WorldScript is the Apple Macintosh technology that allows more than one script system to exist in the System at the same time. It is available for System 7.1 or later. All localized non-Roman script systems have WorldScript installed. The new ClarisWorks 4.0 software supports language scripts that are left-to-right; scripts that read right to left, such as Arabic or Hebrew, are not supported.
What is a script?
A script is a set of characters and the numeric codes used to represent them. Keyboards, input methods (for scripts like Chinese and Japanese), and fonts are technologies that support character input and output, so they are associated with specific scripts. In effect, a script can be viewed as the combination of fonts, keyboards, and input methods that are defined for it. As a result, if you change the font of a text selection in one script to a font belonging to another script, the character codes will be interpreted incorrectly and will possibly display as a string of gibberish. However, this is true only for characters in the Extended ASCII range (codes 128�?255); ASCII characters, e.g., letters of the English alphabet, Arabic numerals, and the basic punctuation symbols, are common to all scripts and therefore will not be transformed by font changes. (See Figure 1.)
Language Kits
The Japanese and Chinese Language Kits add two-byte script capabilities to any System 7.1 (or higher) Macintosh operating system. These language kits include fonts, an input method, script resources and Apple WorldScript II.
How Does the Japanese Language Kit Work?
Let's examine a typical case of a U.S. System being used with the Japanese Language Kit. When you launch a Japanese localized application on the U.S. System, the Primary Script changes from Roman to Japanese as you use the different font and character sets. Let's say that you are using a Japanese application and its document window is currently active. The menus and dialogs will display in the Osaka font, the Japanese System font. If you were to switch back to the Finder at this point, all of your menus and dialogs would display in the Chicago font, because the Primary Script is Roman for the System and Finder. The effect is like having two different Primary Scripts, each activated depending on the application currently running in the front.
Language Register
Each Language Kit comes with a copy of the Language Register. By default, ClarisWorks uses the Roman script as its Primary Script, and all menus, and most dialogs, use the Chicago or Geneva font to display text. This means that in many dialogs, only English or European (Roman script) text are supported, unless you use the Language Register application.
When an application is launched on a System with a Language Kit installed, you can select your desired primary language script for your application. The Primary Script determines the font of all menus, dialogs, and other User Interface elements belonging to that application. If the correct font is not displayed, you can correct this by using the Language Register. It is recommended that you register ClarisWorks with the Language Register before attempting to use the WorldScript functionalities. By registering an application with the Language Register, you are forcing the Primary Script to be the same as the script set in the Language Register. To set the current script in the Language Register, launch the Language Register utility and choose a script from the pop-up menu. Then quit the Language Register utility, and simply "drop launch" the application you wish to register on top of the Language Register icon.
For example, if you want to name fields within your database, you go to the Define Fields dialog in the Database environment. Without first using the Language Register to change the Primary Script, you will be able to type field names in only the Roman script. If you want to enter field names in Japanese, you can register your application as Japanese with the Language Register. You will then be able to type field names in the Define Fields dialog using Japanese characters. With the change of the Primary Script to Japanese, the menus and dialogs now appear in the Osaka font instead of Chicago. However, you will also be able to type English text, because the lower ASCII characters also exist in Japanese script. Unfortunately, extended ASCII characters, such as accented characters used in French, require the Primary Script to be Roman in order to display properly in the Define Fields dialog. These characters will not be available for field names if you change your primary script to Japanese.
Setting WorldScript Preferences
The Preferences dialog in ClarisWorks 4.0 allows you to select WorldScript preferences, such as the default font and sort order. The sort order choices are limited to those options installed in your System. The WorldScript panel does not appear unless the application is running on a WorldScript-enabled System. This includes any System using the Japanese, Simplified Chinese, or Traditional Chinese Language Kits, as well as any non-Roman localized Systems, versions 7.1 or greater. (See Figure 2.)
