Cambodia took another step Friday toward the Information Age as Open Forum of Cambodia introduced new software it says will make Khmer computer fonts compatible with one another.
The program, called Teaktrey, allows users to change from one group of Khmer fonts to another without rewriting whole sections of their text, Open Forum Director Houth Ratanak said. “Teaktrey is very useful because it spares our time,” Houth Ratanak said.
Since written Khmer does not use spaces between words, making spell checking impossible, a base font called ABC Zerospace will insert invisible breaks between words, allowing documents in Khmer to eventually be spell-checked, ABC Zerospace programmer Norbert Klein said.
Problems still exist. The program only works in Microsoft Word and e-mail programs, and then only for PCs, though Macintosh versions are in development.
But officials are optimistic.
Once typed into Microsoft Word or an e-mail document, ABC Zerospace documents can be cut and pasted into other programs. The e-mail factor is important, as it will save “time and phone charges,” Houth Ratanak said.
The technology will also enable Khmer typists to use any keyboard layout with several font groups.
Previously, typists had to know a different keyboard layout for each font group. Teaktrey makes the font groups compatible with one another. That news was met with enthusiasm.
“Khmer is divided. There’s no unity even in the Khmer keyboard,” student Sek Samphoars said.
Teaktrey, ABC Zerospace and instructions for each can be downloaded at Open Forum’s Web site, www.forum.org.kh.
