It is possible to deactivate the LaoWord input function to use "Keyman", the text input software of the old versions of "Lao Script for Windows". For this, click on the 7^th button and switch off the lamp. In this mode, the Lao input function is inactive but all the other LaoWord functions remain available. Remember to deactivate the "Pause" shortcut in the Configuration menuBARRE (this shortcut is used by LSWin too).

Font changes

To change the character font of a selection, click on the second button of the LaoWord toolbarBARRE and select the font you wish.

NOTA: When this version of GMSWord was issued, more than one hundred transcribing files were done. They allow to use the fonts (this list is not exhaustive): alice_0, alice_1, alice_2, alice_3, alice_4, alice_5, Alice_5a, alice_7, Alice_new, Alice0 Lao, Alice0 95, Alice0 2000, Alice0 Unicode (Unicode), Alice1 Lao, Alice1 95, Alice1 2000, Alice1 Unicode (Unicode), Alice2 Lao, Alice2 95, Alice2 2000, Alice2 Unicode (Unicode), Alice3 Lao, Alice3 95, Alice3 2000, Alice3 Unicode (Unicode), Alice4 Lao, Alice4 95, Alice4 2000, Alice4 Unicode (Unicode), Alice5 Lao, Alice5 95, Alice5 2000, Alice5 Unicode (Unicode), Arial Unicode MS (Unicode), Bubble Lao, Bubble 95, Chantabouli Lao, Chantabouli 95, Code2000 (Unicode), FONT LAO 1 TT (Unicode), FONT LAO 1 TT (Unicode), FONT LAO 2 (Unicode), FONT LAO 2 TT (Unicode), FONT LAO 3 (Unicode), FONT LAO 3 TT (Unicode), FONT LAO 4 kaykhia uni keo (Unicode), FONT LAO 4  TT (Unicode), Hollow Lao, Hollow 95, Hongkad Chaofa Ngum, Hongkad Dokkhuun, Hongkad Ekalad, Hongkad Handwriting1, Hongkad Itsala, Hongkad Lanxang, Hongkad Nyuvaphone, Hongkad Phetsalath, Hongkad Sabai, Hongkad Samsaenthai, HONGKAD2, HONGKAD4, HONGKAD5, HONGKAD6, HONGKAD7, HONGKAD8, HONGKAD9, HONGKAD10, HONGKAD12, HONGKAD14, HONGKAD15, HONGKAD16, HONGKAD18, HONGKAD47, JG Basic Lao (Unicode), JG Chantabouli Lao (Unicode), JG Lao Old Arial (Unicode), JG Lao Oldface (Unicode), JG LaoTimes (Unicode), KhaoPoun (Unicode), Lao Light, Lao Unicode (Unicode), LaoBanna, LaoCaligraphy, LAOFONT, LaofontNM, Lao-France Reinhorn, LaoFrance, LaoPatin, Laos Standard, LAOS_TPC1, LaoSquare, LaoTangdeane, MahaSila (Unicode), Montaigne Lao, PhrasongLao (Unicode), Saysettha Lao, Saysettha 95, Saysettha 2000, Saysettha OT (Unicode), Saysettha Unicode (Unicode), SE-LAO_0, SE-LAO_1, SE-LAO_2, SE-LAO_3, SE-LAO_4, Src_0, Src_1, Src_2, Src_3, Src_4, Src_5, Src_6, Src_7 et Src_8, Times New Roman Lao (Unicode), VangVieng Unicode (Unicode), VangVieng 2000, XiengThong Unicode (Unicode), XiengThong 2000.

You will find many of these fonts on the Internet. If your usual fonts are not in this list, please send us their "ttf" or ".otf"  associated files which you will find in the "Fonts" binder of Windows. We will work out the corresponding transcribing files and will send them back to you.

CHANGING THE CHARACTERS CODES AND SIZE IS NECESSARY

The Lao fonts are generally incompatible, either because they belong to completely different fonts familiesPOLICES or because they present small variations inside a family.

