Word features for South Asian languages

The South Asian languages supported in Microsoft Word require special text editing considerations not generally necessary in other languages. Extensive use of diacritics, tone marks, and accents transpose a simple character into a more complex South Asian character. This language attribute requires additional techniques to perform standard editing functions and to change a character's associated markings. For example, if you type a Thai letter with tone marks on it, you cannot select the tone mark to change it. Instead, you must delete the entire character and then type both the letter and the appropriate tone mark.

To assist you in determining the legitimacy of a sequence of South Asian characters, Word can check the sequence for you. Also, you can have Word make logical substitutions for you.

Thai requires special consideration for such features as Word Count because the language doesn't visibly separate words by spaces. Word handles this language anomaly for you. In addition, Thai-enabled Word aligns text on the left and right by adjusting the width of characters instead of the space between words.

The editing methods used to insert and delete South Asian characters are based on the progression that forms characters with their associated diacritics, tone marks, and accents.

You can use the BACKSPACE key to remove an individual marking, or use the DELETE key to delete the entire character (cluster).

Microsoft Word with South Asian languages enabled checks the spelling of South Asian words and other words automatically as it encounters them. You do not need to perform a separate spelling check for each language.

South Asian languages follow stringent grammatical rules that dictate which textual character elements are allowed next to one another in the composition of words. To compound the complexity of correctly entering South Asian characters, text includes both simple characters and characters that include one or more markings such as diacritics, tone marks, vowels, and accents— for example, in Thai, leading vowels are normally followed by a consonant that does or does not include vowel markings, but diacritics are located below it.

To assist you in correctly entering characters in your document that prescribe to the grammar rules for the enabled South Asian language, Microsoft Word can automatically check the text for you. Also, you can have Word make logical substitutions for you by using Type and Replace, a complementary feature.

Sequence checking can be used by itself or in combination with Type and Replace. When sequence checking only is selected, Word will not allow an invalid character to be typed at the insertion point. If Type and Replace is also selected, Word will insert or replace an existing character to make a valid sequence.

When sequence checking is selected, there are some text entry considerations:

• In Thai, you cannot type markings such as diacritics, tone marks, and vowels independent from the character they are associated with. If you need to type these markings independently, you must turn off sequence checking.
• In Vietnamese, only one tone mark is allowed on each vowel, and it can only be typed after the vowel. Typing a tone mark after a consonant will not insert the character in the document.

Note  The first time you type a character that is not sequentially valid, Word will display a Help box that provides access to topics on sequence checking and automatically inserting or replacing characters. This box will be displayed each time you start Word and an invalid character is typed unless you choose otherwise.

You can determine separate font characteristics for Latin and South Asian language text.

Note  The default font for all runs in South Asian languages is: Thai (Angsana New, 14 point) and Vietnamese (Times New Roman, 12 point). Documents opened from earlier versions of Microsoft Word will retain their default settings.

Some South Asian languages may not take full advantage of the search options in Microsoft Word. For example, the Sounds like and Find all word forms options will not work with South Asian text, but these options will find matching criteria in other types of text in the document.

South Asian number formats are used in several circumstances in Microsoft Word documents. Most can be divided into two general categories: list formats, such as page numbering and sequential numbering, and date and time formats.

The South Asian languages offer several choices for displaying numbers in lists. Thai provides formats based on its native numbering, alphabet, and a descriptive form that spells out the numbers. Vietnamese uses the Arabic numerals common in Western countries and a descriptive format.

The calendar you choose determines the date and time format used for each South Asian language. The list of calendars available to you is based on the languages you have enabled and what operating system language setting you have selected in Regional Settings or Regional Options in Microsoft Windows Control Panel.

When a South Asian language is the installed language, the predominate South Asian calendar for that language will be the default calendar used by Microsoft Word— for example, for Thai, Buddhist is the default calendar; for Vietnamese, only the Gregorian calendar is available.

Depending on the South Asian language you have enabled, you can choose between the Buddhist (Thai only) and Gregorian (Vietnamese) calendars.

Note  The Gregorian calendar used with South Asian languages is based on U.K. English.