Apple Macintosh Cyrillic Language Kit - Manual (Page 14)

A-11
Working in Multiple
Languages
Now that you have installed the Cyrillic Language Kit, your system
supports at least two languages: your primary language and a
Cyrillic-script language.
When you add another language to your computer, you have new
choices about how text should appear on your desktop and in
documents. The more languages your computer supports, the
more choices you have.
This chapter explains choosing a keyboard layout from the
Keyboards menu, and setting the Keyboard and Text control
panels to tailor how your computer displays text. It also provides
information about the different keyboard layouts provided with
your Cyrillic Language Kit.
What are scripts?
Your Macintosh supports multiple languages and their writing
systems through software known as a script system. A script
system tells your computer what characters the script contains,
and which keystrokes produce them. The script system also
specifies the direction of text flow (left to right or right to left),
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and other information such as sort order and date, time, number,
and currency formats.
For instance, if you are working in English, your system uses the
Roman script. The Roman character set is available, and text flows
from left to right.
If you are working in Bulgarian, Russian, or Ukrainian, your system
uses the Cyrillic script. The Cyrillic character set is available, and
text also flows from left to right.
The same script can be used by several languages if they share
most of the same characters. For example, Roman script is used
for English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish.
Examples of Macintosh scripts and corresponding languages
Roman English, French, German, Italian, Spanish
Cyrillic Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Serbian,
Macedonian, Belorussian
Hebrew Hebrew, Yiddish
Japanese Japanese
Traditional Chinese Traditional Chinese
Simplified Chinese Simplified Chinese
Korean Korean
Arabic Arabic, Persian