Understanding the special functions of WinVNKey

 

Trần Tư B́nh & Dr. Ngô Đ́nh Học

 

 

 CONTENT

 

  1. Correcting the deformation or the square-box in email
  2. Convert uppercase / lowercase
  3. Look up Hỏi/Ngă (the Falling and Rising tonemarks) in Vietnamese words
  4. Character Map                                             
    1. Character map of Microsoft Windows
    2. Unicode typepad of WinVNKey                                       
  5. Why having Vietnamese charset (character set - encoding) conversion?
  6. Convert between Vietnamese charset for plain text                                                     
    1. Convert from file
    2. Convert from the clipboard by Conversion dialog box
    3. Convert from the clipboard by menu
    4. Convert from the clipboard by hotkeys                           
  7. Convert documents in format: Telex, VNI, VIQR (VietNet), ... 
    1. Convert as a charset (encoding)
    2. Re-type the whole document                                                                   
  8. Convert intelligently VIQR document
    1. VietNet format conversion may be in misleading sense
    2. Use standard VIQR format to avoid false sense
    3. Quick conversion from VIQR to Unicode format
    4. Smart Conversion
  9. Font conversion for text in RTF format
  10. Conclusion

Appendix: Some basic tips about Vietnamese Font Management for Windows

 

 

Note: If you have not used WinVNKey with proficiency, please read the article,

"Some special functions of WinVNKey" to get acquainted first. Then, if you want to learn more or want to explore more advanced functions, then read this article.

 

WinVNKey is free software to type Vietnamese and other languages. Besides the function to assist typing Vietnamese more accurate and faster, WinVNKey also has many features that other software does not support or have supported but not perfect yet.

 

WinVNKey software can be download from http://winvnkey.sf.net . WinVNKey can be installed in the interface of English or Vietnamese. Some of the functions of WinVNKey located in the blue hyperlink (Figure 1). For instance, if wanting to change the sign of the typing method, we click on the word phrase "Typing Method" at the Main page. In addition, WinVNKey also provides other functions via the menu in the "Run" button. (Figure 2)

 

 

Figure 1: Layout of WinVNKey in Main page.

 

 

Figure 2: Some features of WinVNKey located in the Run button.

 

This article is to introduce several useful special functions of WinVNKey as follows:

-       Correcting the deformation or the square-box in email (eg Yahoo mail, Hotmail ...).

-       Convet uppercase / lowercase, uppercase in first sentence, beginning of the letter in Vietnamese text.

-       Look up Hỏi/Ngă (the Falling and Rising accent mark).

-       Supports Character Map.

-       Convet charset (character set - encoding) for plain text.

-       Convert documents in format: Telex, VNI, VIQR (VietNet), ...

-       Automatic re-typing documents.

-       Convert text in RTF (rich text format).

 

1. CORRECTING THE DEFORMATION OR THE SQUARE-BOX IN EMAIL

WinVNKey can edit the text in the email which has repeatedly distorted by not properly select UTF-8 or restore the display square-box text in email

Here are a real example that happened. We can use it to practice:

 

I asked Vinh, my friend, help finding the software that could convert Vietnamese without-accented letter to the accented letter. When I open an reply email from Vinh (writing in words not accented), the email that I sent to Vinh was written in accented had been deformated. Originally email of Vinh is as follows:

 

Hello anh Binh

Anh vao vovisoft trong do co muc chuyen tu nhung chu khong dau qua co dau nhung khong dung phan mem.

Vay nhe anh binh.

Vinh

 

> tu binh tran <tubinhtran@gmail.com> wrote:

> 

> Hi Vinh,

> HĂ´m trÆ°á»›c, nghe Vinh nĂ³i vĂ o site của vovisoft.com cĂ³ thể

> thấy software hoĂ¡n chuyển chữ Việt khĂ´ng dấu qua chữ Việt cĂ³ dấu.

> TĂ´i cĂ³ vĂ o tìm nhÆ°ng khĂ´ng thấy.

> Vậy Vinh xem lại vĂ cho tĂ´i cĂ¡i link dẫn tá»›i software nĂ y nha.

> Cảm ơn Vinh.

> Trần TÆ° Bình

 

To read the deformated email above, we make few steps as follows:

-       Select the deformated email.

-       Press and release the Ctrl key 2 times, then pressing the right mouse

-       WinVNKey will display a menu as shown in Figure 3.

-       Select "E6. Fix weird chars in email letter"

-       Immediately after a few seconds, all of the selected words will be restore the original form in Vietnamese and will be displayed in a new window.

-       If some characters are not converted, we can repeat the conversion process above, but just select the menu E5.

 

 

Figure 3: Menu of WinVNKey after pressing Ctrl key two times and pressing right mouset.

 

Notice that the menu E5 (or E6) can also be used to correct the square characters in email as in Figure 4. After the conversion, they will be as Figure 5.

 

 

Figure 4: Yahoo Email error displaying the squares in some of Vietnamese letters.

 

 

Figure 5: After fixing, email is displayed in a new window.

 

2. CONVERT UPPERCASE / LOWERCASE


WinVNKey can convert uppercase / lowercase, uppercase first sentence, the first letters of words, for text written in any character set in which of the almost 100 charsets that WinVNKey support: Unicode, VISCII, ABC, VNI , VPS, etc. For this, before the convertion, we have to choose the correct charset in the Main page.