Default Font Preference
If the current font and Primary Script do not match, ClarisWorks 4.0 still prevents gibberish characters from displaying when you type. For example, if you begin typing in Japanese but the current font of the insertion point is not a Japanese font, then the Default Font for Japanese from the WorldScript Preferences dialog is used. To choose a new Default Font for a particular script that is installed, you select the script in the list then choose a font from the pop-up menu below the list. The contents of the pop-up will contain all the fonts for that script currently installed in your System, and will change when you select a different script in the list.
WorldScript support in the ClarisWorks environments
Depending on the environment, WorldScript functionality is consistent with the interface of that environment. Following are the highlights of ClarisWorks WorldScript support.
Spreadsheet
The Spreadsheet can handle only one font setting per cell, and it is therefore impossible to enter text in more than one script in the same cell.
Database
When defining fields in the Database, only one script (the Primary Script) can be used for field names. You can change the Primary Script by using the Language Register (see above). The Roman script is the default Primary Script and therefore field names can be defined in Roman text. (e.g., English, French, Italian, etc.) without changing anything.
Database fields can contain text in multiple scripts, just as text frames can. When entering text into a field, all scripts installed in the user"s System are available. Find/Change in the Database is also Multi-script savvy. For example, the cedilla () character is used as part of many different two-byte characters in the Japanese script, but if you try to find all records with the cedilla in a field, then no records with Japanese characters will be found, even if they contain the cedilla character code as one half of a Japanese character. The Match Records and Calculation Field dialogs cannot display text in a script other than the Primary Script set by the Language Register application. If you have a database with Chinese data, ClarisWorks should be registered as a Chinese application to correctly display Chinese text in those dialogs.
Because Match Records uses only the Primary Script in its dialog box, it performs a straight byte-comparison of the data in the database, and therefore is not strictly WorldScript-savvy. In other words, it will find records without looking at the script of the data in the fields being searched.
The functions used in a Calculation field will work properly with data in any script. However, any data entered in the dialog [e.g., Left("Field1", 1) = ""] will be compared byte-by-byte with field data, and this will not reflect any script information. Therefore, if you are using mixed data in several different scripts, only the Primary script will be used to display text in the Calculation Field dialog. Sorting and finds, matches, or calculations that use symbols like "<" will follow the sorting rules from the WorldScript Preferences panel. (See Figure 2.)
Communications
The Communications Module does not support WorldScript or two-byte characters.
Word Processing
ClarisWorks is WorldScript-compatible in the Word Processor and text frames and therefore can handle text in all left-to-right scripts without modification.
A note about special functions
Document Word Count
Some languages do not have spaces between words, so the word count feature has been modified to count contiguous runs of characters of the same type as a word. For example, a Japanese sentence with some Kanji, then some Hiragana, then Katakana all in a row would result in a count of three words, one for each contiguous run of a particular character type, even though there are no spaces between any of the characters.
Character count returns the number of characters correctly, whether counting two-byte or one-byte characters.
Spelling
Roman letters exist in both one-byte and two-byte forms, and both will be spell-checked correctly. Multi-script text is supported in the Replace field of the Speller dialog.
Sorting
You may be interested in sorting your data using two different language scripts. The "Sort Order" pop-up menu contains all the sort orders installed in your Text Control Panel in the System Folder. These extra sort orders are included with the Language Kit and are automatically installed together. Only one Sort Order may be used at a time, and the current Sort Order will determine how sorting of Database and Spreadsheet data occurs in all open documents. For this reason, ClarisWorks cannot correctly sort text from more than one non-Roman script at a time (e.g., Japanese and Chinese). If a database or Spreadsheet cell range has mixed Japanese and Chinese data, it is recommended to divide the data into similar sections and sort them separately, changing the Preferences each time.
Ready for WorldScript
ClarisWorks 4.0 is WorldScript-ready, which means that it supports multiple languages, scripts and Apple Language Kits, enabling you to integrate two-byte characters using Chinese, Korean and Japanese text within your multilingual documents. Keeping the above interface considerations in mind, you can take full advantage of the WorldScript functionality available to you in the various ClarisWorks environments.