Topic Unicode display

I am trying to display IPA nasal vowels. The line

dk(fslash) + "2" > U+0153 U+0303

is supposed to produce OE with a tilde over it, but in MS Office apps it just comes out as "S" followed by a rectangle. In Notepad it comes out as OE with a tilde following, not over it. With the regular vowels like "a" followed by U+0303 the overstrike effect works in Notepad but MS Office apps show just "a", with no tilde. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I am using 6.2.171.0 (educational upgrade from 5.0). Thanks.

I'll let someone from Tavultesoft comment on your input issue with MS Office. I'll make a couple of comments on the font display issues.

To display OE with a combining tilde, you will need to be using a version of MS Office that supports the use of combining diacritics with the Latin script. This means you need to use MS Office 2003 or the MS Office 2007 Beta.

You will also need appropriate OpenType fonts that support the use of combining diacritics. Charis SIL is a good choice. ON Windows Vista, some of the core fonts may work as well.

With respect to the disappearing diacritics in MS Office, MS Word 2003 has an option that allows combining diacritics to be hidden or visible, you can also change the colour of combining diacritics to highlight and differentiate the combining diacritic form its base character.

Go to "Tools" menu then select the "Options" sub-menu. Click on the "Complex Scripts" tag. In the "Show" section, make sure that the "Diacritics" box is ticked. If it isn't ticked, MS Word will not visibly render the diacritic, i.e. hide it.

Also when you are using work 2003, and setting a font through the font dialog box, you may need to change the "Complex scripts font" as well as the "Latin text font".

As soon as you start using combining diacritics, the Latin script is treated as a complex script.

Hi Mike,

If you're using a version of MS Office prior to Office 2003, you may have to check the Office Language Settings (available from the Start Menu under Programs/Microsoft Office/Microsoft Office Tools) -- oddly, even though it's Roman script, you may have to add other languages to correct the issue. We've encountered a similar problem with Word XP previously.

It might also be worth checking your autocorrection settings in MS Word. These will often affect combining characters diacritics, especially if they occur at the start of a sentence/line.

Thanks for explaining the font issue, Andrew!


Kind regards,

Paul Durdin

TIPS for MS-Office 97-2002XP for multilingual use.

MS-OFFICE97-2000-XP
Tips : MsWord97
Do not select any option from under 'Non Printing characters' of View Group of Options Option from Tools Menu. Disable 'Draft Font' option under Show Group of Options Option from Tools Menu.
Disable all option under Spelling and Grammar group of Options Option from Tools Menu.
Disable all the options from 'Auto correct', 'Auto Format' and 'Auto Format as you type' of 'Auto Correct' option from Tools Menu.
Tips : MsWord2000
Do not select any option from under 'Non Printing characters' of View Group of Options Option
from Tools Menu.
Disable 'Draft Font' option under Show Group of Options Option from Tools Menu.
Disable all option under Spelling and Grammar group of Options Option from Tools Menu.
Disable all the options from 'Auto correct', 'Auto Format' and 'Auto Format as you type' of
'Auto Correct' option from Tools Menu.
Tip : Ms Power Point
Disable all the options from 'Auto correct' option from Tools Menu.
Disable option 'Check Spelling as you type' from Tools-->Options-->Spelling.
Disable option 'Replace Straight quotes with Smart quotes' from Tools-->Options-->Edit.
Tip : MsAccess
Disable all the options from 'Auto correct' option from Tools Menu.
Tips : MsExcel 2000
Disable all options under 'Auto Correct' from Tools Menu.
Disable option 'Ask to update automatic links' from Edit group of Options option from Tools
Menu.
Enable 'Auto Complete for cell values' option from Edit Group of Options Option from Tools
Menu.
In MsExcel, the scroll lock key is used for scrolling through the worksheet. If you press the arrow key, the insertion point moves to the next cell in the scrolling direction. However, if you have selected Bod-Yig activation key as Scroll Lock and it is ON, on pressing the arrow keys, the worksheet windows scrolls but the insertion point does not move to the next cell in the direction of the scroll. In such a case, you can set the activation key to Num lock or Caps lock while using KAB fonts in Ms Excel.
Tips : MsExcel 97
Disable all options under 'Auto Correct' from Tools Menu.
Disable option 'Ask to update automatic links' from Edit group of Options option from Tools
Menu.
Enable 'Auto Complete for cell values' option from Edit Group of Options Option from Tools
Menu.
In MsExcel, the scroll lock key is used for scrolling through the worksheet. If you press the arrow key, the insertion point moves to the next cell in the scrolling direction. However, if you have selected Bod-Yig activation key as Scroll Lock and it is ON, on pressing the arrow keys,
the worksheet windows scrolls but the insertion point does not move to the next cell in the direction of the scroll. In such a case, you can set the activation key to Num lock or Caps lock while using KAB fonts in Ms Excel.

Thanks for those tips, Arun -- I've added them to the Support Knowledge Base for future reference:

http://www.tavultesoft.com/kb/index.php?KnowledgeBaseID=22

Kind regards,

Paul Durdin

PageMaker 6.5 /7.0/7.01 (Also Applicable in Indesign 1.5 to CS)

· In the Paragraph option of the Type menu, click the spacing button. The 'Spacing

Attributes' dialog box appears. In that, for the Letter space, the minimum, desired and the

maximum should be set zero. Similarly for proper justification, you have to specify the

letter spacing off in other applications too.

