Still see strange characters after selecting a Vietnamese font
Want to have editing keys such as r, b, x after an accented character
Want to enter the wake-up sequence \WK! as normal text in Sleep mode
How to turn off combination in Vietnamese and English modes?
Strange characters appear in Microsoft Word 6, Word 97, Word 200X, Robohelp HTML 200X
Additional spaces appear in Microsoft Word in Clipboard mode
Problem when typing Han Nom characters
1. Cannot type Vietnamese characters after installation
Make sure you have started WinVNKey. WinVNKey will then become active in Vietnamese mode until you change the mode explicitly. Next click the "Options" button. Make sure there is a check in the box for "Type Vietnamese characters." If not, click the "Default" button at the bottom. Then click OK.
Now open an editor that allows font switching, then type in the following example in a Vietnamese font:
Type: a' (2 characters: a and ' )
Should see: á (single character)
You can select a Vietnamese font before or after typing, depending on your application.
Several possibilities:
If a single letter appears that looks strange, not á, then probably WinVNKey is working but the letter is in a wrong font. Select a correct font. If you use Viscii charset, then choose a Viscii font such as "Minh Quân." If you use Unicode, choose a Unicode font such as "Times New Roman" or "Arial" or "Courier New".
If you see two stand-alone characters a' (no combination), check the keyboard mode in the WinVNKey control panel. The mode should be "AutoCombine (Viet)"
If you see double or triple characters, say "aá'", then probably WinVNKey is not working properly with your editor. This case is a bug that has been fixed in WinVNKey 4 or later. If the bug still occurs, go to the Keyboard Options dialog and check the "Delay Echo" box. Click on "OK" button and retype the example. If the problem still persists, then WinVNKey is probably not working with your editor. Report the problem to the author and proceed the test with another editor.
2. Accent marks do not combine to form Vietnamese characters
Were you in Vietnamese mode when you typed in the text? Check the main WinVNKey control panel.
3. Type Vietnamese text but see strange characters
Probably you have not selected a correct Vietnamese font, the text is in a font not designed for the character set you have chosen. Another possibility is that you have not turned off the "Autocorrection" features in Microsoft Word, Robohelp, etc.
To fix it, select the text and then change it to a Vietnamese font. Note that VISCII fonts usually have Vietnamese names with a prefix "VI" such as VI University. VNI fonts use a "VNI" prefix. VPS fonts usually have a "VPS" prefix, ABC fonts usually have a dot (.) prefix such as ".VnTime."
If you don't know how to change fonts in your editor, chances are that your editor does not support font switching, such as edit. However, there usually is a way to change the font; consult your editor manual.
4. Still see strange characters after selecting a Vietnamese font
Make sure you select the text before switching to a Vietnamese font.
Make sure the font is correct for your charset. For instance, you cannot use arbitrary Vietnamese fonts from VNI, VNU, VPS, etc for VISCII because their encodings are different from VISCII.
5. Some upper-case Vietnamese letters do not appear
This may happen in some but not all applications. The work-around is to
type in the corresponding lower case letters, and
select them and change to the corresponding capital font.
Vietnamese fonts usually come in pair: a normal font and a Hoa (meaning capital in Vietnamese) font. A Hoa font have all lower case letters appear in capital form. The name of a Hoa font usually ends with an H suffix. For instance, "Minh Quân" (normal) and "Minh QuânH" (capital) are a pair of Vietnamese fixed-width VISCII fonts that look like Courier.
6. Do not want accent marks to combine in Vietnamese mode
You want to end a sentence with a period or a question mark, but it combines with your ending vowel, such as in:
Anh ddi dda^u? → Anh đi đâủ (? combines with u)
To^i ddi cho+i. → Tôi đi chơị (. combines with i)
Solutions: Use an escape character (backslash) or a retrieve key. Of course, the retrieve key is inactive by default. You have to turn it on
Anh ddi dda^u\? → Anh đi đâu?
Anh ddi dda^u?r → Anh đi đâu?
To^i ddi cho+i\. → Tôi đi chơi?
To^i ddi cho+i.r → Tôi đi chơi?
7. Want to have editing keys such as r, b, x after an accented character
In other words, you don't want r, b, x to play the role of editing keys. You can simply precede them with an escape character, or uncheck the "use editing accent keys" box in the Viet Chars page (click on the hyperlink "Typing Method" on the Main control panel).
Example: To get 4 normal characters: No'r, just type No'\r
8. Want to enter the escape (\) as normal text
In Vietnamese or English mode, simply type \\ (double backslash). In Literal or sleep mode, need only \ (one backslash).
9. Want to enter \V or \M or \L or \S as normal text
This is not an issue when you uncheck the box for "Switch mode keyboard commands" on the Advanced control panel. You only need to type \ twice to get a single backslash, then type next V, or M, or L, or S.
If you checked the switch mode box, you still have no trouble in sleep or off mode because WinVNKey is inactive as if it were never running.
In Vietnamese or English mode, remember the escape character, \, always makes the next character normal unless it is V, M, L, or S. So typing \\ gives a single backslash. Thus typing \\V, \\M, \\L, \\S all give \V, \M, \L, \S.
In Literal mode, all characters are normal except the backslash when it is immediately followed by V, or M, or \L, or \S. Thus you can make \ normal by following it with a letter, and then backspacing to erase it. For instance, typing \, a space, a backspace, and V will give \V.
