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Using Right-to-Left, Complex Text Layout, and Vertical Text
From NeoWiki
NeoOffice has strong support for languages that use non-Roman scripts, including those scripts which use bidirectional input and complex text layout, as well as support for the native Mac OS X input methods used by many of these languages. This means NeoOffice can be used to input Arabic, Hebrew, Thai, Hindi, Chinese and Japanese, among many others.
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Bidi and RTL text
- fairly simple
- installing RTL langpack ticks the box in the prefs, enables directional buttons
- for other UIs, tick the box in the prefs manually
- use directional buttons
- change native input method
- type away
Complex text layout
- ligatures and glyph reordering
- Java 1.4.2 is buggy; sends wrong glyph codes to Neo in certain cases [jp period, matras]
- Mac OS X bug, nothing we can do; file bug reports with Apple
- Requires AAT fonts for Arabic, Indic languages [link to fonts page]
Vertical text
Vertical text, used in classical Chinese and Japanese (as well as in Mongolian, which may not be supported) is somewhat non-intuitive to enter. The following are the steps Patrick Luby uses when testing vertical Japanese text input in Writer:
You can insert vertical text, but it is not intuitive. Here are the steps that I use when I test Japanese vertical input in Writer:
- From the View menu, select the Toolbars submenu and then the Drawing menu item so that the Drawing toolbar appears at the bottom of the screen.
- Click on the "T" icon that is rotated 90 degrees (i.e. the "fallen over" T icon).
- Click an area in the document and drag the mouse to create a box.
- Type your Japanese text in this box.
I don't really like this "text box" approach, but it is how OpenOffice.org (which NeoOffice is based on) handles vertical text.
References