For example, if we ask Word to change the following text typed with Saysettha Lao (Alice 97 family) into the Src_4 font (Alice 92 family):

It will give the following results:

Word alone:

Word with LaoWord:

The font size is automatically adapted in such a manner that the text roughly keeps its original size.

As well as for the text input, the Lao font change (via the "Change the font" button of the LaoWord toolbar) is automatically made thanks to the (transparent for the user) use of the font transcribing files (files with the ".pol" suffix).

COMMENTS

If you are using a font for which the "pol" transcribing file has not been carried out (or in all case, if it is not installed on your machine), its name will not appear in the Lao fonts listbox, and it will thus be impossible to change text into this font.

Note that if you cancel a Lao font change, you will have to cancel three series of actions successively: the codes change (due to the transcribing), the size change and the font change itself. You will then have to click several times on the Undo icon or enter several times Ctrl Z or Edit/Undo.

The font change can be limited by the unavailability of characters in the new font. In particular, the hyphenation character, available in the Unicode and in the Alice 97 fonts, does not exist in all the other types of font.

Version 1.0: In the version 1.0 (that corresponds to the 4.1 version of LaoWord), the Lao font change will work properly only if the selection contains only one font. If necessary, proceed part by part, each one containing only one font. To know if your selection contains only one font, look in the Word field that gives the name of the font. If the field is empty, the selection contains more than one font.

Lao-English lexicon

To obtain the English translation of a Lao word, select it and then click on the fifth button of the LaoWord toolbarBARRE.

TRANSLATE A LAO WORD INTO ENGLISH

GMSWord 1.0 (LaoWord 4.1) includes a small Lao-English dictionary. It contains a few hundreds of words that can easily become more thanks to its add/delete and modify functions.

To obtain the English translation of a Lao word, type this word with the font of your choice (provided that it is recognized by LaoWord, see the section in case of problemPROBLEMES) and select it. The most convenient way to make this selection is to use the mouse and the LaoWord selection modeSYLLABES. In this mode, it will be easy to select a word because the selection will be done syllable by syllable.
NB : Fonction usable with registered fonts only (presence of a .pol file).

Then, click on the Dictionary icon. If the word is in the lexicon database, its translation will be displayed in a dialog window (see the LaoWord 4.1 user's manual in the file C:\GMSWord\Lao\Manual.doc).

Select OK or Cancel to go back to the text in Word.

MODIFY A TRANSLATION

To modify the proposed translation, you just have to type the modified translation in the New translation field of the window before clicking OK. This translation will then have updated the lexicon database.

In order to avoid any mistake, a confirmation window is displayed. Click Yes to confirm the modification or No in case of mistake.

DELETE AN ENTRY WORD FROM THE LEXICON

To delete an entry word from the lexicon, select the Lao word and click on Delete.

In order to avoid any mistake, a confirmation window is displayed. Click OK to confirm the current entry word deletion or Cancel in case of mistake.

ADD AN ENTRY WORD TO THE LEXICON

When the word you are looking for the translation is not in the lexicon yet, the dialog window will indicate Unknown word in the Translation field. To add this word to the lexicon, enter your translation in the New translation field of the window and then click OK.

In order to avoid any mistake, a confirmation window is displayed. Click Yes to confirm the addition of the word or No in case of mistake.

Lao romanizations (only in the Pro version of LaoWord 4.1)

To obtain a romanization, select the text to romanize then click on the fourth button of the LaoWord toolbarBARRE.

ROMANIZATIONS

This function gives access to the "romanization" of the selected text. You are offered three possibilities:

- The free romanization,

- The phonetic romanization,

- The transliteration, also called phonologic romanization.

The free romanization is quite a rough, but easy to read, transcription of the pronunciation. It requires no knowledge of the International Phonetic Alphabet.

