Unicode Zero Width Joiner and Non-joiner (ZWJ, ZWNJ) in Malayalam/ Indic languages

kpk.in · October 3, 2015, 8:34am

I am using LibreOffice 5.0.2 (64-bit) on Windows 7 Prof. I have been a user of LO 3 onwards. Only recently started using Malayalam. I am unable the type the ZWJ (U+200D or 8205) and ZWNJ (U-200C or 8204) characters using the Windows’ built-in Malayalam keyboard. In Windows applications like Notepad the characters can be typed using the standards keys Ctrl+Shift+1 and Ctrl+Shift+3. But LO does not accept these keystrokes. Hence it creates problems in the chillu-letters in Malayalam.

(I have a workaround with macros which also has some font changing problems, since I am a newbie to LO-basic-macros. I will ask for clarifications on macros separately).

SamanaJohann · March 5, 2020, 8:09am

It’s surely better to focus on solving the real issue, the key board. As for on desktop, https://keyman.com/ usually works fine.

SamanaJohann · March 5, 2020, 8:10am

It’s surely better to focus on solving the real issue, the key board. As for on desktop keyboards, https://keyman.com/ usually works fine.

Davor · March 4, 2020, 3:35pm

You’ll need a font that contains ZWJ or ZWNJ like, say, Shobika. Then you write “U+200D” and with a cursor on the right side of it press Alt+x

I’m struggling with accents, which are combining characters U+030d, U+030e, and U+0331 because writer does not stop at those, and extracting them is a pain.