Viewing This Site

I don't have access to Linux or a Mac for testing purposes, so many of the comments below are applicable only to Windows. However, Linux and Mac users who use Firefox (the web browser from Mozilla) will find at least some of these remarks useful.

Greek-character Display

If you experienced a 15-second delay on first accessing this site, that was your operating system installing its Greek-alphabet table. (That happens only once; if you experience any other several-second delays, it's because there can be times when my server is a little slow.) The following line should look like the Greek alphabet:

αβγδεζηθικλμνξοπρσςτυφχψω

If it doesn't, then you can tell your browser to install the Greek-alphabet table:

• In Firefox:

click View
click Character Encoding
click Greek (ISO-8859-7) if it's there;	otherwise	click More Encodings
		click West European
		click Greek (ISO-8859-7)

• In IE6:

click View
click Encoding
click Greek (ISO) if it's there;	otherwise	click More
		click Greek (ISO)

Text Size

This site has been checked on two browsers —

• Firefox version 1.0.7

• IE6 version 6.0.2800.1106

and at three resolutions —

• 640 × 480

• 800 × 600

• 1024 × 768

and the various pages all look readable, but at 640 × 480 you may prefer to decrease the text size. In your web browser (only), you can change the text size to suit yourself:

• In Firefox:

click View

click Text Size

click Decrease (or Increase)

• In IE6:

click View

click Text Size

click Smaller (or Larger)

You will notice that text-size control works substantially better in Firefox than in IE6.

Enabling a Greek Keyboard

Technically, you don't need to be able to generate Greek characters via your keyboard in order to view this site. But if you are going to use your browser's Find function to search for some Greek word in a table or list on this site, then you will need Greek-keyboard capabilities. And you will probably want to be able to generate Greek characters for other purposes anyway.

If you are running under Windows 98, you have to do two separate things: (1) install Multilanguage Support for Greek, and (2) enable a Greek keyboard —

• www.freelang.net/dictionary/greek.html
  Freelang's dictionary site. About 2/3 of the way down the page there is a box that tells you how to install Multilanguage Support in Windows 98.

• www.cogsci.indiana.edu/farg/harry/lan/grkeng.htm
  At the very end of this long page Harry Foundalis gives instructions on enabling your keyboard to generate Greek characters in Windows 98. But his remarks on the use of the keyboard layout are worth reading even if your operating system is some other version of Windows.

If you use Windows XP, then installing Greek language support and enabling a Greek keyboard are done as parts of a single procedure —

• www.hri.org/fonts/wXP.html
  Hellenic Resources Institute. About 1/3 of the way down this page there is a section entitled "Keyboard for Writing Greek" that explains how to install Greek language support and how to enable a Greek keyboard layout in Windows XP.

Browsers

If you want a browser with a Find function that won't drive you nuts, I strongly recommend installing Firefox. Go to

www.mozilla.com/firefox

and see what they have to say. Installing Firefox does not  force you to uninstall IE6. With both browsers installed, you can use either one you want at any time (or even both simultaneously).

I personally use Firefox, in which I refuse to click on any "Click Here to Download Plugin" notifications, thus avoiding the noxious plugins that produce such a plague of harassing advertising. For IE6, I accede to some plugin-installation requests; if I happen to visit a site with Firefox that actually seems to need the plugin in order to function, I then open up an IE6 window and view the site with IE6 (thus avoiding polluting my Firefox browser with toxic software).

Firefox is not an obscure browser; check out

www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

W3 Schools offers free tutorials on web site design; but their site also automatically collects statistics from their approximately 5 million visitors per month showing web-browser usage and operating-system usage. As of August 2006, 55% of the site's visitors use IE6, and 26% use Firefox.

OK, so I'm pushing Firefox. But I have no connections to Mozilla or to Firefox. I just think it's a good piece of software (and so do millions of other people).