Unicode support when round-tripping to XML

Report · Aug 17, 2009

Hi all,

Last week, I posted a question on round-tripping the symbol font and got no replies...:-) I'm thinking the question was entirely too generic, so I'd like to now add a little detail of what it appears are my primary options as well as current issues.

We have a math product that requires the use of the Symbol font. I'll use the beta here for an example: b. I have tried several methods to get this to display in Frame properly, save to XML, and open back up into Frame, with no success, as follows:

o Trying to enter it directly somehow into the text, either directly or as the value of a user variable, discussed below.
o Creating an element called "symbol" that is set in the EDD to always display as a Symbol font.
This one doesn't make it to the XML -- which complains about the document containing unsupported characters.

You can explicitly apply this font in Frame and it displays properly, but it does not save to XML and then open back up in Frame. I thought it might, given Frame's supposed implicit Unicode support for XML (the dev and ref guides say you don't need to map anything in the rules or create any entities if you are working in XML as opposed to SGML). Further, I can see that it is defined already in the FrameMaker\Structure\isocents directory:

<!ENTITY beta "β"> 

and also as this:

entity "bgr" is fm char 0x62 in "FmSymbol";

I'm not sure which is being used, but I assume my DTD does not need to define it.

So now I have assumed that you need to enter it into Frame explicitly as a Unicode code point, but I cannot figure out how to do that. Here's what I've tried:

Entering it directly as:

\u03B2

...doesn't display a Greek beta in the regular text, although I can enter it this way into a user variable, and a Greek beta is displayed (temporary Eureka!), but only as the value of the variable in the dialog box -- not when I insert that variable into the text, which simply results in a "?".

Using the File | Utilities | Hex Input enters only a "b" -- not a beta glyph. Although the user guide says you should be able to enter a Unicode code point with this tool, I can't see how to do that. If you manually enter the code point for the Greek symbol beta (62 for UTF-8), all you get is just that: 62.
Using the standard Windows Character Map does enter the beta glyph in Symbol font -- but this does not round-trip.
Entering it as "/b" -- not sure where I read about this -- doesn't display the glyph, but DOES save to XML as an entity "/b". Not sure what this means, but this entity only opens back up in Frame as a "/b", not a beta glyph.

We need to have the beta (and other symbols of course) display properly in Frame so we can print to PDF, then save to XML and reopen in Frame. Is this possible? Searches across all the Frame documentation have revealed nothing about how to do this, and I feel as if I'm complicated it unnecessarily, but can't tell how.

Any ideas -- or reasonable workarounds -- would be very much appreciated.

thanks,

Shelley

Report · Aug 17, 2009

Shelley,

Whether or not a unicode character displays properly is a function of the font that you are using. If you specifed the \u03B2 codepoint, then unless you're using a Pro type OTF font, chances are that the glyph simply isn't available in that font.

Try using the Files > Utilities > Character Palette to see what's available (and also enter it by clicking on the glyphs) for the specific font that you are using in FM9. The Hex Input isn't the way to go for unicode values.

You might also want to look at installing the Quick Unicode Input tool available at: http://www.cardbox.com/quick.htm

[Addendum: WGL TT fonts may also contain the required greek symbols.]

Report · Sep 14, 2009

Thanks Arnis, that is a bit helpful, at least relevant to displaying a Symbol font in Frame, but the real problem is how it is saved to XML, which is always as a question mark "?", whether it's the value of a user variable or entered directly in some other way.

Does or does not Frame support Unicode round-tripping to XML and back and if so, is there something to do to enable it? Does anyone have any experience w/ this?

Thanks for any help,

Shelley