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Using ToolBook to develop non-English content
Article: P802

The information in this article applies to:

Product: ToolBook
Component: Double-Byte Character Set (DBCS) Support
Product version(s): 7.x and Higher

QUESTION
Does ToolBook support the use of foreign languages including those that use extended characters (double-byte characters) such as Japanese? What about European languages such as German and French?

GENERAL
When talking about language support in ToolBook it is important to distinguish between the language used to display the Authoring environment and the language used to display the Runtime (or DHTML) environment.

Authoring Environment
Over the years ToolBook has been officially made available in several non-English languages. ToolBook 3 and 4 were made available in a English, French and German. More recently ToolBook has also been made available in Japanese. When ToolBook is made available in another language typically the entire Authoring environment (menus, dialogs, etc) are shown in the specified language, and the manuals and help system are also translated into the alternate language. The OpenScript language however always remains in English.

Runtime Environment
Being able to utilize foreign language text within Fields and as captions on Buttons provide the means of creating non-English content with ToolBook.

DHTML
ToolBook's DHTML export engine offers support for generating HTML content which can properly display the foreign language text you have incorporated into your ToolBook project. Simply enable the 'Use Double-Byte Character Encoding' option found in the Export To DHTML wizard. It is important to ensure the Locale setting is properly configured prior to export, so that the characters are converted properly during the DHTML conversion. Please see the attached documents for instructions on setting the Locale.

When discussing languages and fonts there are two terms that you need to be familiar with in order to understand how ToolBook handles foreign languages.

Single Byte
The English language is an example of a Single Byte language. It utilizes character sets (fonts) which consist of no more than 256 different characters. Other examples include French and German. All versions of ToolBook support Single Byte fonts.

Double Byte (DBCS)
For languages which include more than 256 characters, such as Chinese and Japanese, software applications such as ToolBook need to incorporate special logic in order to support these "extended" character sets. These extended languages are often referred to as Double Byte languages. Double-Byte character support was added to ToolBook as of version 7.1, making it possible for the first time to incorporate languages such as Japanese directly into ToolBook.

DETAILS
The process of incorporating foreign language text into ToolBook depends on what kind of language you are dealing with.

Single Byte Languages
Nothing special needs to be done. Simply choose an appropriate Font which supports the correct character set you need to use and then add text to the field by typing, pasting or importing text from a file.

Double Byte Languages
ToolBook permits the typing of double-type characters directly into a field if your font and locale settings are configured appropriately. In addition you can use one of these methods.

IME - Input Method Editor
After setting the default font of your field to a font which supports double-byte characters [such as MS UI GOTHIC] use the IME to insert the desired characters. The IME is a "control" that is designed to assist in inputting the extra characters supported by double-byte character sets (there are just too many to put them all on a keyboard). The IME is normally only available on Asian version of Windows.

Pasting Text
After setting the default font of your field to a font which supports double-byte characters [such as MS UI GOTHIC], select your desired text from a third party application such as Microsoft Word, and then use the Paste Special | Text option of the Edit menu to paste the copied text into your application.

In order for this Paste operation to work properly, the computer must be configured with the LOCALE setting configured (within your Regional Options control panel) to the correct language. If you plan on pasting Japanese text into ToolBook your Locale setting has to be configured to Japanese otherwise you will end up with gibberish characters appearing instead. See the accompanying document (at the bottom of the this article) which illustrates the general method for enabling the desired Locale support.

LIMITATIONS
Below is a list of limitations in the Double-Byte character support that ToolBook offers.

  • ToolBook only renders sentences from left to right, and therefore cannot accommodate right to left or vertical placement of characters.
  • ToolBook does not currently support Unicode.
  • The font you decide to use, such as MS UI GOTHIC, must be on the end-user's machine in order for a delivered project to show the characters properly.

ATTACHMENTS


OPENSCRIPT NOTICE
The OpenScript programming examples found in many articles may need modification in order to work in ToolBook 9.0 or higher, particularly if the article was written for an older version of ToolBook. To learn more, click here.

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