Working with International Fonts and dealing with Accents on OverDrive.

OverDrive has been particularly designed to make typing with accents and handling of foreign languages a very easy task. OverDrive works extremely well with accents, probably better then any other way of using accents on a Chyron system.

It is a fact that for all international Windows operating systems used overseas (definitely for certain languages, such as French, German or Spanish), the ALT key in the right part of the keyboard is called ALTGr and works as a second SHIFT.

So if you press this key and a number or even a letter (only some letters generate codes), one is able to write symbols which otherwise are not available in the normal operation.

It is important to mention that the symbol associated with a combination ALTGr+key (numeric or letter) is defined in the Keyboard mapping! (kbd*.kbd)

For example: kbdro.kbd for romanian, kbdpl.kbg for polish, etc.

At the same time, when the writing in a national language is activated, that particular mapping is activated and the "traditional" mapping is changed as well.

(i.e.: in the German version you will find Y in the place of Z and Z in the place of Y.)

This mapping has no connection whatsoever with what it's happening in the Mac system. In other words, ALTGr+7 in the PC will type something and in the Mac something else.

Moreover, it is very important to mention that although the user gets on the screen the symbol he wishes, its ASCII code will be SPECIFIC to that particular PC and it will NOT generate the same Graphic symbol, if will be sent unchanged to CHYRON.

This is happening because, for CHYRON, all the codes other then from 33 to 127, have a different meaning then for the rest of the world!!!

This first picture is the Arial font's map in the PC (PC_Arial).

(click on to open the full size picture)

The second picture here below is a map of a font used in Chyron ( F&F_FontLib1).
(Now being able to be viewed with OverDrive's Print &View Option!!!)

(click on to open the full size picture)

As one can see it, there is practically no connection between their characters' codes.

The third picture here below is a Chyron Font table.

(click on to open the full size picture)

Here below is a procedure of how to map a Windows font using OverDrive's Translation Table Manager, by far the most flexible way to work, within Chyron's world, with various international characters.

- First, open the Chyron Machine Font using OverDrive's Font Viewer.

- Make sure that the international character is there. (I.e.: the character A with a circle above has the code 149 and it can be obtained by typing Alt A). Looking at Fig.4-5 (Chyron.jpg) you'll notice that character with the code 149 is on the "A" key, in the upper left corner. This means that it can be displayed with SHIFT+ALT+Key, where Key = a.

- This actually means ALT + A, because, as the Fig.4-5 shows, SHIFT + a = A.

For OverDrive users, this is a very easy task. The user can display the font with the Machine Font Viewer. Selecting "Display in Chyron Keyboard format" option will automatically detect the sequence of Keystrokes to display a particular character.

Note:

The map described in Fig.4-5 (and the OverDrive mapping) is based on the International Key Map.

There are countries, (I.e.: Germany) that developed a modified Key Map. In those cases the map shown in Fig.4-5, as well as the ODrive display is not totally accurate (typing Y will display Z).

For these situations, the user should notify Converge Horizons at support@convergetech.com, and provide the Key Map being used. Our Customer Service staff will provide the necessary modifications to make ODrive work with the modified Key Map..

Now, going back to converting the Windows code for the letter A with a circle above, in ALT A keystroke sequence:

- Look in the PC_Arial.jpg picture. One can notice that a with a circle has the code 197. (in the PC_Arial table, the first character has the code "0" and the last one has the code "255".

To view this picture on a PC with Windows 98, go to Accessories -> System Tools - > Char.Map.

Other operating programs (Windows 95 or NT) may have a different path.

- Select the Font for which you want to view the Char. Map.

- Click on that particular character and the computer will display the ASCII code in the lower right corner.

- Keystroke Alt + 0197 means that the code is 197. The Keystroke Alt + 0197 means that this particular character can be typed form the PC keyboard keeping ALT pressed, typing (from the numeric keypad) the numbers 0197, and then depressing ALT.

- For easier operation, there are 2 more alternatives to find out the ASCII code in the PC:

- The first solution is the following:

- In the above PC program, click on A with circle and then click on Select and the Copy. NOTE:

Each time you want to put a new letter, make sure that every previous Character is deleted from the Copy buffer.

- Go to OverDrive and launch the Translation Table..

- Click on ADD button.

- Place the cursor in the Input Sequence (make sure that "Show ASCII" is unchecked.

- Press Cntrl V to Paste the copied Character (A with circle in our example) in the Input Sequence, or:

- if, in the Input Sequence, the ASCII box is checked, the user can type the ASCII Code and then ADD Character.

- Then place the cursor in the Output Sequence (in the Translation Table) and press ADD ALT. This will practically add the ALT character as it is in Chyron. You may see a garbled character being displayed. There is no error, because there is no equivalent to display Chyron's ALT character. To make sure that Chyron's ALT has been correctly introduced, check the "Show ASCII" box (instead of characters) in the Output Sequence. You should see the ASCII code 207.

- Uncheck the "Show ASCII" box.

- Place the cursor at the end of the Edit Control (after the garbled character corresponding to the ALT character) and type A.

- As a final verification, check again the "Show ASCII" box and see if 207 65 is being displayed (ALT A). (After getting enough experience, there should be no need to check/ uncheck the "Show ASCII" box.)

- Make sure you press OK after entering each the sequence for each character.

- Very IMPORTANT: Repeat the operation (the translation) for each NON ASCII character (from 127 to 255) to avoid unpredictable results. AS any Chyron operator knows, Chyron uses certain NON-ASCII characters as commands for changing colors, fonts, cursor back, etc.)

- The second option to introduce the Windows' ASCII codes (Instead of the using the Char MAP) is:

- Start MS Word ™ Program.

- Write all the letters as you want them to appear.

- Select them one by one.

- After a letter is selected, click on Cntrl C (copy it)

- Go to ODrive's Translation Table, click on ADD and then Cntrl V (to paste it).

- Repeat the procedure for each character.

Important NOTE:

If the Chyron Machine Font does NOT have the characters with accents already made form the Master Font (as it's the case with the A with circle in our example) and if the Chyron Machine Font has the accents made as individual characters, you can still create characters with accents in the same way you would do it using Chyron's keyboard:

I.e.: For A with grave accent, type A and the key for the grave accent. In this case the Output String should be 65 207 123. (A then ALT and then the code 123 for the grave accent).