 

Microsoft Word is also able to convert Unicode uppercase / lowercase [Format> Change Case], but only applies to the composed characters. When it saw the Vietnamese Unicode font (precomposed characters), Microsoft unchange the word unless it coincides with the letters used in Western Europe (such as đ, à, á, ă, è, é, ù, ú, ...). For example, when choosing to change to uppercase, Microsoft Word will change the phrase the "Hoán đổi" into the "HOÁN ĐổI". If that text written in the old Vietnamese encodings (such as ABC, VPS, ...) Microsoft Word will convert wrongly because it does not understand these charsets.

 

Meanwhile WinVNKey also have the Unicode conversion function uppercase / lowercase just like Microsoft Word (that is to support all languages in the world). Besides, WinVNKey is also superior than Microsoft Word in the following points:

 

(1) Support for all Vietnamese Unicode precomposed characters.
(2) Support for all texts in the old Vietnamese charsets such as ABC, VPS, etc.
(3) The ability to convert uppercase / lowercase in WinVNKey can work with any editor (such as Word, Wordpad, Notepad, Email, browser, etc.) and not limited to Microsoft Word only.

 

Here's how to convert with WinVNKey:

-       Select the charset in Main page to match the charset of the text (usually Unicode).

-       Select that paragraph.

-       Press and release the Ctrl key 2 times, then right click mouse.

-       WinVNKey will display a menu as shown in Figure 3.

-       Click an appropriate option (from A1 to A5) to transfer to upper / lowercase, uppercase first sentence, the first letters of words, etc. ...

 

Note:
If the text is the website, we must Copy > Paste in Microsoft Word or WordPad, etc ... and then convert from this place. The reason is that Web pages do not allow us to change the text (read-only text), except when the word in the text box lets users type.

 

Comparison the steps between Microsoft Word and WinVNKey
For comparison, we will list the basic steps when converting uppercase / lowercase as follows:

(a) Using Microsoft Word:

  1. Select the text
  2. Click the Format option of MS Word to display a menu
  3. Click the "Change Case" to show sub-menu
  4. Then click on the correct method of conversion
  5. Conversion results will immediately replace the highlighted text that we do not need to paste at all.

 

(b) Use WinVNKey:

  1. Select the text
  2. Press and release the Ctrl key twice
  3. Right click mouse to display a convertion menu
  4. Then click on the correct method of conversion
  5. Conversion results will immediately replace the highlighted text that we do not need to paste at all.

 

Thus, if already familiar with Microsoft Word and see this method is easy to use and fast, we can also conclude the conversion of WinVNKey also easy to use and fast as Microsoft Word.

 

Function of menu display by pressing the right mouse is a feature of Windows that any application (Notepad, Wordpad, Word, etc.) are also supported. Therefore, if we do not press and release the Ctrl key, to inform WinVNKey then when pressed the right mouse, menu of Microsoft Word will be display . The reason WinVNKey need 2 times click the Ctrl key is to avoid mistakes which case the user accidentally touching the Ctrl key (see as press & release 1 time) before pressing the right mouse button.

 

3. LOOK UP HỎI / NGĂ (the Falling and Rising tonemarks) IN VIETNAMESE WORDS


When you type Vietnamese but wondering whether to use the Falling oe Rising tonemark, we can use the function “Look up Hoi / Nga” in WinVNKey.

 

To check tonemark, we make few steps as follows:

-       From the Main page, click [Run > Look up HoiNga] as Figure 2.

-       WinVNKey will display a table “Look up ?/~ Tonemarks” as shown in Figure 6.

-       Just type a Vietnamese word with falling or rising tonemark in text box and click "Look up", WinVNKey will display a list of simple or complex words using the falling or rising tonemark to give us the options.

 

 

Figure 6: Table “Look up ?/~ Tonemarks”.

 

Note: You should change the font corresponds to the charset (character set - encoding) that we had in the main page, by clicking "Change Font."
Since both input and output boxes are used the charset we have chosen in "Main Page" of WinVNKey. Therefore, we must choose the font appropriate with the charset. For example:

-       "Arial" for the Unicode character set.

-       "Sans Serif VISCII 1.1" for the VISCII charset.

-       "Sans Serif ABC" for the TCVN-3 charset (ie. ABC).

-       Fonts with the prefix "VPS" for the VPS charset .

-       Fonts with the prefix "VNI" for the VNI charset.

-       ....

 

4. CHARACTER MAP


For the convenience to users, WinVNKey provides the Character Map, which contains thousands of characters and symbols that we can take out and insert into the article. It is similar to Symbol table of Microsoft Word [Insert > Symbol], but much more details. There are two types of character map:

 

a. Character Map of Microsoft Windows.
b. Character Map of WinVNKey (called Unicode Typepad)

The use of two tables is similar but Unicode Typepad support more functions, especially the function to access the Han Nom.

 

A. Character Map of Microsoft Windows

 

This is the Character Map of the Windows , which can be triggered by one of two ways:

-      From the Start menu > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Character Map.

-      From the Main page of WinVNKey: Run > Run Charmap (see Figure 2).

 

WinVNKey will display Typing Tips panel (Typing Manual ) and Character Map as shown in Figure 7. Follow the Character Map, it is easy to find and take out the letters as you like.

 

 

Figure 7: Character Map of Microsoft list the characters depending on font..

 

B. Unicode Typepad of WinVNKey


From the Main page of WinVNKey, click Run > Run Unicode Typepad, the dialog will be shown in Figure 8. Want to select any text, we click on words and it will automatically appear in the "Characters to copy." We can click on the "Copy" and paste text into other documents.

 

 

Figure 8: Character Map of WinVNKey showing the character of each code area.

