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When using Microsoft Word and its HTML editor add-in, one can compose and display Tibetan language documents using such word processing program add-ins as Sambhota for
Word. The HTML converter in Microsoft Word is thoughtfully designed to implement the font face tag so as to preserve fonts.
 The remaining obstacle to Web display has to do with the nature of Tibetan font sets, which are
implemented differently in each word processing system. As a result, the Web display of Tibetan documents still requires specific Tibetan fonts to be loaded on the client, and alternate
fonts will not work between different font designers. The problem with inconsistent implementation of incompatibilities from the use in nonstandard font sets of
reserved characters also effects Web browser displays, and undermines perfect browser implementations of the font face tag. MS Internet Explorer has two characters that are incorrectly
displayed arising from Microsoft's handling of the glyphs for single and double "curly" quotes. Netscape's implementation changes from beta to beta and from "point" revision to point
revision. Unfortunately, recent releases have been stable in failing to display Tibetan fonts correctly. Further, in each of the browsers the Tibetan text will not wrap on
the dot spacer character, called "tsek." This is not specific t the browsers, but results from a change made to the way the hyphen character is handled. Previously, lines would automatically break
at the hyphen, so a hyphen character slot was used for the tsek. At some point Microsoft changed the operating system to preclude such automatic line breaks. Accordingly, the Tibetan
text lines at this time must be scrolled or mechanically broken for display. (The next release of Nitartha-Sambhota will fix this problem.) Finally, there are size and alignment inconsistencies between Tibetan fonts and Roman fonts, as can be seen in the table of
contents display in the Lorik and Takrik. The surprising aspect of these issues is that they amount to relative glitches in comparison to the labored development of
Tibetan word processing programs in general. The bottom line is that the future of Web display of Tibetan-language documents looks very bright. Given the scattered locations of the Tibetan
scholarly community, the potential for universal access can only provide a great benefit to the preservation and strengthening of Tibetan scholarship. Download page |
