File Types

The pages on this site are of three basic types:  HTML, B5, and AUDIO.  The html pages are basic text documents that can be displayed on any machine capable of displaying traditional Chinese characters.  The B5 files are Chinese word processor documents created using the NJStar Chinese Word Processor (available as a free trial and as shareware from NJStar).  These files are meant to be used with NJ Star¡¦s on-line dictionaries.  The audio files are the same as the html files, but have embedded QuickTime sound files. QuickTime software must be installed on your computer in order to play these files.  The audio files are somewhat large and streamed, so if you are accessing the files from a computer not on the UVA network, it may take a few minutes for the file to begin to play and the file may occasionally stop as the data is downloaded.

Internet Explorer vs. Netscape Navigator

The Chinese pages on this site have been optimized for Internet Explorer and will display best with v5.0 or higher.  All pages can also be viewed with Netscape Navigator, but paragraphs will not be indented properly.  (The first line of Chinese paragraphs should be indented two characters, but will only be indented one character in Netscape.)  Also, the links to the B5 files will not work properly in Netscape.  In order to open these files with Netscape, hold down the ¡§shift¡¨ key while clicking the B5 link.  When prompted, save the file to your hard drive and open it directly from its saved location.  In IE simply clicking on the link will open a dialog box asking whether you want to save or open the file.  The final difference between the two web browsers on this site concerns what must be done in order for Chinese characters to be displayed on your computer.  The IE option is easier (less expensive!) here too.  See below for more details.
 

Chinese Display With Internet Explorer

In order to make IE display the Chinese on these pages, traditional Chinese support must be installed.  In IE v5.0 or higher, this can be done by selecting the ¡§Windows Update¡¨ feature under the ¡§Tools¡¨ menu and selecting ¡§tradition Chinese support¡¨ from the list of offered updates.  (Total download and install time is generally not more than a few minutes.) 

Chinese Display With Netscape

Getting Netscape to display Chinese is a bit more complicated, as Netscape provides no built-in Asian language support at this time.  (Netscape claims that this will be rectified in the near future.)  In the meantime, the only other option is to install a program that will ¡§translate¡¨ the characters for Netscape.  The best programs we know of at this time are NJWin CJK (Chinese/Japanese/Korean) Internet Viewer and NJStar Communicator.  Both are available as free downloads and shareware from NJStar.  These programs both seem to work reasonably well.

Questions?  Contact the webmaster.
Happy Reading!