Chris Pratley Group Program Manager Microsoft Word

1. and Unicode Chris Pratley Group Program Manager Microsoft Word

2. Overview • Office Unicode history and strategy • Implementation • Benefits of Unicode to Office users • Demo of Word

3. Office97 Unicode Strategy • Office97: first Unicode release (Jan. 94 - Nov. 96) • Office97 driving factors • Customers operate world-wide(US only 40%) • Need to handle multiple code pages in Europe • Office97 goals • Enable loss-less file exchange world-wide • Solve code page problems in Europe • Development efficiency for Asian and Euro versions • Unified source code base – but still different executables • Unified development process • Delta between language versions shrinks from 18 to 2 months • Lay foundation for future

4. Office2000 Unicode Strategy • Office2000 goals • Reduce Total Cost of Ownership for large corporations • Single version to deploy and administer globally • Configurable interface to handle local needs • Language of User Interface can be changed • Additional language features can be enabled as needed • Emulate any localized version • “Français”, “日本語”, “한글”, “עברית“,”عربي”, etc. • Streamline development process further • Core “US” team ships global product • Integrate bi-directional version team (Arabic, Hebrew) • Focus on needs of bilingual and multilingual users

5. Officexp Unicode Strategy • Officexp goals • Finish the globalization work begun in Office2000 • Extend functionality to all applications • Integrate Complex Scripts support (Indic, Thai, Vietnamese) • हिन्दी, தமிழில், ภาษาไทย, Việt • Streamline development process further • Single build process from start to finish • Integrate complex scripts team • Deepen Unicode support • Unicode 3.0 languages (ᐃᓄᒃᑎᑐᑦ, አማርኛ, etc.) • UTF-16 (esp. plane 2: 𧆓𨣓𨲄𪀒) • More complex script and limited combining diacritic coverage

6. Bi-Di Thai/Indic US/Euro JPN KOR CHT CHS SBCS 2.0/5.0 SBCS DBCS DBCS DBCS DBCS SBCS SBCS 6.0/95 SBCS Wide Wide Wide Wide SBCS Unicode 97 Unicode Unicode Unicode Unicode(now w/ Indic) 2000 Unicode A single Unicode release! 2002 (“xp”) The Word Family Tree Version

7. Implementation • Core applications are Unicode internally • Word, Excel, PowerPoint (Office97) • Access, Publisher (new in Office2000) • Databases and drivers are Unicode • FrontPage (new in Officexp) • Outlook – still only Unicode in mail • Uses Word as mail editor by default

8. Implementation • Difficulties encountered with Unicode • Lack of full system support in Win9x • Every app needed different solution • MFC-based apps were hardest • Missing system services (e.g. font-linking) • Interoperation with code-page based systems • Educating test team about Unicode • Testing issues different vs. MBCS • Lack of expertise in uncommon languages

9. Implementation • Office shared code services • Central Win32 Unicode text API “wrappers” • Simulate nearly full support on Win9x • ExtTextOutW and others • Provide optional font-linked output • Hardcode “preferred fonts” by script, style • User-specified font-fallbacks via reg key (if any) • Font categorization by script range (use MLANG.DLL) • Font substituted if glyph not available • Word modifies font settings in the document • Other apps do only at display time • Insert Symbol dialog (Unicode 3.1 support)

10. Office Users Benefit • Single binary world-wide • Shared world-wide file formats • Multilingual word/data processing • Unicode HTML • Unicode e-mail (HTML, RTF, plain)

11. Single Binary • Easier to deploy, administer • One set-up image to install world-wide • One set of service packs for all machines • All features available in all “versions” • Still have local version packages • Multilingual users can use “foreign” features • User Interface language is configurable • Your language follows you when you travel • Major cost savings for customers • Less testing of corporate solutions • Lower internal tech support costs

12. Single File Format • Multinational corporations use Office • Need to exchange documents company-wide • Office unified file formats via Unicode • Word95 had 7 different file formats • Word97 had 1 file format but no editing, layout for languages covered by other versions • Word2000 adds editing, layout, and full-roundtrip • Word2002 adds full complex script support

13. Multilingual Usage • English Officexp: input/display/edit/layout of • European languages • any similar left-right scripts if fonts/NLS available • E.g. Canadian Syllabics (Inuktitut), Ethiopic, Cherokee • Some combining diacritic support (African languages) • East Asian languages • Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Japanese, Korean, Yi • Hong Kong supplemental characters, CNS 11643, GB-18030(via UTF-16 “surrogates”) • Complex Script and Bi-directional scripts (need enabled system) • Arabic (incl. Farsi, Urdu), Hebrew • Thai • Hindi, Tamil, Oriya, Telugu, Punjabi, Bengali, Gujarati, etc.

14. Multilingual Usage • Most documents are monolingual • Most users are bilingual • Local language • English • Optimize UI for using one, two or three languages • Over 200 supported – rare usage • Detect 20+ languages while typing (Word) • Automatically install and use the correct proofing tools • Plain text I/O in any encoding (Word, Excel) • Includes GB18030 on properly configured system

15. Multilingual Word Processing • Proofing tool interfaces are Unicode • SDKs available for 3rd party development • Tools for over 35 languages available • European languages, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Arabic, Hebrew, Thai, Hindi… • Spelling, Grammar, Hyphenation, Thesaurus • Traditional/Simplified Chinese conversion • Japanese character usage consistency checker • Hangul/Hanja conversion • Translation dictionaries (available offline) • Automatic translation web services

16. Multilingual Data Processing • Access databases are Unicode • Hook up to SQL7.x/2000 Unicode databases • Excel workbooks are Unicode • Hook up to Unicode databases using OLE-DB • Create Pivot lists and manipulate Unicode data • PowerPoint creates multilingual multimedia • Web sites, animations

17. Web sites • URLs transmitted in UTF-8 (before the “?”) • FrontPage • Create and edit web pages in Unicode • Word • WYSWYG Web pages • Save in full or “filtered” HTML • IE5.x, IE6 • Display Unicode 3.1 pages

18. Mail and PIM • Outlook • Send/receive mail in any encoding • Use Word to edit mail for richest experience

19. Unicode HTML • HTML is a companion file format • Roundtrip all formatting • Optional HTML Filter cuts file size for publishing • Save to web servers directly • Roundtrip Unicode data in any encoding • UTF-8 and UTF-16 are supported too • HTML is tagged with encoding

20. Unicode e-mail • Office2000/XP provides fully multilingual email • HTML mail uses internet standards • All Unicode content preserved • Plugs into Outlook, Exchange • Use Word to compose replies and new messages • Send in plain text, RTF, or HTML • All applications can mail documents as HTML

21. Future Directions • Help Windows build a worldwide platform • Ensure system support is useful to app writers • Unicode 3.1 languages too • Extend Unicode support to more apps • Outlook • Combining diacritics, OpenType support

22. Microsoft Word2002from Officexprunning onWindowsxp Demo

23. Questions Answers