 

The biggest difference between Microsoft and WinVNKey character map is the number of words:

 

-      The character map of Microsoft only shows about 60 thousand words in the basic Unicode plane (the plane of 0).

-      The Unicode Typepad of WinVNKey can display about 300 thousand words in the standard Unicode (including plane 0, 1, 2, 3, 14, 15).

 

Unicode Typepad of WinVNKey shows each of script / language as listed in the dropdown list of combobox. Each script/language occupies an code area that contains one or more pages, each page includes 128 words.

 

The buttons on the right of Figure 8 allows us to access quickly the Unicode pages. Every time you press the plus or minus sign, we will turn to or turn back a letter. Every time we press the skinny arrow, we will flip to a page or flip back. Every time we click the medium arrow, we will flip to or flip back 8 pages. Every time we press the fat arrow, we will turn or flip back to 64 pages. If you know the code of the text to search, you can use the menu as shown in Figure 9 by pressing the black arrow below Script button > Search the word.

 

1. Selecting the fonts for Unicode Typepad
Menu in Figure 9 allows us to select fonts to display text in the dialog. Unfortunately, now we do not have a font that contains the full text of all Unicode, but only one for each region. Therefore, we must choose the correct font, then the text appears correctly, otherwise the text will appear as empty box. There are two ways to select fonts:

 

(1) Use the same font for all Unicode regions.
(2) Use different font for individual Unicode regions.

 

We can use (1) to identify all the character region that a font support. When using this method, only the menu A in Figure 9 is active, while the other menu is off.

We can choose (2) if we need to see different parts of the code. When choosing (2), all 13 menus from B to G will work to allow us to select fonts for each code area.

 

 

Figure 9: Menu display when press the button “Script”.

 

If there are Arial Unicode MS font then it is very good because it contains many Latin characters and Hán Nôm. Therefore, we choose this font for menu B, B1, B2, B3 (Fig. 9). If not, we can choose Arial or New Times Roman font for menu B, B1. And in Hán Nôm areas, we should choose HAN NOM A font for menu B2, B3, B4 and HAN NOM B font for menu D, D1, and G. Note that the font Arial Unicode MS only supports menu B2 and B3 only.

 

2. Using Unicode Typepad to display 8-bit fonts
Althrough called Unicode Typepad, it can still be used to display the old 8-bit charsets of Vietnamese (VISCII, VPS, VNI, ABC, etc.) or 8-bit charsets of other languages. The 8-bit charset is in the form of U +00xx codes, which use the selected font in menu B1 (Fig. 9). Therefore, to display such VISCII charset, we can choose a any font VISCII for the menu A1. Then click the Combobox to display the code area the first two as "Basic Latin (ASCII)" and "Latin-1 Supplement" and you will find pictures of 256 words in VISCII charset.

 

3. Why does it called Unicode Typepad?
Now, we can understand why the character map of WinVNKey is called Unicode Typepad. This is because this character map helps us enter all Unicode characters not on the keyboard by using the mouse to copy and paste.

Here we see the use of this Typepad to define the macros. For example, we want to define macros
$(dù) is the Unicode character with U+2602 code, which is the third letter in the first row of Figure 8. But how can we attain this letter when it is not on the keyboard?

 

WinVNKey have many solutions to this problem. One such solution is to use Unicode Typepad as follow. From the Main page (Figure 1), click Macro > Macro Files > [Select Macro Page No. 1] > Edit > Add. We will see a dialog like Figure 10. Bottom of the dialog has 3 blank boxes. We type $(dù) in the first box. Then right click mouse to over the second box and then select "Choose a Unicode Character" At that time, a frame will appear as Figure 11, a bit like Unicode Typepad.

If you know the code of the word, we can trace as Figure 9: Click the black arrow below Script button > Goto character > type 2602 in box. If not know the code, then we must press the right arrows (Figure 11) to flip the pages and discover the text with umbrella shape (the letter codes U+2602). After finding the word and, then click on the text. Immediately, the Unicode Typepad (Fig. 11) will disappear and the umbrella character appear in the macro dialog box at Figure 10. Then press "Enter" to enter the macro on the file.

 

 

Figure 10: Use the menu to enter Unicode characters in column 2 of the Macro.

 

 

Figure 11: Click the letter will enter text into column 2 of the Macro.

 

5. WHY HAVING VIETNAMESE CHARSET (CHARACTER SET – ENCODING) CONVERSION ?


Currently, most of us and almost all Vietnamese websites use Unicode fonts to type Vietnamese. The reason Unicode is the international standard code, it supports the Vietnamese language and is installed in the Windows. From Windows 98 SE onwards has support Unicode font system. Since this is an international standard font system, so when the Vietnamese language editor use Unicode fonts, people can read Vietnamese anywhere in the world, as long as that computer supports Unicode. Unicode has the standard fonts as: Times New Roman, Arial, Tahoma, Verdana, ...

 

However, Unicode fonts do not support the Vietnamese writing as in a same variety of European and American writing. For printing Vietnamese language in better artful, the newspapers, publishers, ... still love to use the fonts of the other charsets. For example:

- The fonts TCVN (ABC) have the form .VN (dots at first, then the word VN). Eg. VnTimes. VnArial ...
- The fonts VISCII have word VI in the prefix. Eg: VI Phong Lan, VI Thuy Tien, ...
- The fonts VNI VNI have word VNI in the prefix. Eg VNI Times, VNI Helve ...
- The fonts VPS have word VPS in the prefix. Eg: VPS Times, VPS Long An, ...

