English US or UK

[martin]

The length of this discussion shows that there is a problem.

The problem is that the matter is complicated by other program's inattention to language. In most programs there's just one language/dictionary in effect for the whole document, or the whole program even. There's no concept of per-paragraph (or per-word) language and so the program doesn't save that information in RTF/etc and Nisus Writer is left to guess.

In Nisus Writer language affects so much more- secondary fonts, spelling, thesaurus, and keyboard layout. Honestly, while the issue can be complicated, there's nothing for us to "fix".

I use Australian English, and am constantly having to be on the alert to swoop down on the US English (and flag!) appearing at any possible opportunity.

If you configure your OSX international system preferences so that "Australian English" is on top of the language list, I think you'll find this happens less often. Unfortunately that can't prevent other programs from incorrectly (or inattentively) encoding "US English" as the document language.

[Sariputta]

That's very odd. The switch into US English just happened again (Australian English being long since set as the default) when I created a new paragraph style. Nisus automatically set it as, guess what?, US English. I went through the entire style sheet and manually set each style to Australian English. Some of them were, for some reason, still marked as US English. I did the same for the New template. But for some of the styles - the lists - the option to change the language is not given. All language options are faded out.

So what's happening? Is my copy a lemon? And how many other people have this problem? Which I have to say I have not come across in any other application. For example, I sometimes use Mellel, an Israeli word processing application, and have never had to struggle to get out of Hebrew.

[mrennie]

Do you often copy and paste text from another application into Nisus Writer Pro? If yes, make sure you only paste the clipboard content as plain text; otherwise, you will paste the wrong language setting (US English) alongside the formatting. I've never experienced any of these language switches, but then again, I tend to do my entire writing in Nisus Writer Pro itself.

[martin]

The switch into US English just happened again (Australian English being long since set as the default) when I created a new paragraph style. Nisus automatically set it as, guess what?, US English.

This has the same solution as your other problem: set your OSX international system preferences so that "Australian English" is on top. This is different from the generic "English" setting most Macs ship with. As warned in the system control panel you will need to restart Nisus Writer for the changes to take effect. Basically any time the language of text/styles/etc is not explicitly defined, Nisus Writer will use this system language setting.

[xiamenese]

This has the same solution as your other problem: set your OSX international system preferences so that "Australian English" is on top. This is different from the generic "English" setting most Macs ship with. As warned in the system control panel you will need to restart Nisus Writer for the changes to take effect. Basically any time the language of text/styles/etc is not explicitly defined, Nisus Writer will use this system language setting.

Wow … all these years and I still didn't know that!

Thanks Martin.

[Sariputta]

The problem with setting my OSX international system preferences so that "Australian English" is on top is that I use Pali and Sanskrit words in Roman script, and to insert the necessary diacritics I use a keyboard layout called "EasyUnicode" in the OSX international system preferences, rather than "Australian English."

So does this mean I am doomed to forever wrestle with US English? I suppose I could do the workaround of simply adding Australian English spellings to the US dictionary. A solution, perhaps, but still a constant irritant. Why not just program the app so that the language setting remains stable?

[Elbrecht]

Well -

does this mean you use an old hacked font for transliteration, I wonder? I don't know about "EasyUnicode" - I stick to "U.S. Extended", i.e. just customized it to include German Umlaute as well: my "German Extended".

So please try the Apple/Unicode way to compare: Use an Mac OS X system font (Lucida Grande or else) and enter Pali/Sanskrit with "U.S. Extended" system keyboard mixed in Australian English context - Save and Re-Open. Try in Nisus and TextEdit as well - this is the way to fix it for you.

This definitely works for me - with German instead of Australian English. Make sure to use new, now standard Unicode fonts for transliteration, too. To customize your blend of "Australian Extended" look for SIL's Ukelele:

http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page ... id=ukelele

HE

[Hamid]

The problem with setting my OSX international system preferences so that "Australian English" is on top is that I use Pali and Sanskrit words in Roman script, and to insert the necessary diacritics I use a keyboard layout called "EasyUnicode" in the OSX international system preferences, rather than "Australian English."

That should not be a problem, because languages are not tied to particular keyboard layouts. I use English (British) in NWP, and my English language setting has never changed since Nisus Writer Express 1.0. I do not use British keyboard layout; I use U. S. Extended which allows me to enter transcription characters. In NWP Preferences=>Languages, my chosen keyboard for English (British) is U.S. Extended. For Australian English you can have EasyUnicode layout in NWP Preferences.

[martin]

The problem with setting my OSX international system preferences so that "Australian English" is on top is that I use Pali and Sanskrit words in Roman script, and to insert the necessary diacritics I use a keyboard layout called "EasyUnicode" in the OSX international system preferences, rather than "Australian English."

As Hamid just mentioned, keyboard layouts are separate from your language settings. Once you are in the OSX international preference pane click the "Languages" tab. Then use drag-drop to arrange the list so that "Australian English" is on top. If "Australian English" is not listed click the "Edit List..." button.