The phonetic romanization is a transcription of the pronunciation that aims to be as rigorous as possible. It is based on the International Phonetic Alphabet modified in accordance with the Lamvieng Inthamone's rules. It follows the National Institute of the Oriental Languages and Civilizations (Paris) tradition started by Marc Reinhorn. The Vientiane tones are used for the transcriptions.

The phonologic romanization transcribes, not the pronunciation but the Lao letters. As the phonetic romanization, if follows the "Oriental Languages" tradition and the Lamvieng Inthamone method.

To select the romanization form you wish, open the LaoWord configuration window (left button) and set the parameters as you like.

OPERATION MODES

In addition to the type of romanization, you have the possibility to choose if you want your transcriptions to be displayed in a separate window or to replace the original text.

For this, as for the type of romanization, open the LaoWord configuration window (left button) and set the parameters you prefer.

Lao table sorting (only in the Pro version of LaoWord 4.1)

To sort a table containing Lao text, click on the third button of the LaoWord toolbarBARRE.

LEXICOGRAPHIC ORDERS

There are mainly two lexicographic orders for the Lao words*, differing by the priority given to the vowel and to the final consonant. They are:

- The phonologic order (priority order: C V D FC A)**, proposed and used by Marc Reinhorn in his Lao-French dictionary,,

- The order used for example by Maha Sila in his Lao dictionary (priority order: C FC V D A).

These two lexicographic orders can be chosen for the LaoWord sorting function. The parameters settings are done in the LaoWord configuration window (click on the left button).

The digraph consonants location ("ho no", ...) also depends on the dictionaries authors. LaoWord gives you the possibility to put them either after the high consonant "ho" (Marc Reinhorn's order) or at the end of the alphabet (traditional order).

Lastly, the "guiding" consonant clusters (for example "kho vo"), that also have erratic places in wordlists, will have the possibility to be placed at the beginning or at the end of the initial letter.

These two last parameters are also settable in the LaoWord configuration window, "Other parameters ..." button in the "Sorting parameters" area.

*: If no word's order is universally accepted, the consonants' order is almost universal (except the place of the digraphs that still depends on the author).

**: Notations

C: Initial consonant, eventually consonant clusters

V: Vowel, independently of its duration and of its place (final or between consonants)

D: Duration of the vowels (short or long)

FC: Final consonant

A: Accent

SORTING

To use the LaoWord table sorting function, select all or part of a table (depending on your need) and click on the third button of the LaoWord toolbarBARRE ("A-Z" button). A window, similar to Word's sorting window, will propose pre-filled sorting options to you.

See Word's documentation and the LaoWord 4.1 user's manual for more details about these options.

Texts formatting functions (only in the Pro version of LaoWord 4.1)

The sixth button of the LaoWord toolbarBARRE  gives access to text formatting functions for your Lao texts.

ADJUSTMENT OF ACCENTS HEIGHT

Some fonts offer two accents heights, hence it is possible to choose the accent that matches the best to the vowel's height. However, it happens that when the text is typed, the accent is put far above the letter under it (high accent) or, and it is worse, a low accent is put with a high vowel so they are melted together. To fix the height of the accents of a selection, open the Text formatting functions window and select "Adjust the height of the accents" as well as the desired operation (ascend or descend the accents contained in the selection).

ADJUSTMENT OF "SALA U" HEIGHT

As for the accents, some fonts offer two heights both for short and long "sala u". Proceed as with the accents if you wish to adjust the height of the "sala u" in a selection.

TEXT FORMATTING

This function automatically inserts invisible hyphenation characters between the syllables in the selected text and thus contributes to a correct formatting of your texts in that it prevents the lines to end in the middle of syllables.

To access this function, select the "Syllabic formatting" and "Break the selection" (default value) in the Text formatting functions window, then click OK.