 

The Vietnamese language writting with the old charset TCVN (ABC), VISCII, VNI, VPS, etc. will not display properly if we do not install the corresponding font on the computer. VNI charset is used widely in the South of VN, and charset TCVN (ABC) is preferred in the North. But in overseas, people use a variety of charset such as VNI, VISCII, VPS.

 

Because there are many different Vietnamese charsets, each of area uses different charset, then people could not read the documents sent from the South to the North, or from a homeland to abroad because there is no correct font. Arose from this situation, there is the need to convert the charset so the computer can read. It is also one of the goals of WinVNKey.

WinVNKey can convert charset for plain text and text in RTF (rich text format).


Plain text is the text contains only words that we type in, such as documents stored by Notepad or Word, Wordpad stored in text form. If we open the text in Notepad, we only see the content (ie characters that is typed into text), but there were no data about the fonts and formatting.

Text in RTF is a document containing both content and data about the fonts and formatting (colors, exposure, font size, italic, bold, etc.). If we open the text in Notepad, we will see a lot of strange words which are not the words that we typed in, sometimes mixed with some content text. This strange words are the data about the fonts and formatting of the text.

Plain text conversion is to change the charset of content only. And converting the documents in RTF is a more complicated: changing charset of the content, changing font name but preserve the font style: color, exposure, font size, italic, bold, etc.

 

6. CONVERT BETWEEN VIETNAMESE CHARSET FOR PLAIN TEXT


When we open a file, select a paragraph, then highlight it and press CTRL-C mean we have copied the text into a special area in memory area called a clipboard or temporary records. Thus, documents can be stored in a file, on your hard drive or stored in memory. WinVNKey enable to change the charset of plain text when it is placed in the file or in clipboard.

 

A. Convet from file


To convert whole file of plain text, we must store the text in *. txt format. Some editors only allow storage in a single format is plain text format, such as Notepad. The word processors are supported storage in multiple formats, including *. txt format is plain text format [Word Document (*. doc) > File > Save As> Plain Text (*. txt)].

◊ Already knowning the charset of source text
Example: We have a plain text file which is the poem about parents, and we had known that poem is typed in the VIQR charset.

 

 

Figure 12: Documents written in VIQR (also known as VietNet).

 

This file is named ChaMe.txt and stored in a directory C:\CaDao.
Now, we want to convert the file to Unicode and save it in with the same file name in a other subdirectory. We do the following steps:

 

 

Figure 13: Convert charset for the plain text..

 

  1. Select [Main Page > Run > Convert …].
  2. WinVNKey will display a panel as shown in Figure 13, we filled out the appropriate words in the "Source File" and the "Destination File" in the "Plain Text" page.
  3. In line "Source is in", select [File] and [3.VIQR (VietNet)] because the source file is in VIQR charset.
  4. In line "Destination is in", select [File] and [4.Unicode] because we want to transfer files into Unicode.
  5. In the group "Source Files", click the button with image of opening the file Description: http://winvnkey.sourceforge.net/webhelp/image144.gifto go in folder and select the correct source file.
  6. In the group "Destination File", select [Same filename, different subdirectory] in a way as Figure 14:

 

 

 

Figure 14: Select how to make destination file.

 

(WinVNKey will automatically fill in the "Directory" and the "Filename" boxes in the group "Destination File". If we do not like filenames and directory names that WinVNKey filled in, then we can edit them as you like).

  1. Press button "Convert" to transcode.
  2. Viewing results in the box "Status"
  3. When the word appeared as "done", we can view the transcoding results in file ChaMe.txt by clicking the blue word "Filename". ChaMe.txt file will appear as Figure 15:

 

 

Figure 15: Results of conversion from text format VIQR to Unicode.

 

◊ Not knowning the charset of source text
WinVNKey can guess the charset of the source text. The same example above with the ChaMe.txt file, if we are not sure the charset of source text, in step 3, we can choose ["0. Auto (Guess charset)] in row "Source is in" as Figure 16:

 

 

Figure 16: Ask WinVNKey guessing the charset of source file.

 

After that, click the button "Convert", the "Status" box will show the predicting results for charset and the converting results. If the result is wrong, you can click on the blue word "Status" for details of the charset. You will find a list of charset are listed based on the number of misspelled words from least to most errors. Charset selected is the charset with least misspelled words. In the case of same class (with the same number of words misspelled), in theory we can choose any charset as a source charset.

If the first charset selected for output conversion had error, we will convert again. This time, we select the source charset is the second charset (second least error) and should not select "0. Auto (Guesse charset)”. Continuing this process few times, we will have correct results of conversion.

 

In fact, if having full English text (ie ASCII charset), the guessing result will have many the answers because most all Vietnamese charset contain ASCII. In this case, we can say to use ASCII charset (most accurate) but can also say using charset: VISCII, VNI, VPS, ABC, etc. When converting any text, it will also have the same result.

 

B. Convert from clipboard by Conversion dialog box


If we only need to convert the charset for one paragraph only, it is best to copy the text to the clipboard, then use the converting function from the Clipboard. This function merely of the charset conversion, which clears out all information on the format, means only converting the content. Therefore, we can convert on each paragraph of text files in any form: *.doc, *.txt, Notepad, etc. ...

For example: I recently purchased a computer. The computer has Microsoft Word and just the Unicode fonts (like Arial, Tahoma, Times New Roman ...), and not yet downloaded Vietnamese fonts of any charset other than Unicode. My friend sent to me a peom files, Hoa sen.doc typed on Microsoft Word and sent via email in the Attachment. When opening the file in the Attachment, I found as Figure 17:

 

 

Figure 17: Text can not read because the font used is incorrect with charset.