10. Want to enter the wake-up sequence \WK! as normal text in Sleep mode
If you did not check the switch mode box on the Keyboard Options" dialog (see topic 9), then this is not an issuẹ
If you checked the box, then the main idea is to not type 4 keys \, W, K, ! exactly in that sequence. Thus you can disrupt the ordering with backspacing, such as type \W, then a backspace to erase W, then type WK!. Without using a backspace, you can type \WK!\\WK!\S, or \WK!\L\WK!\S.
11. When does combination work?
Combination can happen only in two modes:
Vietnamese mode
WinVNKey looks at all vowels and d, D for possible combination; e.g., To^i ddi ho.c → Tôi đi học
English mode
WinVNKey does not check for combination until you type an escape character. If you then type a vowel or d or D, this character becomes combinable with the next character (for single accent) or the next two characters (for double accents). eg., I love Vi\e^.t Nam → I love Việt Nam
12. How to turn off combination in Vietnamese and English modes?
Vietnamese mode:
Using escape characte -- precede the accent mark with an escape character.
eg., Anh ddi dda^u\? → Anh đi đâu?
Using CTRL key -- press and release the CTRL key before typing the accent mark.
eg., Anh ddi dda^u<press then release CTRL key>? → Anh đi đâu?
English mode:
By default, characters do not combine in English mode; eg., I go home.→ I go home. (the ending period does not combine with the preceding vowel e).
13. How to turn off combination completely?
Combination is completely off in the following cases:
(a) switch to Literal mode in WinVNKey control panel, or typing \L
(b) switch to Sleep mode in WinVNKey control panel, or typing \S
(c) switch to "Off" in WinVNKey control panel..
14. Combination still happens after it is turned off
(a) Did you follow step13 to turn off combination?
(b) If combination still occurs, then check the following:
Do you have another Vietnamese keyboard, perhaps from diifferent authors like VPSkey or Vietkey or Unikey running at the same time? If yes, quit them.
15. Cannot switch modes by keyboard commands \V, \M, and \L.
Have you enabled the "switch mode" box on the Keyboard Options dialog?
Probably your WinVNKey is off or in Sleep mode. If it is off, you can reactivate via WinVNKey control panel only; there is no shortcut command. If it is in Sleep mode, you have to wake it up first with the wake-up sequence, "\WK!", then type in \V, \M, etc to switch mode.
16. Strange characters appear in Microsoft Word 6, Word 97, Word 200X, Robohelp HTML 2000
This issue never happens if you are using Unicode character sets. So skip this topic if you are using Unicode.
This issue happens only when you use any 8-bit Vietnamese character sets such as VISCII, VPS, ABC, VNI, DHBK, etc (except Windows codepage 1258).
The basic problem is you type in correct Vietnamese letters but see them changed to completely garbage characters. This is due to the fact that MS Word supports an autocorrection feature, which automatically replaces your typed characters with something else. You have to turn them off.
The following shows the procedures for Word 6, 97/2000, 2002/2003, but the general idea is the same for any versions of Word or RoboHelp. In general, for Word, you go to the Tool menu at the top, then select an AutoCorrect menu. Then go over each tabbed page and uncheck all options that try to change the characters you type in.
Word 6:
Check "Auto Format" under "Format" menu and "Auto Correction" under "Tools" menu.
Select Format → Autoformat...→ Options... → then uncheck appropriate boxes in "Replace" menu.
Select Tools → Autocorrect... → then uncheck box for "Change Straight Quotes to Smart Quotes". Also see the table under the "Replace Text as You Type" menu if it contains text that is unwanted.
Word 97, Word 2000: From top menu "Tool" → Autocorrect..
In the Autocorrect tabbed page, uncheck "Replace text as you type"
Click on the tabbed page "AutoFormat As You Type", uncheck all four boxes below "Replace as you type" as follows:
Click on the tabbed page "AutoFormat" and uncheck all four boxes below "Replace" as follows:
Word 2002, Word 2003
Tool → AutoCorrect Options to display the following tabbed control as follows:
AutoCorrect page: Uncheck the boxes for "Correct TWo INitial CApitals" and "Replace text as you type"
Click on the tabbed page "AutoFormat" and uncheck all four boxes below "Replace" as follows:
Click on the tabbed page "AutoFormat As You Type" and uncheck all four boxes below "Replace As You Type" as follows:
RoboHelp HTML 2000
Tool → Spell Options → Options tab: uncheck the box for "Auto-correct when possible"
This happens only in Unicode charset using clipboard methods (CTRL-V or SHIFT-INSERT). Word 2000 or later has an option called "Smart cut and paste," which automatically supplies spaces surrounding the pasted text. To fix this, simply turn off this option as follows:
Tool → Options → Edit: tab: uncheck the box for "Smart cut and paste"
If you encounter any problem in typing Han Nom characters, please read the help in the Han Nom Manager. Simply click on the very top button of the Manager and select the Help menu. A Help dialog will appear that offers help on many topics:
1. Where to download Han Nom fonts?
2. How to type a Han Nom character using Vietnamese?
3. How to type a Han Nom character using a Unicode value?
4. How to choose a Han Nom font?
5. How to set up surrogate fonts?
6. Why do I see two empty boxes instead of a single Han/Nom character?
7. Why does the Han Nom character go to a wrong Window when I click on it?
8. What do the different character colors mean?
9. Can I right click on each character?
10. What about Chinese font "SimSun (Founder Extended)"?