Nota 1: As all the fonts do not have this invisible hyphenation character, this function will not always be available. To know if your font contains such a character, you can try to type the "Widthless Character" (WLC) on the '*' key of the Lao US, Lao France and Lao France New keyboard layouts. If nothing seems to happen when you type this character, this is because you inserted a "WLC" (which is invisible). In the other cases, you will obtain a "small square" (in these cases, your font has no "WLC"). The Unicode fonts generally include such a character then called the ZERO WIDTH SPACE (ZWSP, code 200B) which is "nominally zero width, but may expand in justification" (Unicode 3.0 book).

If you need to remove hyphenation characters in a selection, then select "Syllabic formatting" and "Unbreak the selection" in the Text formatting functions window.

ACCENTED VOWELS LIGATURE

Most of the Lao fonts contain ligatures that are made up with an above vowel and an accent. This is due to the traditional "Duang Jan" keyboard layout that contains such ligatures. The same fonts generally also contain the above vowels and the accents separately.

It may happen, for example after several font changes, that a ligature is transformed into a vowel followed by an accent, even if the final font contains the ligature.

The accented vowels ligature function will allow you to transform the vowel-accent couples of a selection into ligatures and vice-versa, in order to achieve the most esthetic result.

Nota 2: When using Unicode fonts, the graphical optimization functions, when they exist, are handled direcly by the font itself (e.g. the OpenType fonts). For that reason, the only text formatting function available for this type of fonts is the automatic wordwrap function (text formatting).

Selections by Lao syllables

In order for the mouse to select the Lao 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 LaoWord toolbarBARRE (configuration) and selecting "Lao" 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 : Fonction usable with registered fonts only (presence of a .pol file).

SYLLABLES SELECTED IN THE MANNER OF WORDS

One of the main Lao functions (at least the most complex one) carried out by the LaoWord software is the determination of the beginning and the end of the syllables, and their selection on the screen. This is made necessary because of the absence of separators between words and gives an additional comfort during selections, for example before a copy of text. The implemented syllabic model ensures a perfectly rigorous selection of the syllables, even with the old spelling.

SELECTION OF A SYLLABLE WITH THE MOUSE DOUBLE-CLICK

To select a syllable (verify that the LaoWord selection modeBARRE 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 Lao texts as comfortably as possible, we extended the Word mouse-move function to Lao 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, though this is not obvious due to the presence of accents and other zero-width characters at the end of the words.

MULTISYLLABIC SELECTION WITH THE KEYBOARD

The following hot keys are Lao 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 Lao 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.

Lao TrueType fonts and standardization

The Lao TrueType fonts are now numerous. Though the Unicode Standard starts being used for Lao, the old unstandardized 8 bit fonts are still widely used. Some fonts are listed below, by more or less compatible groups. They can be found, for many of them, on the Internet.

ALICE 92 TYPE

Born in 1992, these early TrueType fonts do not contain the occidental characters. The fonts called "Hongkad", from the name of their author, offer very interesting stylized models. They are among the first fonts he designed.

EXAMPLES: alice_0, alice_1, alice_2, alice_3, alice_4, alice_5, alice_7, Alice_new, ANUNORM, anuvong A, ATYPO1, ATYPO2, HONGKAD2, HONGKAD4, HONGKAD5, HONGKAD6, HONGKAD7, HONGKAD8, HONGKAD9, HONGKAD10, HONGKAD12, HONGKAD14, HONGKAD15, HONGKAD16, HONGKAD18, Lao, LaoBanna, LaoCaligraphy, Laolium, LaoPatin, LaoSquare, Laos Standard, Lao Standard { SengChanh (C) }, LaoTangdeane, Sayawath, SE-LAO_0, SE-LAO_1, SE-LAO_2, SE-LAO_3, SE-LAO_4, Xayavath.

ALICE 97 TYPE ("LAO" AND "95" SUFFIXES)

Appeared in 1997, these fonts offer Anglo-Saxon characters (but not accented letters, nor c cedilla, for example). Their structure is inspired from the Thai TIS 620 2529 standard issued by the Thai Industrial Standards Institute. These fonts can be used to type both English and Lao texts.