· To see Multilingual fonts in Story editor, set your language font as default font. To do

so in PM, select the preferences option from Edit menu and select Indian language font in

story view fonts option. In PM 5, select preferences option from File menu and click on

'Other' box. In the 'story editor' option set Indian language font as the default font.
· Before entering text in PageMaker 6.0, select the 'Preferences' option from the File menu.

Click on the 'More' Button and disable '
Typographic Quotes' option.-
While justifying a paragraph, by default, PageMaker tries to put microspaces between

characters. This does not matter for English text, but for Indian scripts where the matras

have to be exactly attached to the consonants, this will create misalignment of characters

inside words. By specifying proper values for the paragraph specification, this can be

avoided.
· Backspacing during data entry - Since PageMaker is not designed for Indian Scripts, for

proper anchoring etc. certain characters are formed synthetically with the help of invisible

characters. As a result while back spacing during data entry in PageMaker one has to be

careful that actual character is actually rubbed rather than just the invisible component of

the synthetic character. In this case the cursor will be on the character rather than on the

right of the character. One more backspace will rub the actual character and cursor will be

again to the right of the previous character.


Adobe FrameMaker 5.5
Disable option 'Smart Quotes' from Format-->Document-->Text options. $
Tips : Adobe Photo Shop
No need such special changes.

PageMaker Story Editor
To see your script fonts in Story Editor in PM .5.0 / 6.0, set Indian language font as

default
font for Story Editor from File-->Preferences-->More
To see Indian script fonts in Story Editor in PM 6.5, set Indian language font as default

font for
Story Editor from File-->Preferences-->General-->More.


Star Office 5.0
Disable 'Correct TWo INitial CApitals ' option under AutoCorrect / AutoFormat Option from
Tools Menu.
Disable 'Capitilize first letter of every sentences ' option under AutoCorrect / AutoFormat
Option from Tools Menu.
Disable 'Automatic Bold and Underline' option under AutoCorrect / AutoFormat Option from
Tools Menu.
Disable "Single Quotes" and "Double Quotes" options in Custom Quotes page under
AutoCorrect / AutoFormat
Option from Tools Menu.

Lotus WordPro
Disable options 'Change straight quotes to smart quotes', 'Correct two initial capitals',

'Start
sentences with capital letters' from File-->User Setup-->SmartCorrect Setup.

COREL DRAW & WORDPERFECT
Corel Draw 5.0/6.0
Disable all options under 'Type Assist' option of Text menu.
Disable 'show Non printing characters' option from Text menu.
If you are taking printout on a postscript printer, disable option 'Download Type1 Font'

option from File-->Print-->Options-->Options-->Postscript Preferences.

Corel Draw 7.0/8.0/9.0/10.0
Disable all options under 'Type Assist' from 'Writing Tools' option of Text menu.
Enable all options under Fonts option from 'Writing Tools' option of Text menu.
Disable 'Perform Automatic Spell Checking' option from 'Writing Tools' option of Text menu.
Disable 'show Non printing characters' option from Text menu.
If you are taking printout on a postscript printer, disable option 'Download Type1 Font'

option from File-->Print-->Options-->Options-->Postscript Preferences

Corel WordPerfect
Disable all options from Tools-->Quick Correct-->Format-As-You-Go-->Sentence Corrections.
Disable all options from Tools-->Quick Correct-->Smart Quotes-->Select Quotation marks.

Freehand
Off Smart Quotes from Preference Tab.
Off all the Spell Check & Auto Correct from Preferance Tab.

Thanks for all the suggestions, but I think it's a Keyman problem. I am using Word 2002 and, without any prior adjustments, am able to get the French nasals to display properly by using Insert --> Symbol, selecting Lucinda Sans Unicode, clicking on the IPA symbol and then the combining nasal (code 0303). I've tried to create a VBA macro for all those steps, but it works only at the spot of the original insertion point (the same problem was noted by another user on an MSO forum), so there's no point incorporating that into Keyman. In Notepad only the nasal a (as in 'blanc') displays properly with Keyman. I also tried the adjustments for WordPerfect, but for the nasal oe got just "S" with Keyman version 6.2, by the way). Looks like I will have to stick to my "local", non unicode macros for nasal vowels in both Word and WordPerfect. Thanks anyway. Mike

Hi Mike,

I created a simple keyboard using Keyman Developer 6.2 with the following rules

:

+ "/" > dk(1) dk(1) + "2" > U+0153 U+0303

works well in my desktop, so there is no reason your code shouldn't work.

Part of your problem are the fonts you are using, and the applications you are using. They are not designed to handle contextual placement of combining diacritics or diacritic stacking.

The fact that Lucinda Sans Unicode sometimes gives adequate results is more by accident than by design (unless you restrict yourself to the repertoire used for Vietnamese language support).

Haven't used WordPerfect, so unfamiliar with how it should behave, and unsure of whether there are any Unicode input issues with the application.

Notepad On WindowsXP (with Service Pack 2 installed) using Charis SIL, Doulos SIL or Code2000 works fine.

MS Word 2003 also works fine.

If you are using combining diacritics with Latin base characters that fall outside the Vietnamese repertoire, then the preferred minimum system configuration would be MS Windows XP (SP2) and Office 2003 plus appropriate third party fonts. Preferably migrate to Windows Vista and MS Office 2007 when they become available.

N.B. For combining diacritics to work properly, you also need to install Windows XP's complex script language support. In Windows Vista this is installed and active by default, but in Windows XP is an optional install from the control panel.

Andrew