Use your PC to Master Japanese and Chinese
Not for Beginners
Japanese and Chinese word processors are intended for use by native or fluent
speakers. They typically do not have English menus and prompts, nor do they
offer assistance to users who do not have complete mastery of the language.
Typical Asian word processor document files contain only enough
information to print the document, and cannot hold notations or pronunciations
of their constituent and mostly inscrutable Chinese characters. As a result,
non-native speakers must be fully familiar with a document's vocabulary, or
else spend hours with a character dictionary and a pencil. Smart Characters
corrects this miserable situation.
Pronunciations Are Saved
In addition to the Chinese characters themselves, Smart Characters saves the
phonetic sound or pronunciation for later display (in 4 styles) as furigana,
bopomofo, or pinyin. This is especially useful for language students in the
preparation of a
vocabulary lesson(D-
-
8),
or as an aid to reading.
Annotations are Saved
Notes or annotations can be inserted anywhere into a Smart Characters
document for later display or printing. The notes can be typed from the
keyboard, or automatically inserted via use of the
word and phrase(4-
7)
dictionary, which contains
glosses(D-
-
4)
(short translations) for most entries.
Variable Word Spacing
Asian languages typically do not use word spacing, which further complicates
reading and comprehension.
Forexample,youcouldreadsentanceslikethiseasilywithafewyearsofpractice,butwhohastatkindoftimethesedays?
Word spacing is abhorrent to most native speakers, but very handy for everyone
else. Smart Characters groups related
text objects(4-
1)
into
compound objects(D-
-
2)
called words. In English text, words are separated by spaces. In Asian
modes, words are groups of objects preceded by a Notes object, which
typically contains the
gloss(D-
-
4)
(translation) of the word, or is empty for familiar words. Besides annotating
meanings, notes objects are used as variable word separators. You can adjust
variable word spacing to taste.
The Object Type is Volatile
In comparison to typical Asian language word processors, the
object type(4-
2)
in typical Smart Characters documents is highly volatile because pronunciations
and annotations are saved in addition to the primary text. Consequently, the
object type changes every few characters or so.
For example, the simple Japanese sentence nihon e ikimasu. contains many
transitions between Hiragana, Characters, Notes and
Punctuation (the symbols enclosed in the braces represent
object type codes(5-
11)):
- {N}Japan {H}ni {C}[hi] {H}hon {C}[hon] {N}to
{H}he {N}go {H}i {C}[gyo] {H}kimasu {P}[Japanese
period].
The word nihon consists of the note Japan, two
kanji objects, and their two pronunciation objects. The particle e
consists of the note to and the hiragana he. The verb
ikimasu consists of the note go, the pronunciation i, the
kanji gyo, and the inflection kimasu.
The annotated form may seem complex. Eliminating the pronunciations and
annotations yields a simpler version.
- {C}[hi][hon] {H}he {C}[gyo] {H}kimasu {P}[Japanese period].
The final
solution offered by typical Asian language word processors eliminates all
context, replacing the hiragana and punctuation by equivalent characters to
yield:
- {Understood C}[hi][hon][he][gyo][ki][ma][su][Japanese period]
It's all
one word! The information that was initially in the original keystrokes has
been simply discarded. This saves storage but destroys the context, to the
frustration of Asian language students everywhere. Since the cost preserving
the context is low now and getting lower, this approach can no longer be
justified.
Converting Documents
The
ScConv(D-
-
7)
import and export filter and document conversion utility converts to and from
the last two examples. To go to a native word processor format, context
and annotations must be discarded (or placed on separate lines). Converting
from an native document, ScConv adds the
object type(4-
2)
context only. See generally,
Importing and Exporting(7-
1).
You can add annotations manually by looking up characters and words in the
dictionaries, or use the
ScAnnotate Automatic Annotator(11-
2)
utility (not included) to add annotations automatically.
Printing Documents
Smart Characters prints any size document using any version of Windows, without
requiring special printers or print drivers. It works by creating a graphics
image of each page, and sending the page to the printer as a picture. This
method ensures precise control over typography.
Smart Characters automatically scales the installed font with the closest
resolution to the final printed image size. For example, a 12 point character
(at 72 dpi) requires 48 point glyph when printed at 300 dpi. The calculation is
12 * (char height / cell size) * 300 / 72. The character height is somewhat
less than the point measurement since point size includes internal leading.
One consequence of sending a picture to a generic printer is a slower print
speed than would be the case than the more typical font based printing method.
This is because the line printer parallel port is not as fast as modern
computers and printers. Also, if print buffering is enabled, the entire job
must be spooled (written to disk) before the print job can start, and the user
or system must devise strategies for limited disk space. One strategy is to
disable print buffering by turning off Print Manager, or updating Print
Manager so that it does not wait for the entire job to be spooled to disk
before beginning printing. See
Printing Error(A-
-
10)
and
Print Driver Errors(A-
-
10).
How Objects Are Stored
Smart Characters document objects contain data and images produced by Smart
Characters and other object linking and embedding (OLE) server applications.
Objects are saved in a special object file that is associated with or attached
to a Smart Characters document. An associated object file is named after the
document with a file extension of ".ole." Attached files are simply appended
(copied) to the end of the document. If you want to send a document containing
objects to another person, be sure to attach the file to the document or send
the associated object file. If you are sending a document containing linked
objects, you should decide whether or not to send copies of the linked
documents. The recipient may already have their own versions of the linked
objects, or you may want to send only non-editable presentation data
(e.g., your company logo).
When a document is opened, Smart Characters first checks to see if there is an
attached object file. If so, the attached objects are loaded. Otherwise, Smart
Characters opens any associated object file and loads objects from the file.
You can open a Smart Characters document without its associated object file,
but the objects in the document will not display.
Apropos Customer Service home
page 617-648-2041
Last Modified: March 23, 1996
Copyright © 1996 Apropos, Inc.