EXAMPLES: Alice0 Lao, Alice1 Lao, Alice2 Lao, Alice3 Lao, Alice4 Lao, Alice5 Lao, Bubble Lao, Chantabouli Lao, Hollow Lao, Saysettha Lao, Alice0 95, Alice1 95, Alice2 95, Alice3 95, Alice4 95, Alice5 95, Bubble 95, Chantabouli 95, Hollow 95, Saysettha 95.

LAO FRANCE TYPE

This font is an adaptation for Windows of the fonts for MacIntosh developed by D^r Lamvieng Inthamone at the National Institute of the Oriental Languages and Civilizations (Paris). It allows the input of Lao texts using the intuitive Lao France keyboard, without any need of an extra software and is also the base of the Lao France keyboard layout definition. This font does not offer the occidental characters.

EXAMPLE: LaoFrance.

UNICODE TYPE

Unicode fonts containing the Lao characters are available, at last, since Spring 2001. These fonts are based on the 16 bit characters defined by the Unicode standard (the other fonts use 8 bit characters), the Lao range being between 0E80 and 0EFF (see http://www.unicode.org). We strongly invite you to use these fonts for your new texts.

EXAMPLES: MahaSila, KhaoPoun, PhrasongLao, FONT LAO 1 TT, Saysettha OT, Saysettha Unicode, JG Basic Lao, Times New Roman Lao.

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 LaoWord toolbarBARRE).

- CTRL + K                              Keyboard selection (optional)

- CTRL + G or PAUSE             Changes the input mode (Lao or Latin) (optional)

- CTRL + SHIFT + G                 Changes the selections mode (LaoWord 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

In case of problem

It may happen that you meet problems during the installation or during the use of LaoWord. In this case, do not hesitate to contact us (see our address in the General presentationPRESENTATION). We will only discuss here the most encountered problem: the absence of fonts or of transcribing files.

The Lao functions of LaoWord are based on the transcribing principle. If you want to use LaoWord with a given font, you need:

- The font to be installed in the Windows system,

- A transcribing file for this font to be present in the LaoWord environment.

FONTS

To date, hundreds of more or less good quality Lao fonts exist. Because the fonts are independent of the word processing functions (fonts are operating systems related objects), they are not included in the LaoWord package. However, one 8 bit font (LaoFrance) and three Unicode fonts (MahaSila, PhrasongLao and KhaoPoun) are provided for you to start writing texts in Lao, even if you have no other font yet in your computer.

You are free to look for the fonts that suit you and to install them on your PC. To help you to do that, we have selected some web sites offering free Lao fonts (go to "http://www.LaoSoftware.com").

When you will have downloaded these fonts, don't forget to install them to make them available for use (see the Windows help for their installation).

TRANSCRIBING FILES

In addition to the fonts, LaoWord needs and provides transcribing files to work. In this version of LaoWord, more than one hundred transcribing files are provided (see the list at the "Font changesCHTPOLICES" section). Several cases may arise depending on whether you have the font and the transcribing file or not:

In the above figure, the transcribing files are represented by arrows symbolizing the compatibility of the fonts with LaoWord.

1) You are using font n° 1 or 4 for which transcribing files are installed (arrows).

In this case, you can use them in LaoWord.

2) You are not yet using font n° 2 for which a transcribing file is installed (arrows).

If you want to use it, you can seek it on the Internet or in a specialized shop, and install it. You will then be back in the first case.

3) You want to use font n° 3 for which the associated transcribing file is not installed (no arrow).

In that case, the compatibility of this font with LaoWord is not done: you have to add the transcribing file corresponding to this font. For that, you can go to the "http://www.LaoSoftware.com" Internet site and see if the last update includes this transcribing file. If you do not find it there, send us the file of your font in a mail (file with the "ttf" or "otf" extension). We will send you back the proper transcribing file. Then, for using your font, simply copy the new transcribing file into the transcribing files binder (C:\GMSWord\Lao\Transcod).