 

I do not know the poem was typed in by what charset, so to read as well as to save the poem in Unicode, I do the following steps:

 

 

H́nh 18: Hoán chuyển văn bản nằm trong clipboard.

Figure 18: Swaps the text in the clipboard.

 

  1. In Microsoft Word, Select the text and Copy, then all text will be put into the clipboard.
  2. Start WinVNKey.
  3. Select [Main Page > Run > Convert].
  4. WinVNKey will displays a Conversion panel, we select the appropriate information for line "Source is in" and line "Destination is in" on "Plain Text" page as Figure 18 above.
  5. Press the "Convert".
  6. View results in the “Status” box.
  7. Back to Microsoft Word, select [Edit > Paste] to paste the entire text, just has been converted at clipboard, into MS Word again. Results will be as Figure 19:

 

 

Figure 19: Text after the copy back from the clipboard.

 

Note: In step 1, we can choose to highlight only a portion of the file. We can also use the [Cut] instead of [Copy].

 

C. Convert from the clipboard by menu


Converting method from the clipboard just above relatively spend more times due to go through Conversion dialog for plain text. WinVNKey support a very fast conversion method as follows.

 

1.    Select the text.

2.    Press and release the Ctrl key twice.

3.    Right click the mouse to display a menu as in Figure 3.

4.    Then click the converting menu B (Figure 3).

5.    Conversion results will immediately replace the selected text that we do not need to paste at all.

 

Sometimes we just want to see the result of conversion only, and do not want the converting result replace selected text. WinVNKey have anticipated this event and provide menu E1. Specifically in the above five steps, step (4) and (5) is replaced as follows:

4 '. Then click the converting menu E1 (see Figure 3)
5 '. Conversion results will be contained in a draft file and displayed in Notepad.

 

How does WinVNKey know the source and destination charset to convert?
In step 4 above, how WinVNKey know the source and destination charset to convert correctly? The answer is WinVNKey based on the information in menu C (Figure 3). If the charset listed in the C menu is incorrect, users can click on this menu C to display a dialog “Choose Charsets” like Figure 20.

 

 

Figure 20: Dialog box for choosing in advance the source and destination charset.

 

This box has two combobox contains a list of source charset and destination charset. These two lists are as same as the two lists of source charset and destination charset in Conversion dialog box (Plain Text page) in Figure 13. After choosing the source and destination charset, we press OK, then this charset will be effective permanently for menu B and E1 unless we choose otherwise.

 

D. Convert from the clipboard by hotkeys

 

Looking at conversion menu in Figure 3, we will see the following:

 

-      Menu B has a shortcut <CTRL-C> <CTRL> <B> , that is, press CTRL-C to copy, press and release the Ctrl key once, then press B key (do not press the Shift key.)

-      Menu E1 has a shortcuts E1 ,<CTRL-C> <CTRL> <D>, that is, press CTRL-C to copy, press and release the Ctrl key once, then press the D key (do not press the Shift key) and mouse.

In short, instead of a mouse, you can use hot keys as follows:

 

1. To convert and replaced directly in the text:
- Select the text.
- Press the key sequences <CTRL-C> <CTRL> <B>.

2. To convert and displays them in clipboard:
- Select the text.
- Press the key sequences <CTRL-C> <CTRL> <D>.

 

7. CONVERT DOCUMENT IN FORMAT: TELEX, VNI, VIQR (VietNet)


Suppose a friend are sending us a paragraph as follows:

Example:
Phấn son tô điểm sơn hà

Làm cho rỡ mặt đàn bà nước Nam.

But he fears the receiver can not read because there is no proper font, so he have decided to send that text in one of the following conventions:

(1) Telex standard:
Phaasn son too ddieerm sown haf

Lafm cho rowx mawjt ddafn baf nuwowsc Nam.


(2) Accent conventions used by standard VNI typing method:
Pha61n son to6 d9ie63m so7n ha2

La2m cho ro74 ma85t d9a2n ba2 nu7o71c Nam.


(3) Conventions of standard VIQR (VietNet):
Phaasn son too ddieerm sown haf

Lafm cho rowx mawjt ddafn baf nuwowsc Nam.


The question is how we can use WinVNKey to convert the text (1-3) back to true Vietnamese text.

 

A. Convert as a charset (encoding)


Each character in the above paragraphs (1-3) are located on the U.S. keyboard, meaning they are ASCII charset. If looking at every character one by once, the above paragraphs are in ASCII charset. But if you select the source charset as ASCII, each character in the above paragraphs are all Vietnamese characters, so after converting, we'll have exactly the same results as the source text.

 

The critical issue here is how to combine a string of characters into one character with accents, for example, a combination of three characters a^' to . To solve this, WinVNKey temporary considers the Telex, VNI, VIQR conventions as the Vietnamese charset. The charsets are listed in the menu of numbered 47 (for Telex) or 48 (for VNI), or No. 3 (VIQR) as shown in Figure 21.

Therefore, to convert the above paragraphs into true Vietnamese text, we choose as follows:

-      Paragraph (1) has a source charset as Telex (menu no. 47)

-      Paragraph (2) has a source charset as VNI (menu no. 48)

-      Paragraph (3) has a source charset as VIQR (menu no. 3)

-      And in “Destination is in”, we can choose Unicode or any other charsets that we want.

 

 

Figure 21: Select the appropriate menu with accents conventions in the “Source is in”.

