Migrating Non-English IDs

Introduction

If you've created an ID on a foreign server (or have tried) you know how frustrating it can be to try to use the profile or any features via that ID with all the text in some foreign language. After creating a couple of IDs I found a few tactics to converting it to English without having to guess or use trial and error - I did that for you!

Important to note here is that not all browsers behave the same, but the source of the situation is the same. The character set used in the page is not the English alphabet. In some browsers it will merely render as question marks ( ? ) or as incorrectly indexed characters. This is because your chosen encoding is not for that country, or not supported as an extended feature of your current encoding. Internet Explorer can view most non-English sites without changing the encoding, but you'd have to install several language support sets. That gets pretty bloated, and changing your encoding can make living 'interesting' when you try to change it back.

Creating the ID

First off, if you are about to create the ID you can go ahead and load the page in the native language. If you don't know the native language (maybe some 'cool guy' gave you the link to make a neat ID in chat) you need to determine this, usually by looking for the country code in the URL (For example, .com.cn would be china, .co.jp would be japan). Next I suggest you take two steps to make the process more precise and immediately effective:
1. View source on the page.
2. Translate the page in an online translator.
Viewing source yields many of the key information fields in English instead of the native language - the page header defines the display language so that you see a non-English text. I use this tactic repeatedly to determine what options to choose. To view the source, typically you will use view>>source or right click and select view source.

Translation of the page can be more sticky of an issue. Secure pages usually won't translate or are redirected improperly, so translating a whole page will not always work. Check your browser for the lock icon in a locked position - if it's there you probably can't translate that page. Not all translation sites are created equal either, as I found out.

Once you've loaded the page and are viewing it translated and in source, work out the fields you need to fill out in what fashion. This will vary based on the country and possibly partner company you are creating the ID under. The first page to create the ID is usually pretty easy, as in most cases it merely has a place to enter an ID and password (with confirmation, or not). Once you've selected an ID that is available is where things usually get difficult. The subsequent page usually asks for things like alternate email and ZIP/postal codes and the like. These fields are usually marked in characters you can't read though, so you are left guessing.

Each section has a bar with the category of information to enter. The title is usually unreadable when it's non-English. This is where the web translation comes in most handy, especially via copy and paste. Again, not all browsers are created equal, and some will not copy the actual character encoding but the broken rendering you see. In my case I used Mozilla 1.5 and Google's translation tool.
I found it to be most effecient at translating the whole pages and copied text. I have used others with sufficient results to complete this task though. Another snag is that in reality these web translators are not so much translating as transcribing, or converting the words from their native tongue to your own without consideration of context or idiom. "Spare electrical postal code" is apparently Chinese for "alternate email". It will take some intuition to sort this information out. Again, don't rely on the fields being the same in all countries and languages.

Once you've identified a given Category and subsequently identified the field name, if the field is for entering any value you can type, just do so. If it has a dropdown list, this is where you can cheat using the page source. If you can search for the field name, you will see below it a list of values. When you find the tag starting '<option value' you will see each value and in most cases it will be shown in English. Another nice feature is if you failed on a previous attempt to set a value, the selected value is named as such in the list. The listing will be in the actual order they will appear in the dropdown, so you can just count your way to the desired value.

Viewing the Profile

Once you've sorted out the details for creating the ID, you can go ahead and view your profile, and it also should be loadable in a translator so that you can read all the links as you'd need to perform the migration. This is where some of HelpBytes' previous work comes in handy. As described in his possible adult profile fix: