Thai Script In Word On Mac

[Kees5]

I am using a Mac (iMac) and want to practice my thai script. I can access the script in my basic text editor (textEdit), and use it in my mail program, but when i try to access it in MS Word, it refuses to change from English into Thai.

Is there something I should do in Word to activate it? MS X for Mac, 2001

Thanks

[desi]

I'm the opposite. I can get it to work with Word (it was automatic when creating a new document) but TextEdit won't recognise Thai fonts. I'm using Text-Edit Plus...

What are you doing when you try to type Thai in Word?

If I open a Thai document sent from a PC, it'll all be in boxes. I just select all, then select UPC-Angsana in my fonts. That's it.

I'm using MS Word 2004 vrs 11.2... and Excel is the same, works just fine.

[nidge]

I don't use MS office on my mac, but i am sure there is an item in the tools menu called [text encoding] (maybe it's a different menu). Look for that and select Thai. See what happens then.

Good luck

[Kees5]

I'm the opposite. I can get it to work with Word (it was automatic when creating a new document) but TextEdit won't recognise Thai fonts. I'm using Text-Edit Plus...

What are you doing when you try to type Thai in Word?

If I open a Thai document sent from a PC, it'll all be in boxes. I just select all, then select UPC-Angsana in my fonts. That's it.

I'm using MS Word 2004 vrs 11.2... and Excel is the same, works just fine.

I followed the instruction in a pinned post in this (Language) section on TV, which told me to go to 'preferences-international, and add Thai to my selection. That displayed a little country flag on my top toolbar. When I click it, I can change from English to Thai. That works for most applications except MS Word. In Word, when I clck on the english flag, the thai option is visible but less brightly, and doesn't allow itself to be selected.

When i looked at Mac Help, and entered 'encoding' it gave me some hints:

>You can also view multilingual text documents on your computer. Applications that support Unicode, a worldwide standard for encoding multilingual text, can display any language. Other applications may not support all languages and you may see missing or strange characters in the text. If you have trouble viewing multilingual text, open the document using a Unicode application, such as TextEdit.

The applications that came with your computer let you write in any language that Mac OS X supports. However, not all applications let you change the language shown in menus and dialogs. To see what languages an application supports, select the application icon, then choose File > Get Info, and click the Languages triangle.<

Unfortunately, when I choose 'get info', I get lots of info on the Word folder, but there is no 'language' triangle

I read the rest of Help, but got no further info.

I suspect the inability to use Thai script in WORD may be related to the provenance of my software. Under WORD-Services, it does give me an option for a "Chinese Text Converter" but makes no mention of Thai. Not sure if I want to buy a new copy of Word........

ดิฉัน เป็น คนไทย

a line copied from my text book Thai shows it works fine in Safari. (No, I am not Khon Thai)

I bought my Mac in BKK, so I knew there would be some support for Thai built in.

[nidge]

When i used word in the past i had no problems using Thai script. I am sure it is something in your Word settings.

[desi]

I followed the instruction in a pinned post in this (Language) section on TV, which told me to go to 'preferences-international, and add Thai to my selection. That displayed a little country flag on my top toolbar. When I click it, I can change from English to Thai. That works for most applications except MS Word. In Word, when I clck on the english flag, the thai option is visible but less brightly, and doesn't allow itself to be selected.

I've done the same here.

System prefs >> International >> then you click on a button to add Thai.

When i looked at Mac Help, and entered 'encoding' it gave me some hints:

>You can also view multilingual text documents on your computer. Applications that support Unicode, a worldwide standard for encoding multilingual text, can display any language. Other applications may not support all languages and you may see missing or strange characters in the text. If you have trouble viewing multilingual text, open the document using a Unicode application, such as TextEdit.

Ok, I just checked and the TextEdit that comes with all Macs can read and type Thai. But I always use whatever Tom Bender writes as he adds a number of extras each update (I've been with him since early days, when we were depending on snail mail). When I'm in Text-Edit Plus, just like you, the English is selectable, the Thai, not.

The applications that came with your computer let you write in any language that Mac OS X supports. However, not all applications let you change the language shown in menus and dialogs. To see what languages an application supports, select the application icon, then choose File > Get Info, and click the Languages triangle.<

Unfortunately, when I choose 'get info', I get lots of info on the Word folder, but there is no 'language' triangle

I read the rest of Help, but got no further info.

Sounds like we are both out of luck...

I suspect the inability to use Thai script in WORD may be related to the provenance of my software. Under WORD-Services, it does give me an option for a "Chinese Text Converter" but makes no mention of Thai. Not sure if I want to buy a new copy of Word........