 

B. Re-type the whole document


Now we continue with the example in sub-section A above. Assuming a friend do not follow properly the standard conventions but freely use some special signs, though widely used, but not in the standards which are officially recognized. For example,

(4) Telex in free style (use sign [ for
ư and sign ] for ơ)
Phaasn son too ddieerm sown haf

Lafm cho rowx mawjt ddafn baf n[]sc Nam.


(5) ConventionsVietNet in free style (moon sign is <, circumflex is ^, apostrophe is *)
Pha>'n son to> d-ie>?m so*n ha`

La`m cho ro*~ ma<.t d-a`n ba` nu*o*'c Nam.

 

Generally, when the source text using freely the conventional signs like this, if we want the conversion, then WinVNKey have to make more menu: Telex 1, Telex 2, Telex 3, ..., or VietNet1, VietNet 2, ... But even if adding more menu, we could not guess how the sign will be happened. Thus, adding more menu is not achievable.

If careful analysing the above texts (4-5), they are really identical to the sequence of keywords that the users type in text when typing Vietnamese characters by one of the software as WinVNKey, etc. But if the users disable this software, the result is the signs do not associated, such as the above passages.

From this observation, we can see how to solve the conversion of the above paragraphs (4) and (5) as follows:
- First, select or adjust the typing method to match with the sign convention in the source text.
- Then re- type the text from beginning to end.
- But if we have to retype, why not use WinVNKey automatically retyping for us?

 

1. Retyping ourself the whole document

This is the simplest way, but takes more times.


a. Example 1: Change the Telex format paragraph (4) into Vietnamese:
Select typing method as "9. Telex 2" and then retype the paragraph (4).

b. Example 2: Change the VietNet format paragraph (5) into Vietnamese:
Select typing method as "5. VietNet". But before retyping the paragraph (5), we click on the hyperlink "Typing method" at Main page to review the conventions of the signs whether they matches with the conventions in paragraph (5) or not. (Figure 22).

 

 

Figure 22: Sign convention used in typing method "5. VietNet".


Paragraph (5) using a convention for circumflex sign is > and moon sign is <, but the circumflex sign as > is not in Figure 22. Thus, we need to adjust WinVNKey by adding > into the boxes below the letters â, ê, and ô as in Figure 23. WinVNKey allows you define up to 4 characters per sign (for more details, click on the icon shaped â, ê, etc.). After adjustment is complete, we retype the paragraph (5) from the beginning.

 

 

Figure 23: Allow both signs ^ and > changing to circumflex.

 

2. Use WinVNKey for automatic retyping the whole document

The quickest way is to use WinVNKey automatically retyping the source text for us. But first, we must set correctly the typing method for the source text. If necessary, we must change the sign convention to match with the signs used in the source text, such as in the example 2 at the above subsection.


Figure 24 below shows all the converting menu from number 200 onwards are the menu for automatic retyping the source text.
• Menu No. 200 was re-typing based on the parameters of the current keyboard.
• Menu No. 201 to 218 corresponding to the typing method from No.1 to No.18 in the Main page.

When selecting one of these menu, we do not need to change the WinVNkey setting at any page.

 

 

Figure 24: Menu allows WinVNKey automatic retyping the source text.

 

a. Menu 200

When you select this menu, you will find out as Figure 25.

 

 

.Figure 25: Convert the source text by automatically retyping.


We can press the question mark button to see a detailed explanation of how to retype automatically. Specifically, this method uses all the current parameters of WinVNKey, such as Viet Option page and the Macro at Main page, select the languages in the Language page, the options in the Advanced page, etc.

 

b. Menu 201 đến 218


When you select this menu and press the button marked ">>", we will see as Figure 26. Specifically, this method differs with menu 200 in that it only based on the parameters of the Typing method and
Viet Option page only, and these parameters completely independent with the Main page. For example, Figure 24 is selected Typing method "205. VietNet" and the Viet Option page as "1. Syllable in VietNet style (Type mark after letter & Combine with syllable)", while the Main page may have different typing method and different Viet Option page. Therefore, when selecting the menu from 201 to 218, the options in Main page, Language, Advanced, Macro, etc. will not affect the retyping. Note that if you want to adjust options in Typing method and Viet Option page, we must return to the Main page and click on the corresponding hyperlink.

 

 

Figure 26: Select retyping with the separateTyping method and Viet Option page.

 

 

8. CONVERT INTELLIGENTLY VIQR DOCUMENT


The conversion of text in format VIQR (VietNet) was presented in Section 7. This section will address in detail because at this moment, there are still a lot of informations or articles published in VIQR format such as soc.culture.vietnamese group forum on the Internet or e-mail group (mailing list).

 

A. VietNet format conversion may be in misleading sense

 

VIQR text written in the VIQR format has the advantage that there is no distortion when sending via email or other computing environment (Windows, Dos, Unix, Linux, Mac). Also, in case no conversion software, users can guess the meaning, although reading speed is slower, because the symbol represents is diacritical mark are similar to Vietnamese. For example, when reading the two statements below is almost anyone can figure out their meaning.

(a) Cha(?ng co' chi.

(b) To^i no'i chuye^.n vo+'i chi. Thanh.

 

However, dots and question marks in the VIQR text created many cases of confused conversion because they can both a punctuation mark and a accent mark when they stood after a vowel.


In the above examples, the same word as "chi.", but the dot serves as the punctuation mark in example (a) and serves as the accent mark in exemple (b). The reason we know this is because our brains processed quickly and automatically clears out the ridiculous word. Indeed, our brains process as follows:
• Chẳng có chi.
Select
chi. hay chị ? Brain automatically removes word “chị” because sentence "Chẳng có chị" heard more absurd than sentence “Chẳng có chi”.
• Tôi nói chuyện với chị Thanh.

Select chi. hay chị? Brain automatically removes word "chi." Because this word making the sentence more absurd than the word "chị".

 

But computers are not able to judge like this unless we established a massive database containing all the questions it can use to compare.

To resolve this obscure, standard VIQR convention requires us to insert an escape character before a real punctuation mark to indicate that that is not a accent mark. WinVNKey select the default escape character as a backslash \ (see Special keys page in Figure 27).

 

 

Figure 27: Special Keys page allows elective escape character.

 

B. Use standard VIQR format to avoid false sense


In standard VIQR convention, we must insert an escape character before the dot of sentence (a), that is to write (a) and (b) as follows:
(a') Cha(?ng co' chi\.

(b') To^i no'i chuye^.n vo+'i chi. Thanh.


But not everyone knows this rule, as well as people know that rule but not use it because it makes the text difficult to read. This is why we see the majority of the posts on the soc.culture.vietnamese forum not using the escape character. And about the characters represent the signs, each people use a different style: a person choose < for moon sign, > for circumflex, / for accute accent, \ for grave accent.

To help readers of this forum can convert VietNet text into real Vietnamese language, WinVNKey provides many quick and intelligent functions .

 

C. Quick conversion from VIQR to Unicode format

 

1. Quick conversion from VIQR to Unicode by mouse and menu:

  • Using the mouse, highlight the VIQR text (or press CTRL-A).
  • Press and release the Ctrl key twice.
  • Right click mouse to display menu as shown in Figure 3.
  • Click on the menu E2 or E3.
  • Result appears in Notepad with the file name is clipbd.txt.

 

2. Quick conversion from VIQR to Unicode by hotkeys:

 

D. Smart conversion


WinVNKey allows changing the sign conventions, changing Viet Option (put marks freely or immediately after the vowels), setting when combined or not combined the dot (or question mark) at the end of the sentence. To see this feature, we can:

• Press and release the Ctrl key 2 times, then right click mouse to display the menu shown in Figure 3, then press menu D.
• Or click the ">>" button in dialog box of Conversion at Plain Text page as in Figure 13.

Then, WinVNKey will display a dialog like Figure 28.

 

 

Figure 28: Select the parameters for VIQR format text conversion.

 

Following are profiles of Figure 28:

  • Click the hyperlink A to adjust the sign convention to match with the source text.
  • Click the hyperlink B to adjust the parameters of combining marks (Viet Option page).
  • Click on the combobox under hyperlink B to select a Viet Option page.
  • Function C: select how to handle the period when it is following vowel at end of sentence. Figure 28 is using the option 2, that is always combine vowel with period, except that the period at the end of some words. These words are listed in a separate file, we can open to change by clicking on the ">>" button.
  • Function D: select how to handle the question mark when it is following vowel at end of sentence. Figure 28 is using the option 2, that is always combine question mark with vowel, except that the question mark is at the end of some words. We may open to change by clicking on the ">>" button.
  • Click on E and F hyperlinks to see detailed explanation.

 

 

9. FONT CONVERSION FOR TEXT IN RTF FORMAT

WIndows 98 SE trở
WinVNKey enables converting RTF text from many source fonts to many different destination fonts. When WinVNKey converts font, it also automatically convert the charset (encoding) of the source font to the charset of destination font without the help of user.

Function of conversion RTF documents in WinVNKey has properties as: preserving fonts, colors, exposure, font sizes, italic type, etc. of the source text.

 

To convert RTF documents, we have to save text in *.rtf format. Steps: [Word Document (*.doc) > File > Save As > Rich Text Format (*.rtf)].
Example: A publisher has a text file "Short Story Collection" (Short Story Collection.doc) written in MS Word Document with a lot of Unicode fonts or VPS, or different TCVN, different size, different colors. Now the publisher want to convert to VNI font to print the book because in long times, the printing system had been used with VNI fonts. The publisher has three options as follows:

 

(a) Open the original file, copy each paragraph, convert charset then paste them back to file.
This method has been described in Section 6.C and 6.D.1 above.

(b) Or save text in *.txt format and then convert from plain text to VNI charset, then restore the format by ownself.
When save documents in *.txt format, all information about format will be lost, only text content left. Wanting to recover format, we have to start over by hand: Use Microsoft Word to open documents, re-tune the format, colors, fonts that resemble the original text, and finally save documents in format *.doc and print it out.

(c) Or save the text in *.rtf format and then convert it to VNI by WinVNKey.

After that is done, the new text will be almost identical to the source text. For example, if the source text using Times New Roman or VPS-Times fonts, the destination text will automatically be converted to VNI-Times font because this font is similar to Times New Roman or VPS-Times font. Only sharp-eyed person can see the differences between VNI-Times, VPS-Times and Times New Roman fonts.

If the publisher choose (c), he must do the following steps:

 

 

Figure 29: Conversion dialog box for RTF format document.

 

Use Microsoft Word to open file "Short Story Collection". Assuming this file is "Short Story Collection.doc" located in the directory) "C:\Download".

