KHMERWORD GENERAL DESCRIPTION
KHMERWORD DETAILED FUNCTIONALITIES
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
General presentation
KHMERWORD FUNCTIONALITIES
KhmerWord gives you access, directly in Word, to the following Khmer functions:
- Khmer keyboards that can be used with any Unicode font, provided it includes the Khmer glyphs,
- Text selections by entire syllables.
The syllabic selection functions are accessible via the mouse as well as via Keyboard shortcuts. In this version 1.0 of GMSWord, they are experimental.
CONTACT US
This version of the GMSWord software, as well as the present online help, inevitably contain errors and imperfections of all kinds. Please send us your comments, remarks, questions, requests, criticisms, suggestions or a simple encouragement postcard.
Mail address
Vincent Berment
39 boulevard de la Chapelle
75010 Paris FRANCE
E-mail address
Vincent-at-GMSWare.org (replace "-at-" with "@")
Web site
I wish that this "KhmerWord" software will be useful for you.
Vincent Berment
Paris, April 15, 2006
KhmerWord toolbar
At the installation of GMSWord, a toolbar is created. It initially displays the "GMSWord..." listbox. If you select "Khmer" in this listbox, you'll get the following toolbar: 
.
From left to right, the functions are:
1. The configuration of KhmerWord,
2. The Khmer-Latin toggle for text input,
3. The online help.
KHMERWORD CONFIGURATION
This first button gives access to the KhmerWord configuration. You are invited to select:
- Your keyboard: Khmer France, NiDA AZERTY, Khmer US, NiDA QWERTY,
- The mouse selection mode: the Word standard mode or the KhmerWord mode (syllabic selections),
- The Arabic or Khmer numbers (when the font allows it),
- The activation / deactivation of several keyboard shortcuts (keyboard layout, keyboard activation and alternatives selections),
- The GMSWord splash window activation at the start-up of Word (fishing at the village).
The icon reminds the current selection mode. When the KhmerWord mode will be active (smiling face icon), a "double-click" as well as a "mouse-move" will select the Khmer text syllable by syllable.
KHMER-ENGLISH TOGGLE FOR TEXT INPUT
The second button gives you the possibility to switch the text input mode between Khmer and English in a simple click. This assumes that the font you use contains the two types of characters, as it is the case for the Khmer fonts distributed with GMSWord.
ONLINE HELP
The present online help is accessible via this last button.
Khmer keyboards and text typing
To choose a Khmer keyboard layout, click on the first button of the KhmerWord toolbar (configuration window) and select the desired keyboard layout.
KHMER KEYBOARDS
KhmerWord offers the choice between four keyboard layouts:
- Khmer US, adapted to the American Keyboard (associating the Khmer characters with the QWERTY keyboard keys),
![Khmer US](javascript:PopupCentrer("KhmerWord_fichiers/kus.jpg",1147,819,"menubar=no,scrollbars=no,statusbar=no")){kind=link}
- NiDA QWERTY, adapté au clavier américain (QWERTY version of the official Cambodian keyboard),
![NiDA QWERTY](javascript:PopupCentrer("KhmerWord_fichiers/nqw.jpg",1061,767,"menubar=no,scrollbars=no,statusbar=no")){kind=link}
- Khmer France, adapted to the French Keyboard (associating the Khmer characters with the AZERTY keyboard keys),
![Khmer France](javascript:PopupCentrer("KhmerWord_fichiers/kfr.jpg",1147,693,"menubar=no,scrollbars=no,statusbar=no")){kind=link}
- NiDA AZERTY, adapted to the French Keyboard (AZERTY version of the official Cambodian keyboard),
![NiDA AZERTY](javascript:PopupCentrer("KhmerWord_fichiers/naz.jpg",1117,616,"menubar=no,scrollbars=no,statusbar=no")){kind=link}
You can select your keyboard layout in the "Keyboard" area of the configuration window (first button of the KhmerWord toolbar).
To switch between the Khmer and the "normal" (Latin : AZERTY ou QWERTY) keyboard, click on the 2nd button of the KhmerWord toolbar (lamp switched on for the Khmer and off for the Latin).