ดิฉัน เป็น คนไทย

a line copied from my text book Thai shows it works fine in Safari. (No, I am not Khon Thai)

I bought my Mac in BKK, so I knew there would be some support for Thai built in.

I also bought my Mac in BKK (I wanted the Thai keyboard). So it has to be down to some software taking Thai on, and some not.

I don't think I'd purchase a new Word either. Have you tried the Open Source available for Macs? I've used NeoOffice but didn't like the clunky feel. And I'm not really hot about Word either, so I'd go with something more Mac like... which is why I use TextEdit... it's a great little piece of software, so I'll make contact to see if they'll be offering Thai at some point.

I also have iWork which has word processing, Pages. And it does accept Thai (I just checked). So perhaps go that route?

$79.00 for the lot (Pages, Keynote, Numbers)... which beats the horrible price of MS Word anyday (and it has the look and feel of Mac software).

You can download a free trial here.

[mangkorn]

I'm a Mac user also frustrated by lack of support for Thai, but my problem is a bit different. I have Thai in my system preferences and can type in it, but when I post to this website, it ends up as ????????????????

When I post to the thai-language.com forums, using Safari, the Thai script comes out fine. I guess the sites themselves are configured differently.

But, when I had OS Tiger, I was able to post Thai script to this forum, only by using Firefox and ISO-8859-1 character encoding. That worked perfectly, until I upgraded to OS Leopard - and now it doesn't transmit Thai to this site anymore, from any browser.

That makes no sense to me, but that's how it is. Enormously frustrating.

Any help on that score? Thanks.

btw, I can still use Safari with the thai-language.com forums, but nothing works for this site's forum.

[desi]

I'm also using Leopard - 10.5.1.

The only problem I have reading or posting Thai in browsers is with one Thai dictionary.

My main browser is FF. I only use Safari when FF stuffs up with addons.

Good luck...

[mangkorn]

I'm also using Leopard - 10.5.1.

The only problem I have reading or posting Thai in browsers is with one Thai dictionary.

My main browser is FF. I only use Safari when FF stuffs up with addons.

Good luck...

Which character encoding to you use in Firefox?

And do you post in Thai on this site with no problem?

[desi]

I'm not using anything with FF. It's a straight download.

ยินดี ทีได้รู้จัก...

[desi]

I had to google character encoding Firefox because I've never messed with it (unless it was a loooooooooooooooong time ago)

Mac OS X 10.2 introduced support for Arabic, Devanagari, Greek, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Hebrew and Thai scripts.

Scroll down...

Firefox automatically chooses fonts for most Unicode ranges and writing systems, but for some encodings you can specify the font that you want Firefox to use. You can set a different font for each writing system, for example Tahoma for Western, Hiragino Mincho Pro for Japanese, and Gentium for Greek.

Mine is set at Western (ISO-8859-1)

Hope that helps.

[mangkorn]

Mine is set at Western (ISO-8859-1)

Hope that helps.

Yes, that is precisely what I was asking about.

For some reason, mine doesn't work since I upgraded to OS Leopard, although it did when I had OS Tiger.

Why should an "improved" system be worse than the perfectly useful "outdated" one? One of those mysteries of life that I am incapable of understanding, I guess...

[desi]

Unreadable Thai sites - I finally read the pinned post on the subject of Thai fonts.

To read Thai messages:

Any browser or email program will have a Character Encoding menu item under the View menu. If you can't read something that you believe was written in Thai, go to the View - Character Encoding menu and select TIS-620. If that doesn't work, then try UTF-8. If neither of those work, then try ISO-8859-11 or Windows-874.

I was unable to read this -->> The Muddy Path

By following the above directions, it works fine.

So maybe fiddle around until you get one that works in Safari or FF?

An extra... To enlarge Thai fonts on your FF browser (from the same post)

MAC: Command + will increase the font size (command- will decrease)

PC: Alt + will increase the size (alt - will decrease)

The FF download mentioned (selects just the Thai to increase in size) will not work on the latest version of FF for Mac.

Edited to add: How To Type In Thai On A PC And Mac which also goes over the settings you need to read and type on forums such as Thai Visa...

Edited September 6, 2008 by desi

[mangkorn]

No, in my case, that is not the problem. I can read in Thai, and I can type in Thai - but went I post what I have typed in Thai onto this board, then is when is can't be read, because instead of Thai script it becomes ???????????????????????????.

But it was perfectly typed in Thai when I sent it - it just doesn't transmit to the website.