  1. Save file in *.rtf format [Word Document (*. doc) > File > Save As > Rich Text Format (*. rtf)].
  2. Select [Main Page > Run > Convert]. WinVNKey will display a Conversion dialog such as Figure 29.
  3. Enter the appropriate parameters into the "Source File" and the "Destination File" groups in the "RTF Files" page.
  4. In the "Choose a font replacement table - Table", select [Change to VNI] because we want to transfer file to VNI font.
  5. In the "Source Files" group, click the button with image open the file Description: http://winvnkey.sourceforge.net/webhelp/image144.gifto go into directory and select the correct source file.
  6. In the "DestinationFiles" group, select [Same filename, different subdirectory] in Figure 30 as follows:

 

 

Figure 30: Select how to make destination file.

 

(WinVNKey will automatically fill in the "Directory" and the "Filename" boxes in the group "Destination File". If we do not like filenames and directory names that WinVNKey filled in, then we can edit them as you like).

 

  1. Press the "Convert" to switch fonts.
  2. Viewing results in the box "Status".
  3. When the word appeared as "done", we can view the results of font conversion in file Short Story Collection.rtf by clicking the arrow at the blue word "Filename".
  4. Finally, save this file in original format *.doc [Rich Text Format (*. rtf) > File > Save As > Word Document (*.doc)].

 

From the above example, we can move from one font to another font easily, such as in computers we have documents written in VISCII, TCVN, VPS, VNI fonts, ... we can convert to Unicode font and then launch them quickly on internet.

In general, the converting function for RTF documents in WinVNKey are very various. These are only just a basic example. For details, please see the "Guides" in the "RTF Font Conversion” dialog [Main Page of WinVNKey > Run > Convert > RTF Files > Table > Black arrows black next to word Table]

Need to say more, there is a difference between other software and WinVNKey in the RTF text conversion.

 

◊ Other softwares: Consider the full document was written by only one charset, such as VNI. Then they convert the charset, then rename fonts. For this reason, if the source file contains multiple charsets (one paragraph use VNI, other use VPS, or ABC, or Unicode, etc.), then these softwares can not convert.

◊ WinVNKey: We do not need to choose the source and detination charsets. We can use different fonts/charsets in source files (that is, there may be some word clusters are VNI , some of other word clusters are VPS, etc.)
We can decide the name of destination font. For example, when converting into Unicode fonts, we can choose as follows:

  • All source fonts look like Courier font (VISCII Minh Quan font, VNI Aptima font, VPS any x font, etc.) we can choose converting to Courier New.
  • All source fonts look like Times font (VISCII Times font, VNI VNI-Times font, VPS any x font lok like Times, ...) we can choose converting to Times New Roman.

 

10. CONCLUSION

 

In addition to the special features presented above, WinVNKey has many other diverse functions. To find out these functions, when running WinVNKKey, just click the related hyperlinks for detailed explanation.

WinVNKey is a software for typing Vietnamese and other languages in the Windows environment by TriChlor programming groups in the United States, made in 1992. Since version 4.x.x or later, Dr. Ngo Dinh Hoc upgrade WinVNKey to a multilingual keyboard driver. WinVNKey run on NT/2K/XP/2003/Vista Windows.


Particularly for those who have not mastered a computer, they can read the article "
Express Manual for WinVNKey”. This article shows how to download, install WinVNKey in computer, how to choose the functions commonly used in WinVNKey.

 

 

**************************************

 

APPENDIX

 

Some basic tips about

VIETNAMESE FONT MANAGEMENT FOR WINDOWS

 

(This Appendix was written by adapting Le Hoan - Mediazone)

 

 

  1. How many fonts is enough?
  2. How to install more fonts.
  3. How to remove fonts.

 

 

1. How many fonts is enough?
Installing fonts for Windows more or less depending on the needs of users, but too large numbers will affect the speed of Windows. For most users, the number of basic available fonts supplied by Windows is sufficient, no need to install more.

However, some Vietnamese keyboard or graphic softwares to install will automatically add a lot of fonts in Windows, and the installation of the Vietnamese font with all sorts of charsets (ABC, VISCII, VNI, VPS , BK, ...) also significantly increase the total number of fonts. To reduce the number of fonts in Windows, you can follow the following principles:

 

-      To read Vietnamese documents: Only need installing one font represents for one Vietnamese charset then you are able to read all the text in Vietnamese, for example, simply install one font for VNI 1 byte charset , one font for VNI 2 byte charset, then we can read all the text written by VNI fonts without installing the whole set of VNI font, with hundreds of different font style.

-      To print Vietnamese document: You should install a standard set of font with many font styles for printing service. When need printing the document written in other Vietnamese sets of font, we should convert the font/code of the standard set of font, and choose the font style which is suitable with source font before printing.

-      For English fonts: If we do not wish to print for publishing, then we do not need to install any more font of the applications except the fonts of Windows.

 

2. How to install more fonts
- We click: Start > select Control Panel > click the Fonts icon 2 times.
- In the Fonts window, we click on: File > Install New Font ...
- Find the path to the folder containing the fonts to be installed and then select the font you want to install by clicking on it (hold down Ctrl key to select multiple fonts if required), then press the OK button then fonts will be installed.

 

3. How to remove fonts
We click: Start > Control Panel> click the Fonts icon 2 times.
In the Fonts window, you press the last button to the right of the toolbar to select the fonts listed in details. We can press 2 times on Fonts name to see how is the font style, and if having the fonts not need, can choose to delete it but beware the following:
- Do not delete the fonts with an red A symbol and O blue.
- Only delete the TT fonts icons and they are not the same day and with the basic fonts when Windows installed.

 

oOo

 

 

 

© Trần Tư B́nh (Email: tubinhtran@gmail.com, Web: Chữ Việt Nhanh).

 

 

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