--- Forwarded Message from Derek Roff <[log in to unmask]> ---

>Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2004 10:27:32 -0700
>From: Derek Roff <[log in to unmask]>
>To: Laura Atkinson <[log in to unmask]>,        LLTI-Editor <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: #7404.3 Hindi documents shared between Macs and PCs (!)
>In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
>References:  <[log in to unmask]>

> I cannot seem to type Hindi into TextEdit no matter what I try
> (using  the Devanagari keyboard). I just get little squares with a
> single Hindi  character. With Mellel, I get empty squares. I'm
> running Panther. ????

It seems likely that the selected font doesn't include the characters 
that you need.  Since Unicode can be used for (theoretically) any 
language, there is no automatic identification between font selection 
and a specific langauge.  However, Unicode fonts don't contain all 
the possible Unicode characters.  If they did, the font files would 
be very large.  Most Unicode fonts contain the characters covering 
western Europe, plus, perhaps, characters for a specific language 
need, such as Russian or Devanagari.  A few fonts, such as Lucida 
Grande, which comes with the Mac OS, try to cover a broader range of 
languages in one font.

When you type the Unicode code numbers into a document, and the 
selected font doesn't contain characters that correspond to those 
code numbers, the program will usually display boxes, dashes or 
spaces.  Selecting the text, and changing to a different font, may 
reveal the desired characters.

Hopefully, you know what font you need, and already have a Unicode 
version of it.  I know less than nothing about Devanagari (that is, 
most of what I think I know is actually wrong), so I can't give you 
much guidance.  If you have the right font installed, select it in 
the font menu for TextEdit or Mellel.  I'm guessing that one might 
come with the Devanagari input method, as an optional install.  If 
you don't have a specific Devanagari font, try Lucida Grande.

I hope this helps,

Derek

Derek Roff
Language Learning Center, MSC03-2100
Ortega Hall Rm 129, 1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
505/277-7368, fax 505/277-3885
Internet: [log in to unmask]