Feature Request: tategaki writing for Japanese

[jlennon314]

I have not found any way to write with a tategaki style when I am writing in Japanese. That is, writing in columns from top to bottom and right to left. I know how to write from right to left, but currently there is no way to do tategaki easily. I would love to see this in a future version of Mellel.

[kabouter]

I would use that too.

[jannuss]

I have not found any way to write with a tategaki style when I am writing in Japanese. That is, writing in columns from top to bottom and right to left.

Have you tried using Columns [Sections]?

If you experiment with the number of columns/font size/gutter width, you could probably find a combination that is satisfactory.

Janet

[jlennon314]

Well, I wish that it were that easy, but unfortunately, tategaki is kinda difficult to make using standard columns. Instead of writing one character at a time from top to bottom in one column, then going on to the next column when it gets to the bottom, the standard behaviour is for Mellel to go from one column to the next. I end up still having to hit return.

I know how to do it easily in something like Photoshop, using the Column Text tool, but no word processor seems to be able to handle this style of writing right now without having to jury-rig it...

[joewiz]

You may wish to turn this into a poll in order to gauge interest in this feature. (All feature requests should be polls - see the sticky at the top of the subforum for suggestions.)

[nicka]

Support for furigana both in tategaki and yokogaki (more generally 'ruby' text http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_character) would be nice, too.

[herouth]

Regarding tategaki, it's not a simple matter of putting things in columns. There are several characters that change when used top-to-bottom, compared to left-to-right. For example, the long mark becomes vertical. The comma and period, as well as small Kana, change alignment. And there is an issue with combining western text and top-to-bottom text.

Anyway, I join the request for support for furigana. It's very important to learners of Japanese like myself, and will be much easier to implement than tategaki, I think.

[nicka]

I guess ruby text (of which furigana is a Japanese sub-type) is a actually just a subtype of gloss text. It's not just people who use CJK scripts who need this, therefore. For example, linguists use glosses a great deal, typically in several lines underneath the original sentence: a literal word by word translation followed by a freer more idiomatic translation, for example.
(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloss#In_linguistics.)

So I guess the request for furigana needs to be part of a new thread with a poll on the general issue of interlinear glosses. Does that seem reasonable?

And the current thread should have a poll limited to the issue of vertical writing in CJK scripts, I suppose, i.e. not just tategaki but the equivalents in Chinese (chih li shih) and Korean writing.

[joewiz]

So I guess the request for furigana needs to be part of a new thread with a poll on the general issue of interlinear glosses. Does that seem reasonable?

And the current thread should have a poll limited to the issue of vertical writing in CJK scripts, I suppose, i.e. not just tategaki but the equivalents in Chinese (chih li shih) and Korean writing.

Yes, I think it is important to separate the issue of vertical writing from that of ruby/interlinear glosses. They deserve individual proposals and polls on them. Both have been discussed before in forums and in the mailing list, so whoever takes the initiative in each poll might find it helpful to consult previous proposals.

[jlennon314]

I have created a poll for rubi/furigana text. Go ahead and vote there. I am considering creating a poll for tategaki to adhere to forum standards, but I feel that rubi would be more pressing than vertical writing at this time. One thing at a time.