undisplayable characters

4.3 * Installing multilingual fonts

4.4 * Pages containing multiple languages

5 Specifying the language of content

5.1 Specifying the overall language of a document

5.2 Identifying language change

5.3 Specifying the language of a link destination

5.4 Specifying language codes

Sources

Two-letter or three-letter language codes
W3C Internationalization FAQ: Should I use two-letter or three-letter language codes?

6 Handling bidirectional text

'Bidirectional', or 'bidi', text refers to text written using a script such as Arabic or Hebrew. In such scripts the text flows predominantly from right to left, but embedded numbers or text in other scripts (such as Latin script) still runs left to right.

6.1 Enabling easy localization for RTL scripts

6.2 General use of bidi markup

Background information

CSS vs. markup for bidi support
FAQ that answers the question, "Should I use CSS or markup to correctly format Unicode-based bidi text in HTML and XML-based markup languages?"
What you need to know about the bidi algorithm and inline markup, Visual vs. logical order
Provides examples and explanations of visual versus logical order for pages in bidirectional scripts.

Sources

6.3 Basic setup for pages in RTL scripts

Background information

What you need to know about the bidi algorithm and inline markup, Visual vs. logical order
Provides examples and explanations of visual versus logical order for pages in bidirectional scripts.
What you need to know about the bidi algorithm and inline markup, Visual vs. logical order
Provides examples and explanations of visual versus logical order for pages in bidirectional scripts.

Reference links

Authoring HTML for Middle Eastern Content
Explains why you should add dir to the html element rather than the body element.
[RFC1556] Handling of Bidirectional Texts in MIME
[RFC1555] Hebrew Character Encoding for Internet Messages

Sources

[HTML 4.01] 8.2.4 Overriding the bidirectional algorithm: the BDO element, Note on Bidirectionality and character encoding
Describes why to choose iso-8859-8-i.

6.4 Changing the directionality of a block element

6.5 Mixing text direction inline

Sources

[UXML] 3.4 Bidi Embedding Controls (LRE, RLE, LRO, RLO, PDF), U+202A .. U+202E
Use HTML markup rather than Unicode control characters for directional control.
[HTML 4.01] 8.2.3 Setting the direction of embedded text
Use HTML markup rather than Unicode control characters for directional control.
[CSS2] 9.10 Text direction: the 'direction' and 'unicode-bidi' properties
Use HTML markup rather than CSS styles for directional control.
Bidi space loss
W3C Internationalization FAQ: Why does my browser collapse spaces between Latin and Arabic/Hebrew text?

6.6 Handling parentheses & other mirrored characters

6.7 Overriding the Unicode bidirectional algorithm

6.8 * Enabling mirroring of layout

7 * Handling vertical text

8 * Text formatting

8.1 * Emphasis

8.2 * Acronyms & abbreviations

8.3 * Quotations

8.4 * Ruby

8.5 * Use of `pre` text

8.6 * Applying visual style conventions

9 * Lists

9.1 * Implementing language-specific list markers

10 * Tables

10.1 * Mirroring tables in bidirectional text

10.2 * Specifying table dimensions

10.3 * Alignment issues

10.4 * (Other issues)

11 * Links

11.1 * Keyboard access to links

11.2 * Using non-ASCII characters in link targets

11.3 * Including encoding & language information in links

11.4 * Linking in a multilingual site

12 * Objects

12.1 * Determining the runtime locale for an object

12.2 * Dealing with embedded objects with different encodings

14 Handling data that varies by locale

14.1 Date & time

Implementation guidelines

A proposal for unambiguous, machine-readable dates & times.
A W3C Note proposing a subset of ISO 8601. This should be added to the bibliography. All url items should include author names and urls for printed viewing.

Background information

How time is maintained on the Internet.
Various useful items about time.

Sources

http://www.w3.org/International/O-time.html
Use HTML markup rather than CSS styles for directional control.

14.2 * Numbers

14.3 * Currency

14.4 * (Other stuff: measurements, addresses, telephone numbers, personal names, paper sizes...)

15 Forms

While this section awaits content you can find a W3C Internationalization FAQ that answers the question, What is the best way to deal with encoding issues in forms that may use multiple languages and scripts?

15.1 * Dealing with character sets & encodings

15.2 * Keyboard access to forms

15.3 * Creating culturally appropriate forms

15.4 * Creating buttons

16 * Keyboard shortcuts

17 * Writing source text

17.1 * Writing clear, understandable text

17.2 * Using metaphors, examples and humour

17.3 * Using abbreviations & acronyms

18 * Navigation

18.1 * Navigating to the preferred localized web site

18.2 * Implementing international contact pages

19 * File management

20 * Supplying data for localization

A Acknowledgements

The following GEO Task Force members have contributed their time and valuable comments to shaping these guidelines:

Phil Arko, Steve Billings, Wendy Chisholm, Andrew Cunningham, Martin Dürst, Lloyd Honomichl, Russ Rolfe, Peter Sigrist, Tex Texin, Najib Tounsi

B References

CharMod: M. J. Dürst, F. Yergeau, R. Ishida, M. Wolf, T. Texin, Character Model for the World Wide Web 1.0, Working Draft in Last Call . (See http://www.w3.org/TR/charmod/.)
CSS2: Bert Bos, Håkon Wium Lie, Chris Lilley, Ian Jacobs, Eds., Cascading Style Sheets, level 2 (CSS2 Specification), W3C Recommendation. (See http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2.)
HTML 4.01: Dave Raggett, Arnaud Le Hors, Ian Jacobs, Eds., HTML 4.01 Specification, W3C Recommendation. (See http://www.w3.org/TR/html401.)
IANA: Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, Official Names for Character Sets. (See http://www.iana.org/assignments/character-sets.)
RFC1555: H. Nussbacher and Y. Bourvine, Hebrew Character Encoding for Internet Messages, December 1993. (See http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1555.txt
RFC1556: H. Nussbacher, Handling of Bi-directional Texts in MIME, December 1993. (See http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1556.txt
RFC2616: R. Fielding et al., Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1, June 1999. (See http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2616.txt
Unicode: The Unicode Consortium, The Unicode Standard, Version 3, ISBN 0-201-61633-5, as updated from time to time by the publication of new versions. (See http://www.unicode.org/unicode/standard/versions for the latest version and additional information on versions of the standard and of the Unicode Character Database).
UXML: Martin Dürst and Asmus Freytag, Unicode in XML and other Markup Languages, Unicode Technical Report #20 and W3C Note. (See http://www.w3.org/TR/unicode-xml.)
XHTML 1.0: W3C HTML Working Group, XHTML™ 1.0 The Extensible HyperText Markup Language (Second Edition), W3C Recommendation. (See http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/.)