by Glenn Wooden

UniType fills a particular need and fills it well. UniType enables the user to enter multilingual non-English text into any standard Windows program, such as AmiPro, Microsoft Word, or Lotus 1-2-3. While useful for languages written in the Roman script, it is especially useful for non-Roman alphabets. UniType will eventually support 175 languages, from Spanish and Russian to Egyptian Hieroglyphic, Hebrew, Arabic and Tibetan.

The strength of UniType is that once the program is installed, there is nothing new to learn. Text is entered into applications that the user already knows how to use. Though not a complete substitute for a word processor in these languages, it can, when necessary, serve this function. And if the user needs to enter text in several different languages, there are few other options available. UniVerse will be most useful for those who need to enter words, phrases or quotations into standard Windows applications.

For true multilingual word processing or for entering large amounts of formatted right-to-left text, Gamma Productions recommends its highly acclaimed word processor, UniVerse.

Uses for UniType

In addition to entering multilingual text in a word- processing document, UniType can be used in presentation and desktop publishing software and for sending multilingual faxes directly from applications or from fax software.

Electronic mail in any supported language is possible when both sender and receiver have the UniType program and fonts installed (Some on-line services, such as CompuServe, restrict the number of fonts that can be selected for a given message. This is not a UniType restriction.)

How Does It Work?

Once installed, UniType is easy to use. You select the language in which you would like to work, set the font in the target application and begin typing.

For each language that you select, there is a choice of input mode. Characters can be sent directly to the application. When working in a right-to-left language or a language requiring some sort of contextual analysis, word or phrase mode should be selected. This mode keeps what has been typed in a buffer until the enter key is pressed. The input buffer appears as a small window at the bottom of the screen. Spell checking, hyphenation (according to rules for a particular language) and a thesaurus can be used in input mode. Once the enter key is pressed, text is sent directly to the application. There it is treated by the application as "English text" in a particular font. At this point, you cannot spell-check or use other language-specific tools. Should you need to make any changes after text has been sent to the application, it can be deleted and reentered.

No special monitors or keyboards are required. Very attractive TrueType fonts for supported languages are included. While typing, the user can have an on-screen virtual keyboard displayed for a particular language. Generally, there are several choices of keyboard layouts available including national-standard layouts and phonetic layouts.

Like its sister application UniVerse, UniType performs contextual analysis on the fly for those languages which require it. It generates appropriate final characters for languages like Arabic and Hebrew and inserts ligatures for languages like Sanskrit and Tibetan. Languages which require diacritic placement above and below the baseline are no problem for UniType either. Right-to-left input is flawless.

Installation

The installation process is an easy one. Because UniType is a 32 bit application, a set of 32 bit extensions are first installed. UniType uses the UniCode standard, a two-byte (sixteen bit) system developed by a consortium of leading software and hardware companies. UniCode enables the unique encoding of more than 60,000 characters. By contrast, the current ASCII standard is a one byte system allowing 256 encoded characters. Microsoft supports UniCode in its Advanced NT operating systems. After 1995, all future Microsoft operating systems will have built in support for UniCode.

For those languages where a UniCode standard has not been agreed upon, Gamma Productions has worked together with various experts and other software companies to develop its own WinLanguage standard to ensure compatibility with a wide range of fonts, keyboards, and user-configurable translating- thesauruses, as well as current and emerging versions of Windows.

User Support

The UniType manual is concise and well-organized. Important language-specific notes are included in the help screens for various languages. Technical support was friendly and helpful, although calls sometimes took several hours or overnight to be returned.

UniType is available in several volumes, including an International Volume which includes English, French, German, Russian, Hebrew and Arabic. Other volumes allow European, Cyrillic and adjacent languages, Indian Languages, Asian Languages, Arabic Script Languages, Ancient/Biblical/Scholarly Languages and Korean. All non- Roman alphabet volumes provide fonts for transliteration. Support for Chinese and Japanese are provided via another product, TwinBridge, a Windows front-end which allows the input of traditional or simplified Chinese characters, or Japanese kanji and kana.

Eventually, the full series of volumes (sold separately) will include support for 175 different languages.

(This review was adapted from Offline 46, September 1994)

System Requirements:
Windows 3.1, 95 or NT.

Version:
Reviewed: 1.0.

Availability:
Commerical software available from the developer or dealers.

Quick Summary:
UniType enables a Windows computer to use the Unicode character set to enter 175 ancient and modern langauges. It is compatible with most word processors and spreadsheet programs and may use optional spell checkers for numerous languages. A special window allows right-to-left entry of Hebrew, but once text is entered it will not properly word wrap in a document, due to limitations in Windows. Although not inexpensive, it is a unique solution for those who need to work with many languages with non-Romans characters. .