Typing in Cyrillic

[cainam-cisum.livejournal.com]

 Hello everyone!
A friend of mine has the French version of MS Office. He is curious if it is possible to type/save texts in Russian (Cyrillic) using his version. If so, he wants to know how to do it. He added Russian language to his list of languages through the Control Panel but he still cannot change the language from French (he says Latin) to Russian.
I googled a little bit and found several websites that provide (for free) some software. For example,
http://www.geocities.com/fontboard/cyrinst.html#winxp
But the guy is not Russian, so he is afraid of downloading something that can be illegal.
Does anyone know how to help him? 
Thank you very much in advance.

Comments

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

If it's Windows version, he does not have to download or install anything - it's already there. He only has to choose the way he will switch between languages (normally it's Ctrl+Shift or Ctrl+Alt.) If he nad already enabled Russian in Control Panel->Regional Options, he has to go to More Options there and choose "Show Language Panel" option. The Language Panel will appear in his system tray after that.

[cainam-cisum.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I really don't understand his problem. I am 100% sure that he does not need to buy Russian Office to type in Russian as he plans now. I'll give him all the replies that I have now from this community and maybe he will work it out.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Office has not much to do with it -- it's an operational system feature (Windows, I guess; you never specified if it was Windows, or Mac, or Linux.) If the language switcher (Landuage Bar, or Panel, or whatever) is enabled in the OS, Office is readly for its use, and several Cyrillic fonts are already installed by definition.

[cainam-cisum.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I hope he'll be able to solve the problem now.

[khathi.livejournal.com]

You don't need even that. ALL modern keyboards are the same -- they just have different key markings. I'm using a genuine Japanese keyboard, for example, that doesn't even HAVE Russian keys. And you know -- it doesn't bother me at all. ^_^

[uncle-gora.livejournal.com]

>>He added Russian language to his list of languages through the Control Panel but he still cannot change the language from French (he says Latin) to Russian.
If he added a new keyboard layout (I presume that what you mean by that) then it should be working without any problems. Maybe he didn't set the quick key setting properly (he should still be able to toggle layouts manually in the language bar)
>>But the guy is not Russian, so he is afraid of downloading something that can be illegal.
Heh.... Way to go with that stereotype!!! Russians are illegal criminals by nature, aren't they?

[cainam-cisum.livejournal.com]

Thank you! It's really hard to help him since I don't see exactly what's going on. But maybe I just explain to him badly. Anyway, I'm going to give him all these replies and I hope it will help.
*Russians are illegal criminals by nature, aren't they?
Aren't we?

[pinky-the-cow.livejournal.com]

Well, it all depends on the operating system. Anyway, no additional software is needed.

I can help with Win XP 64bit pro.

Go to the 'Control Panel', then 'Regional and Language Settings' there.
Go to the second tab, the 'Languages', and click 'Details...' button for Text Services and Input Languages.

Among other things you'll see an area, in which there is a list of installed services. All languages that you can switch between should have a 'Keyboard' service for that language there.

'Add' button to the right of that area will allow you to add it, if you don't have one you want.
And you will know you're successful, when you see the language you pursue in the menu above services list area, the menu for choosing the default input language.

[pinky-the-cow.livejournal.com]

Oh, and also the font he uses naturally has to have cyrillic symbols, but most of the usual fonts should have that.

[cainam-cisum.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your detailed reply! I hope it will help him.

[nastasie.livejournal.com]

I change from Portuguese to English to Russian keyboards by pressing alt+shift...the initials of the language (EN, RU, PT, for instance) should appear in the windows bar at the bottom right.

[cainam-cisum.livejournal.com]

Yes, I do the same with EN-FR-RU. But when my friend does this nothing happens. I hope he will solve the problem.