THAMWORD GENERAL DESCRIPTION
THAMWORD DETAILED FUNCTIONALITIES
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
General presentation
THAMWORD FUNCTIONALITIES
ThamWord gives you access, directly in Word, to Tham keyboards usable with PhrasongLao-compatible fonts.
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 "ThamWord" software will be useful for you.
Vincent Berment
Paris, April 15, 2006
ThamWord toolbar
At the installation of GMSWord, a toolbar is created. It initially displays the "GMSWord..." listbox. If you select "Tham" in this listbox, you'll get the following toolbar: 
.
From left to right, the functions are:
1. The configuration of ThamWord,
2. The Tham-Latin toggle for text input,
3. The online help.
THAMWORD CONFIGURATION
This first button gives access to the ThamWord configuration. You are invited to select:
- Your keyboard: Tham US, Tham France,
- The Arabic or Tham numbers (when the font allows it),
- The activation / deactivation of several keyboard shortcuts (keyboard layout and keyboard activation),
- The GMSWord splash window activation at the start-up of Word (fishing at the village).
The icon is always the smiling face icon
THAM-ENGLISH TOGGLE FOR TEXT INPUT
The second button gives you the possibility to switch the text input mode between Tham 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 Tham font distributed with GMSWord.
ONLINE HELP
The present online help is accessible via this last button.
Tham keyboards and text typing
To choose a Tham keyboard layout, click on the first button of the ThamWord toolbar (configuration window) and select the desired keyboard layout.
THAM KEYBOARDS
ThamWord offers the choice between two keyboard layouts:
- Tham US, adapted to the American Keyboard (associating the Tham characters with the QWERTY keyboard keys).
![Tham US](javascript:PopupCentrer("ThamWord_fichiers/tus.jpg",1121,527,"menubar=no,scrollbars=no,statusbar=no")){kind=link}
- Tham France, adapted to the French Keyboard (associating the Tham characters with the AZERTY keyboard keys),
![Tham France](javascript:PopupCentrer("ThamWord_fichiers/tfr.jpg",1137,601,"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 ThamWord toolbar).
When an occidental font is used, the keyboard is automatically switched to the normal keyboard (Azerty, Qwerty, ...).
You will find all the explanations to start typing texts in Tham in the file "ManualTW.pdf" (format Acrobat Reader).
You will find all the elements there allowing you to use ThamWord effectively.
Tham fonts
There exist almost no Tham fonts and they still remain unstandardized. The ThamWord software was developed at the same time as Grégory KOURILSKY defined a keyboard and a Tham font, following the recommendations contained in Vincent BERMENT's thesis. (Méthodes pour informatiser des langues et des groupes de langues « peu dotées », on pages 126-128 and 152-154). The Tham characters of the PhrasongLao font have thus been located in the Unicode Private Usage Area.
Grégory's study has been published in Cahiers de Péninsule : « L’écriture tham du Laos » (special issue). Contact Péninsule at: PENINSULE, Resmarec - 22170 LANRODEC (France). An overview of this work can be read in the paper « Towards a Computerization of the Lao Tham System of Writing » (Grégory KOURILSKY and Vincent BERMENT).
EXAMPLE : PhrasongLao.
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 ThamWord toolbar).
- CTRL + K Keyboard selection (optional)
- CTRL + G ou PAUSE Changes the input mode (Tham or Latin) (optional)