Firefox Extension For Your Thai Partner

[sbk]

I found this great extension from firefox that actually changes the browsers language to Thai so that your partner can read it too (ie it doesn't change the webpages to Thai, it changes the browser to Thai).

First download this Thai language pack file from this site and then open your browser window, go to file, open file and open it that way--it will install.

Then, download this locale switcher extension and install. Then, in Tools you will see the option to go switch languages. Thai should already be there thanks to the first file you installed.

Might make internet browsing more interesting for your Thai partner.

Now, if anyone can help me on a different problem. When my husband accesses his Thai language newspapers through Firefox the font is very small and he has to change it each time. But, this isn't true in IE. Is this something that can be fixed in firefox or is it the websites?

[lopburi3]

Don't know if it works with the extension you just installed but suspect it does. Either use the drop down menu under View/Text size or "Ctrl +" to make larger (by steps) and "Ctrl 0" to restore to normal. Seem to hold setting from page to page so should work.

Perhaps check the character encoding used (if different in IE)?

[A_Traveller]

Selecting within Firefox is more hit and miss than IE, in part because most sites in Thailand are targeted at IE only. Also generally the defualt size settings are different from IE to Mozilla browsers.

However, in FF one can select

Tools-> Options -> Content -> Fonts and configure the font selection. You can also deselect the site overide which can reset the rendering.

Further confusion is casued by the multiple standards for Thai Internet rendering e.g. TIS, ISO, and Windows!

Another useful option is

Tools-> Options-> Advanced-> General-> Languages, where you can add Thai into the cascade, i.e. English/United States [en-us], English [en], Thai [th]

HTH

/edit typo//

Edited September 2, 2006 by A_Traveller

[kudroz]

Thanks for the great tip!

[sbk]

However, in FF one can select

Tools-> Options -> Content -> Fonts and configure the font selection. You can also deselect the site overide which can reset the rendering.

I increased the font size and changed the font to Tahoma, and deselected site override as you suggested, worked a charm. thanks!

[Firefoxx]

Actually, the main problem with Firefox and Thai is that it doesn't properly cut Thai phrases at the correct points (or at all, actually). You may know that in the Thai language, individual words are not separated by spaces, only sentences and clauses (and some other things, but that's basically it). So a Thai sentence will just go on and on, and Firefox will not know where to perform word wrapping for paragraphs. That's why there is a modified Thai Firefox available, since it's the only one that works well with Thai.

[Richard W]

Further confusion is casued by the multiple standards for Thai Internet rendering e.g. TIS, ISO, and Windows!

I don't believe using TIS-620 or Windows-874 or ISO 10646 (typically in the UTF-8 format, sometimes in the UTF-16 format) causes any problem provided the web page says which one it is using. The problem is that most Thai web pages don't, and leave the browser to guess. It has to work it out from the content, and the TIS-620 byte patterns look very like Japanese byte patterns.