working on a new version having fixed this problem. the help works though in main program, or doesn't it ?
any more problems with my script ?
j.
Edit: just want to point out that this first version is just the base for the extensions i'm working on. coming versions will be much more interesting.
0. Introduction To Unicode Keyboard and Editor: ===================================
Unicode Keyboard is a small and esay to use Unicode Editor with national keyboard support.
The international Unicode standard enables the simultaneous bidirectional use of millions of language charcters, scientific and other signs in one document without having to switch the language settings of your computer ("code pages").
But how can you take profit of Unicode while you still have only 56/58 keys on your keyboard ? Unicode Keyboard helps you out to advance your writing skills with ease and fun ! You will be enabled to create bi- or multinational texts, scientific documents and you will enjoy enriching your simple text-only documents, professional presentations, business letters or e-mails with fantastic new symbols.
This version 1.0 supports the national keyboards and characters of the following countries: Central and Western Europe: German, English, French, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Latin, Multilingual Nordic Languages: Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Sami, Icelandic East and South East Europe: Russian (cirillic), Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian (cirillic), Polish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Slovenian, Croatian, Serbian (cirillic), Albanian, Romanian, Bulgarian (cirillic), Greek, Turkish Asia: Persian (Farsi), Japanese (Katagana + Hiragana), Korean, Chinese (simplified + traditional), Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, Bengali Africa and Middle East: Hebrew, Yiddish, Arabic, Azeri (cirillic), Armenian America: Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese
Step by step I will add further languages and sign sets like mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, hieroglyphs, musical notes and many more. The Unicode system supplies a vast and fascinating amount of editable characters.
Further features: - Advanced editing tools like exchange and append to clipboard, fonts selection. - Phonetical Chinese keyboard with 20.000 predefined chinese signs and magnifying glass to view the signs. - Automatic Left-to-Right, Right-to-Left and bidirectional writing, setting of direction changing marks. - Typing either into the internal editor or directly into a document supported. - Real keyboard simulation of all necessary keys incl. key repetition. Simulating keyboard behaviour on the special nonspacing "DeadKeys" (Accents). - Save function for texts (in UTF-8 encoding).
1. Requirements before using Unicode Keyboard: ===================================
! Very important !
While Windows Vista is already based upon Unicode by standard (as far as I know), Windows XP still uses the ANSI Code Page standard (national settings). You have to change your code system to international Unicode by making the following steps:
1. Open Internet Explorer
2. Click View (on the menu bar), then Encoding => More => Chinese Traditional (BIG5). (The same can be achieved by installing the Asian language support from the WinXP CD via Control Panel => Region Settings => Languages).
3. Follow the directions on screen to install the language pack from your Windows CD. After installation is completed, you may need to restart your computer.
4. When you are able to use your browser again, make sure the browser is UTF-8 encoded by clicking once more: View (on the menu bar), then Encoding => Unicode (UTF-8)
5. Go once more to Control Panel => Region Settings => Languages and make sure that both checkboxes are checked (Right-to-Left writing and East-Asian languages).
Remark: Unicode is not supported by Win9x OS or lower and Unicode Keyboard will not work on these systems !
Unicode Keyboard comes with an installation routine. You will be guided through the process. During installation about 1000 graphic files will be downloaded from the Microsoft website. So please open Internet connection and firewall. The process will take about 5 minutes.
Deinstallation: No system changes will be made. Simply delete the "Unicode" folder.
3. The Graphical User Interface: =======================
The use of the program is very intuitive and there is not much to explain.
You will find some unknown keys on the bottom row of the virtual keyboard. The four left bottom keys are only used with Right-to-Left languages like Farsi, Arabic and Hebrew. The first two will mark a change of typing direction within a script from right to left and v.v. The other two buttons are for joining special Arabic and Thai characters together (they are typed onto each other).
The "nbsp" button will type a non-breaking space. This means, a line will not be broken on such a space.
The button ("<>") will change the general writing direction of the entire document (right-left, left-right).
The light red buttons are nonspacing "Deadkeys". They wait for a subsequent key to type an accent on it. A tooltip will inform you of the exspected letters
You will also find keyboards with so-called "Combining Diacritical Marks". They work similar to the nonspacing DeadKeys, but the letter is typed first and the accent (diacritic) afterwards. I find this method more practical.
All keyboards have three levels: Basic - Shift - AltGr.
The virtual national keyboards may slightly differ from the real ones in order to contain more characters or for practical reasons.
The Multinmational keyboard is supposed to offer all characters of the latin (Western) languages.
If you want to type directly into a document you can switch off the edit box by hitting the little arrow to the right and checking the "Top" checkbox.
If you want to save a document with Unicode characters you have to encode it in Unicode or you will find only question marks on reopening. E.g. in Notepad choose "Save as..." and select "UTF-8 in the bottom "Encoding" combo. New documents written with Unicode Keyboard will be automatically saved in UTF-8.
I apologize for three small mistakes I found in the codes:
1. The Dutch capital letter "ij" must be written as "Ij", not "IJ".
2. The Skandinavian and Baltic letters "Õ" and "õ" are wrongly painted on the keyboards (Double Accent Acute instead of Tilde), but will be typed correctly.
3. The program´s default font "MS Sans Serif" fails to type the characters "digraph oe ligatured" and "digraph OE ligatured", as used on the Multilingual keyboard. Please choose a different font like "Tahoma".
6. The Rosetta Stone Project: =====================
Unicode Keyboard is an integral part of "Rosetta Stone", my universal translating program which can be downloaded as well from the AutoIt forum.
I split this program because the keyboards developed their individual indications beyond translations.
Rosetta Stone is intended to develop step by step into a universal translating tool. I will appreciate any kind of support.
Of course you can alter my keyboards in a way that better fits your purpose. If you think you found an improvement or if you are a native speaker, please inform me so that I can update my work.