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The Insert Symbol Tool in Word

As I said last entry, I'm working on a symbolic logic course and am learning new quirks for dealing with with Unicode logic symbols...and one of them apparently is the Microsoft Word Insert Symbol tool (this is found by going to Insert » Symbol in most versions of Word.

Like the Windows Character Map and Mac Character Palette, the Insert Symbol tool lets you insert single characters into a document so you can change "P implies Q" to the logical formulation P ⊃ Q or P → Q depending on your symbolism (and you can also switch between "P and Q," P & Q or P ∧ Q).

But...unlike the Windows Character Map/Mac Character Palette, the Insert Symbol tool can take you on a little detour out of standard Unicode and into the Microsoft Private Use Area block - or the block where vendors can define their own characters. For instance, when I tried to insert the character ∩ (union) into a document, I noticed that the Insert Symbol palette gave a code point of U+F0C7 instead of the expected U+2229, and yes the U+F0 code is a sign that you are in the Private Use Area.

First I should say that there is a rationale for this. You'll notice that the font in the graphic is set to "Symbol" which is an older pre-Unicode font which was used to insert lots of special mathematical symbols. The Private Use set-up undoubtedly prevents a lot older documents from breaking.

So What?

If all you're doing is using with Word, the Insert Symbol tool may still be working for you. But these days, more and more documents are actually destined for the Web or some other format...and not all tools recognize the Microsoft Private Use codes.

The way I first noticed that the logic symbols weren't standard Unicode was that some logic symbols did not "convert" well to HTML in Course Genie but mysteriously became things like "(". The ones I had inserted properly converted, but not the ones inserted with the Word Symbol tool. Ugh.

The use of proper Unicode versus an older format does have a real world impact.

Summary

To avoid the Private Use function in new Word documents just always use the WWindows Character Map and Mac Character Palette. On Windows, you may need to switch the font to Arial Unicode.

Or if you're especially insane, you can develop your own logic symbol keyboard utility.

The standard super Unicode font from Apple is Lucida Grande, but now a version will be available to Windows users if they download the Windows version of Safari 3.
See http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/fonts.html#lucidagrande

Like the release of Microsoft's release Arial Unicode MS for Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) I think this is really good for the  Web community. A lot of Mac-oriented designers have gotten hooked on Lucida Grande, but they don't always realize that it's not available on Windows (or they think that Arial is a good substitute, when Arial Unicode may be more appropriate.

With both Arial Unicode and Lucida Grande available for both platforms, the headaches of developing cross-OS friendly sites should be reduced in the future. We may be able to (gasp) pick a Unicode font we like and assume it will be on almost all machines. Wow!!!

FYI - If your site needs to display a lot of quirky characters (like this one does), I would still recommend your CSS file allow for both Arial Unicode MS and Lucida Grande...at least for the next few years.

As I mentioned in my previous entry "Formatting Arabic Numbers", most Arabic documents include Western style "straight" numbers like 1,2,3 by default instead of "curly" Middle Eastern numbers like १,२,३,, but you can configure Word to generate the curly numbers.

FYI - The curly style are actually called "Hindi numbers", while "Arabic" numbers refer to the straight Western style (vs. older Roman numbers like I,II,III).

Word 2007 (thanks to Katia Zakharia for details)

1. Make sure you have activated an appropriate Arabic, Persian or other regional keyboard in the Windows Control Panel
2. Open Word 2007, then click the circular Office icon in the upper left.
   
3. In the new window, click the Word Options button in the lower right corner.
4. Click Advanced in the left menu.
5. Scroll to the Show document content section then look for the Numeral menu.
6. Choose Context in the Numerals menu then close the window
   Note: Do not choose "Hindi" as your option unless you want this style in all documents (including English).
   



7. In the Word document, when you switch to an Arabic keyboard, numbers will be in the Hindi style.

Word 2003 for Windows

Instructions are available from http://www.uga.edu/islam/arabic_windows.html. Scroll to section 8c.

Macintosh NeoOffice (from their support forum)

A similar option is available in the free open source NeoOffice package.

1. Open NeoOffice, then click Preferences in the NeoOffice menu.
2. In the Preferences panel, click the arrow to the left of Language Settings to view additional options. Click the Languages link.
   
3. Check the option for Enabled for complex text layout. A new link on the left called Complex Text Layout.
4. Click the new Complex Text Layout link in the left.
5. In the Numerals select Hindi.

Macintosh Word 2004

I am not aware of a similar tool in Word 2004 for the Mac. I was able to create some Auto Correct text which replaces "\1\" with १.

The only other option it to tweak the Region settings in System Preferences, but that affects every application.

In addition to the iPhone, Apple recently released a Beta of Safari 3 for BOTH Mac and Windows. Either version can be downloaded from www.apple.com/safari/ .

There were some Unicode glitches in Safari 2, and some got fixed in Safari 3, but others are the same.

FONT APPEARENCE (Improved on Windows)

It's the same on the Mac side as in Safari 2 (quite acceptable), but I think Windows users will notice a significant improvement in font presentation especially if they are still on Windows XP.

An improvement in anti-aliasing in Safari 3 means fonts will appear crisper/cleaner in general than either Firefox or even Internet Explorer 7. No matter what script you're using, I believe this is generally a good thing.

ARABIC TEST (Windows dicey, Mac OK)

I am not an expert in the Arabic script, but results suggest that the Windows Safari does not render all the joinings correctly, but the Mac Safari does do an acceptable job. I checked the Arabic on Safari for Windows vs IE for Windows and noticed some differences in letter forms.

I suspect the culprit is that Safari may be relying a bit on Mac AAT font technology which does not exist on Windows.

TAMIL TEST (failed on both)

One of the major failings of Safari and other Mac browsers was the inability to process vowel signs on scripts from South India (e.g. Tamil). The vowel marks would appear, but not be placed correctlly.

Alas, this problem still persists...even on the Windows side. The South Asian vowel sign problem does not appear to be fixed.

FONT CONTROL (Not enough for Windows)

The font control options in Safari 2/3 are restricted to just Western European languages. On the Mac, this means that you will default to some system font (usually Lucida Grande) if it's available. Ugly but readable.

On the Windows side, the lack of font control means you COULD have the right font available, but Safari 3 WON'T be able to find it.

For instance, I tested a Syriac page in Safari 3 (Win) and IE 7 (Win). IE 7 correctly implemented the Syriac font (Estrangelo Edessa), but Safari 3 (Win) missed it completely and gave me just a bunch of boxes.

Safari does implement CSS...so in theory, a developer could specify the Windows fonts for Syriac text, but what a pain.

NOTE: Safari 3 (Mac) DID find my third party Syriac font.

CONCLUSION

If you're browsing main-stream languages (English, Spanish, Russian, Hebrew, Hindi, Central European), then Safari seems to function well and has crisper fonts to boot.

But for the exotic languages, results will vary, especially on the Windows platform.

This tutorial discusses using Unicode within Visual Basic 6.0 for Windows

http://www.cyberactivex.com/UnicodeTutorialVb.htm

Vista is scheduled to include a new set of fonts, keyboards and fixes. A lot are for Indic languages, but others are for languages like Georgian, Ethiopic and Cherokee and East Asian languages.

See http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/vista/Whats_New_Vista.mspx for details.