[oXygen-user] Bidirectional support

[Oxygen XML Editor Support]

Hi Wendell,

Probably it would be handy for users to see better those special Unicode 
BIDI characters used to force direction. I will add an improvement 
request for this.
But it is advisable that users should rely more on markup than on these 
characters.

About this remark:

> BTW, it looks to me as though oXygen automatically inserts the Unicode
> controls when I insert characters from the Hebrew Unicode block. Is
> this correct? Will it happen even when I'm in a place already
> configured (using CSS on an element) that right-to-left is the
> direction?

Actually Oxygen does not automatically insert BIDI control characters 
while the user is typing, the user needs to insert them manually. Oxygen 
uses the Unicode BIDI algorithm which senses correctly places where the 
flow of characters changes orientation just by looking at their 
character range. Those BIDI control characters are useful when you want 
to force that behavior one way or the other, when the default algorithm 
does not properly arrange the flow of text the way you want it to be read.

Regards,
Radu

Radu Coravu
<oXygen/>  XML Editor, Schema Editor and XSLT Editor/Debugger
http://www.oxygenxml.com

On 10/29/2013 6:40 PM, Wendell Piez wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am helping a user set up oXygen Author for use with Hebrew, in which
> I am regrettably illiterate. (But I know something about oXygen and
> CSS.) These documents are not entirely or primarily Hebrew; they only
> have occasional bits of Hebrew in paragraph or mixed content.
>
> The support for bidirectional text in oXygen is getting really
> impressive. But I have one request that I don't know how to address,
> and don't know if it's possible. The users would like to be able to
> see the locations of the Unicode control characters for right-to-left,
> left-to-right, and 'pop', if not actually to color the text between
> them.
>
> Since CSS doesn't support character-level controls (tmk) I don't
> believe this can be done. Am I right?
>
> If I am, does anyone have ideas for possible approaches or workarounds?
>
> My user is aware that (a) in bidirectional mode, oXygen indicates with
> its cursor when there is a change in direction, and (b) that more
> functionality is possible if his users are willing to use XML markup
> and not only the Unicode control characters.
>
> BTW, it looks to me as though oXygen automatically inserts the Unicode
> controls when I insert characters from the Hebrew Unicode block. Is
> this correct? Will it happen even when I'm in a place already
> configured (using CSS on an element) that right-to-left is the
> direction?
>
> Thanks!
> Wendell
>
> Wendell Piez | http://www.wendellpiez.com
> XML | XSLT | electronic publishing
> Eat Your Vegetables
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