TransDoc
Product Information

Summary

TransDoc is a cross-platform library for Paige developers who want to incorporate foreign platform fonts/character sets and/or Rich Text Format (RTF) document interchange into their Paige-based applications. Developed with our commitment toward open architecture document processing, TransDoc supports most world-wide platforms.

TransDoc provides cross platform compatibility for documents and is an essential tool for developers who develop applications for multiple platforms or process Paige documents from multiple sources. Paige addresses the cross platform world by providing a robust fully featured cross platform word processing engine. TransDoc addresses cross platform document WSIWIG display and handling. When moving documents from a Windows environment to a Macintosh environment, for example, the look and feel of the document will be lost. This occurs due to the fact that many of the fonts available are different across computer environments as well as due to the different character mappings above character number 127.

The 'font problem' is severe for all but the most basic unformatted text documents and is even disconcerting in simple text due to the inconsistencies in character mapping for the characters extended past the basic 7 bit ASCII.

Paige provides display of text associated with an unavailable font but it will be displayed in the application default font. There is little commonality in font names across Window, Macintosh and Unix platforms. Additionally, the same fonts may not be available on all machines even in the same office! This causes documents to be displayed differently. Page breaks, document layout, indices will all be affected. Additionally, a foreign language font will be displayed using a Roman font, like Times, on an English language system causing all sorts of strange behavior. Additionally, since the character sets are different, the character, Á, in Windows, for example, will be displayed as the character, ¡, on a Macintosh. This is true even when using the same font on all platforms. In fact, a Windows Courier ellipsis character will be displayed as the character, Ö, in Macintosh Courier.

To get the same look and feel, the Windows font,Terminal, should be displayed by using Monaco on a Macintosh. And, 14 point Times used on a Macintosh should be displayed as 12 point Times under Windows for the same look and feel.

So, whether your documents are multi-platform, multi-lingual or uni-lingual or importing RTF, Paige's TransDoc Character Set Extension will help you addresses these compatibility problems.

Font/Character Set Replacement Extension Overview

This TransDoc extension addresses these problems by providing a host of procedures and remappings that will allow your documents maintain the same look and feel in all environments. The extension also supports the insertion of foreign and native, non-local fonts and the mapping of non-local fonts to local-fonts character sets which are members of the missing fonts' script system.

Font Replacement

TransDoc's Character Set Extension provides support for intelligent font and font size replacement during RTF imports and the same support for Paige documents created under Macintosh and Windows. Other translations for OS/2, UNIX, DEC, HP and ATARI are also available.

TransDoc's Intelligent Font Mapping provides a Paige user with the capability to remap fonts that are not available on a specific platform. It even works within a single platform type. Fonts are checked for existence on the platform. If not, the font name is remapped through a set of similar fonts to attempt match its look and feel. For example, Times New Roman for Windows will be mapped to Times New Roman on the Macintosh, if available, or Times if not. Likewise, Times New Roman on the Macintosh will be mapped to Times New Roman on the Macintosh, if available, or Times if not. And so on from platform to platform. TransDoc comes with a large list of font remappings and can be extended by the application.

Font Size Replacement

TransDoc's Intelligent Font Size Mapping provides a Paige user with the capability to remap font sizes if the are remapped. The problem is that fonts are not rendered equivalently on multiple platforms. TransDoc's Intelligent Font Size Mapping handles this problem by remapping font point sizes to match the remapped fonts that have been selected for replacement. TransDoc comes with a list of font size remappings and can be extended by the application.

Character Set Replacement

TransDoc's Character Set Extension provides support for transparent character set remapping, intelligent font and font size replacement during RTF imports and the same support for Paige documents created under Macintosh and Windows. Other translations for OS/2, UNIX, HP and Atari are also available.

TransDoc supports character and font translations from platform to platform. One can translate from one platform character set to another or to and from version 1.1 of Unicode. Even if you don't require Unicode, this translation system allows the creation and resolution of platform independent character tokens through the use of Unicode.

The following lists TransDoc's current translation source/destination linguistic character set tables.