International Input - Documentation

Abstract
Activating an Input Method
Typing text
Copying Text to the Clipboard
Invoking Web Pages
Menu Reference
Examples
Config file format
Class documentation

Abstract

This applet allows to input various scripts using a normal Latin keyboard by providing transliteration input methods. After activating an input method, you can type the transliterated text, e.g. Privet in the Cyrillic input method, and you instantly get Cyrillic letters (i.e. Привет).

© 2003 by Dominique Unruh. GPL

Activating an Input Method

To activate or deactivate an input method, select it from the “Input Method” menu. If the option “Single” in that menu is activated (default), only one input method can be active at the same time. Otherwise several input methods may be activated concurrently, adding their features.

Input methods which have already been accessed can be activated/deactived using the buttons in the lower part of the applet, or using the function keys.

To deactivate all input methods at once, use the menu item “Input method→None”.

An alternative way to activate an input method is to type @XXX+, where XXX is a string depending on the input method. Possible choices for XXX are listed when pressing the button “List global sequences”.

To deactivate an input method type @XXX-. Several input methods can be activated simultaneously.

For details on a specific input methods, activate it and then press the button “Document current method”.

Typing text

To type some text, just enter the transliteration. The characters, which are currently considered for replacement (temporary input), are rendered in blue colour.

Moving the cursor or typing Control-G will make the temporary input permanent, this helps you to disambiguate the transliteration. (E.g. If ae yields ä, then you may get ae by typing a<Ctrl-G>e)

Backspace work in a hopefully intuitive way, even while typing temporary input.

While composing, the status line will show possible completions of the current temporary input.

Sometimes instead of the right characters, little boxes will appear. This is due to a less complete font. Try selecting another one or use “Select best” in the “Font”-Menu.

Copying Text to the Clipboard

Due to security restrictions, it is unfortunately not possible to copy from applets to the system clipboard. To be able to use the entered text in other application, it is necessary to do so. Therefore the following workaround has been devised:

By pressing the “Copy” button, the current selection or the whole text is copied to the clipboard. If this does not work (e.g. in Netscape/Windows), the text is inserted into a little text area left to the “Copy” button. Press Ctrl-C to copy it from there then.

If the “Copy” button is not available at all, use the menu “Edit→ Copy”, this will copy the selected text into the left frame, from where you may copy it manually.

Invoking Web Pages

A common application of this applet is to type some text in a foreign language and then to copy it into the search field of some search engine or online dictionary. To simplify this process, some predefined web pages are accessible in the menu “Web page”. Invoking a web page takes the current selection (or the whole text) and inserts it into the suitable input field of the web page. For example type some text and search it in the Internet by calling “Web page→Search: Google”.

Menu Reference

Menu “File”
Menu item “File→Exit”
Menu “Edit”
Menu item “Edit→Copy”
Menu item “Edit→Paste”
Menu item “Edit→Paste as input”
Menu item “Edit→Clear”
Menu “Input method”
Menu item “Input method→None”
Menu item “Input method→Single”
Sub menus “Input method→A…”, …, “Input method→others”
Menu “Web page”
Menu item “Font→Select best”
Menu item “Font→Auto select”
Menu item “Font→Font Viewer”
Sub menu “Font→Size”
Sub menu items “Font→Size→Larger” and “Font→Size→Smaller”
Sub menu items “Font→Size→12” etc.
Sub menus “Font→A…”, …, “Font→others”
Menu “Help”
Menu item “Help→General”

Menu “File”

This menu does not appear in the applet.

Menu item “File→Exit”

Terminates the application.

Menu “Edit”

Menu item “Edit→Copy”

This copies the whole text or the current selection. Note, that if the surrounding web page presents a copy button, the latter is probably a better choice, since JavaScript's access to the clipboard is less restricted than the applet's.

Menu item “Edit→Paste”

This pastes the text from the clipboard. Since the applet cannot access the system clipboard, there are two ways to get text into the clipboard. You can use the menu item “Edit→ Copy” or you can insert the text to be pasted into the text area left of the “Copy” button on the web page (make sure, that the focus leaves that field before trying to paste).

Menu item “Edit→Paste as input”

This behaves as does the menu item “Edit →Paste”, with the difference, that the text to be pasted is interpreted as input, i.e. when pasting e.g. privet while the Cyrillic input method is activated, you will get привет inserted.

Menu item “Edit→Clear”

This empties the input field.

Menu “Input method”

Menu item “Input method→None”

This deactivates all input methods.

Menu item “Input method→Single”

If this check box menu item is activated, only one input method can be activated at a time. Otherwise several input methods can be active concurrently.

Sub menus “Input method→A…”, …, “Input method→others”

Here you can activate or deactivate an input method. The input methods are grouped according to the first letter of their name. If only a few input methods are accessible, they are put into the “Input method” menu directly.

Menu “Web page”

In this menu a number of predefined web pages are accessible. See Invoking Web Pages. If there are many web pages, they are grouped in sub menus according to their initial letter.

Menu “Font”

Menu item “Font→Select best”

This tries to find and activate the optimal font for the current input, i.e. the font displaying as many characters as possible.

If there is a selection, an optimal font for the content of the selection is selected.

Warning: Characters outside the BMP are not handled correctly by this function, even if they are displayed.

Menu item “Font→Auto select”

While this option is activated, always try to automatically select a font which at least displays the current composition.

This may slow down operation considerably, if there is no font displaying all you type.

Warning: Characters outside the BMP are not handled correctly by this function, even if they are displayed.

Menu item “Font→Font Viewer”

The current selection is show in a new window using all accessible fonts. The fonts are ordered by the number of characters displayed.

Sub menu “Font→Size”

Sub menu items “Font→Size→Larger” and “Font→Size→Smaller”

Increases resp. decreases the font size by two points.

Sub menu items “Font→Size→12” etc.

Sets the font size.

Sub menus “Font→A…”, …, “Font→others”

Here you can select a font to display the content. The fonts are grouped according to the first letter of their name. If only a few fonts are accessible, they are put into the “Font” menu directly.

Menu “Help”

Menu item “Help→General”

Displays this documentation page.

Examples

To get a first impression of the operation of this applet, try out some of the following examples. (Due to the fact that they change the state of the applet, try reloading the applet between the examples, if they don't give the expected results. Some examples may not be rendered using the default font, try “Font→Select best” then.)

InputOutput
@cyr+Xoroshij@cyr- appletХороший applet
@sgml+&auml; &ne; AEÄ ≠ AE
@latex+\"A \neq AEÄ ≠ AE
@braille+Hallo.~~12345678⠠⠓⠁⠇⠇⠕⠨⠀⣿
@gr+w'^ a'/ndrejὦ ἄνδρες
@eo+Ehxosxangxo cxiujxauxde.Eĥoŝanĝo ĉiuĵaŭde.
@cyr+@latex+sh<Ctrl-G>\nequivshch\dotsшч≢щ…
I say @heb+shlom<ENTER>``shlom``@heb- says heI say שלום
״שלום״ says he
ditto, in an left-to-right contextI say שלום
״שלום״ says he
ditto, in an right-to-left contextI say שלום
״שלום״ says he
ditto, without right-to-left supportI say שלום
״שלום״ says he
@nsm+a%e \= a" & a@\, c,\, c;\.aͤ = ä & å, ç, c̨.
The examples will show more or less correctly depending on the Unicode capabilities of your browser.