You will find all the explanations to start typing texts in Khmer Unicode on the "Khmer OS" Web site.
NOTA: The examples given onto this Khmer OS site base themselves on the NiDA QWERTY keyboard (official keyboard). However, the exposed principles apply in its entirety to four keyboards mentioned above.
Selections by Khmer syllables
In order for the mouse to select the Khmer texts syllable by syllable and not by random blocks when you double-click or make the mouse-move selections, activate the syllabic selection while clicking on the first button on the left of the KhmerWord toolbar (configuration) and selecting "Khmer" in the "Selections" field. The smiling face indicates that the syllabic selections are in syllabic mode. A contrario, the sad face states that the standard selections of Word are in operation.
NB: The syllabic model implemented here is a rough draft and the proposed feature is a prototype.
SYLLABLES SELECTED IN THE MANNER OF WORDS
Following the example of other writings of Southeast Asia deriving from Indian scripts, the Khmer writing system does not separate the words by spaces, what makes complicated the selection of text. KhmerWord facilitates this task by introducing syllabic selections, so bringing some comfort during selections, for example before a copy of text into the clipboard.
SELECTION OF A SYLLABLE WITH THE MOUSE DOUBLE-CLICK
To select a syllable (verify that the KhmerWord selection mode is activated before you make the test), just "double-click" on it. The selected syllable will be displayed in reversed video.
MULTISYLLABIC SELECTION WITH THE MOUSE MOVE
In order to process Khmer texts as comfortably as possible, we extended the Word mouse-move function to the Khmer texts. This function enables you to select any part of text by entire syllables, using the usual mouse-move as if syllables were words separated with spaces. These syllabic selections are very convenient ; they ensure you that entire words are selected.
MULTISYLLABIC SELECTION WITH THE KEYBOARD
The following hot keys are Khmer extensions to Microsoft's standard hot keys:
- Shift the cursor to the next syllable by CTRL + -->,
- Shift the cursor to the previous syllable by CTRL + <--,
- Add the next syllable to the current selection by CTRL + SHIFT + -->,
- Add the previous syllable to the current selection by CTRL + SHIFT + <--,
- Suppress the syllable following the current selection by CTRL + SUPPR,
- Suppress the syllable preceding the current selection by CTRL + BACKSPACE.
AMBIGUOUS CASES
The Khmer writing is ambiguous, i.e. several different syllables may be correct around a given position. In such a case, the selected syllable will be the longest possible correct syllable. The other syllables (not selected) are accessible by the Ctrl Shift S shortcut. By this way, the various possible syllables are selected one by one (video inversion), circularly.
Khmer Unicode fonts
The Khmer TrueType fonts are quite numerous. Among them, KhmerWord only takes into account the fonts that comply with the Khmer area of the Unicode standard, although the old unstandardized 8 bit fonts are still widely used. The fonts listed below are distributed with GMSWord. They were developed by Danh Hong (thanks to Danh Hong and to the Open Forum of Cambodia!).
EXAMPLES: Khmer OS, Khmer OS Fasthand, Khmer OS Freehand,Khmer OS Muol, Khmer OS System.
Keyboard shortcuts
The following hot keys are useful. Those which are noted "optional" can be activated and deactivated in the configuration window (first button of the KhmerWord toolbar).
- CTRL + K Keyboard selection (optional)
- CTRL + G or PAUSE Changes the input mode (Khmer or Latin) (optional)
- CTRL + SHIFT + G Changes the selections mode (KhmerWord or Word standard) (optional)
- CTRL + SHIFT + S Alternative syllables in case of ambiguity (optional)
- CTRL + --> Shifts the cursor to the next syllable
- CTRL + <-- Shifts the cursor to the previous syllable
- CTRL + SHIFT + --> Selection expanded with the next syllable
- CTRL + SHIFT + <-- Selection expanded with the previous syllable
- CTRL + SUPPR Suppression of the next syllable
- CTRL + BACKSPACE Suppression of the previous syllable