The World Wide Web allows communication on an unprecedented scale. The power to tap into remote computer systems across the globe and quickly jump from one Web site to another seems to defy the distances involved. In the time it takes to tie your shoe, you can visit Web sites on several continents. In theory, you have always been able to log on to Web sites written in other languages, but the material often comes to your screen unreadable. This is especially true for sites using languages that have more written characters than English.
Character sets Character sets are the key to viewing Web sites in multiple languages.
Click character sets to understand why you sometimes see what looks like hieroglyphics instead of the correct words. Internet Explorer 4.0 uses internationally agreed-upon character sets to overcome those old language barriers. Now, providing some other basic conditions are met, it is possible to view documents in their source language. For example, if you browse a Web site in English that is also available in Turkish, you can view it in both languages once you have downloaded the character set for the Turkish language. Choose a language preference Microsoft provides character sets for all major languages, free for you to download.