Step-by-step guide to Russian e-mail

1. First you need to set up your accounts in the computer lab. Every lab has one or more computers dedicated to setting up accounts. Ask a consultant to help you if necessary. That is why they are there.

The first account you need, if you do not have it already, is an SNDS account. This is required to log in on any of the computers in the Microlabs. The consultants will show you how to do this. This takes about two minutes to do; however, the processing of your account can take from 10 minutes to an hour.

The second thing to do is set up a POP account for e-mail. You may do this at the same time as you set up the SNDS account. Again, the processing can be very quick or take up to an hour.

2. After your accounts are set up, log in on a Macintosh computer. Again, if you are unfamiliar with this, just ask a consultant. You now need to create your e-mail disk. The new Mac G3s have Zip disk drives only.  So, if you don't want to buy one, consider using web-based e-mail.  Do this by pulling down the apple menu and selecting, "Electronic Mail -> Create Eudora disk." The consultants have handouts to help you with starting the Eudora program and putting your information (Name, address, etc.) on the disk, once it is created. Once you have setup the disk, quit Eudora.

3. Now you need to get the Russian font and the Russian keyboard driver. Start Netscape Navigator by pulling down the apple menu and selecting, "Internet Software -> Netscape Navigator 4.04." Now go to Dr. Rouhier-Willoughby's website (the address is http://www.uky.edu/~jrouhie/, and click on the link, "Teach Your Computer to Read and Write in Russian." Scroll down the page to "To e-mail in Russian on the Mac with Eudora Pro."

Now download the Russian font and keyboard driver by clicking on their links. They will automatically be saved onto the desktop screen of the Mac. The font will look like a little suitcase, with the caption, "ER Bukinist KOI8," and the driver will have an icon of a keyboard, with the caption, "Russian KOI8." After you have done this, quit Netscape.

4. So you do not have to download the font and driver each time you use them, you should save them to your disk. Create a new folder on your disk by selecting, "File -> New Folder," at the top of the screen. Drag both the font suitcase and the keyboard icon onto the new folder to save them.

Once these four steps are complete, you should not have to do them again.

5. It is time to put the Russian font and keyboard driver into the Macintosh. Double click on the "Mac Drive" icon and scroll down until you see the System folder.

Drag the font suitcase and the keyboard icon on top of the closed System folder, let go of the mouse button, and click OK. The Mac will now install the two items.

After you drop the keyboard layout in the System folder, pull down the Help menu on the status bar and select Help Center.  Type the word "keyboards" in the search box and click search.  On the next screen, click on the fist link that appears, "Using different languages."  Then, on the next screen, click on the first link that appears, "Open the Keyboard Control Panel for Me."  At this point the Keyboard Control Panel will open.  Scroll down until you see "Russian KOI8-R" and check the box next to it.  Close the control panel window.

Once this is finished, an little American flag should be visible at the top of the screen on the status bar. If there is already an American flag at the top of the screen, someone else already installed the keyboard driver so you do not have to do that.

The Russian font, however, will have to be installed each time you use a new Macintosh.

6. Now the final step! Setup Eudora for Russian letters.

Start the Eudora program. Once it is running, pull down the "Special | Settings" menu.

Scroll down the menu on the side until you come to the "Sending Mail" category, and click on it. Now where it says, "Fix curly quotes," make sure this box is UNCHECKED! Russian e-mail will not work at all if this setting is wrong.

Now scroll down to the "Fonts and Display" category and click on it. Change the Screen font to "ER Bukinist KOI8" and make the size bigger, if necessary. Now click OK.

To send a message pull down the "Message" menu and select, "New Message." To write in Russian, do two things: a. Click on the little American flag at the top of the screen and select the "Russian-KOI8" keyboard. b. Push the <Caps Lock> key to engage Russian letters. Caps lock engaged=Russian, caps lock unengaged=English.

Note: The keyboard layout mostly corresponds to the English phonetic equivalents, i.e. the Russian letter "C" is on the key for the English letter "S." This make typing far easier than you might imagine.

To become familiar with the layout, you may find that the "Key Caps" feature of the Macintosh to be helpful. To use this, under the apple menu select "Key Caps," pick the ER Bukinist font, and press <Caps Lock>.