Language Support¶

Many screenplays today are written in multiple languages. For instance, in India, dialogues are written in Kannada, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, and other languages, while other parts of the screenplay are written in English. Writers from the Malayalam film industry write predominantly in their native language. Writers in France, Vietnam, Korea, and other countries also prefer to write in their own languages. Therefore, it is important for a screenwriting app to support writing in multiple languages, even if the UI language (menu items, dialog boxes, etc.) is English only.

When we started the Scrite project, it was aimed at being a screenwriting app primarily for the Indian writer. Initially, the app only supported writing in English and 11 Indian languages. With version 2, Scrite has evolved to cater to international writers as well. You can now write in any LTR language. In this chapter, we walk you through the language support available in Scrite and point out several nuances.

On the toolbar of the Scrite main-window an icon associated with the active language is shown, alongside the language name itself. Clicking on the icon reveals a language menu in which all languages configured for use in Scrite are displayed.

Depending on how your computer is configured before Scrite is installed, this menu shows a different set of languages.

Users in India may see English and 11 Indian languages listed in this menu.
If users have already configured one or more language input methods in their OS, this menu will only list English and the languages configured.
International users will see English, and their OS language and any other input methods they may have configured.

Language Settings Dialog¶

You can click on Language Settings option in the language menu to add, remove or configure languages of your choice.

The currently configured languages are listed on the left. You can click on any of the languages in that list to configure some options for them on the panel to the right.

Removing Languages¶

Click on the delete icon next to any language to remove it from Scrite. It's that simple!

NOTE: You cannot remove English language from the list because its the default UI language.

Adding Languages¶

To add support for a new language, simply click on the Add Language button at the end of the list.

Scrite presents a dialog box for you where you can type name of the language you want to add.

NOTE: RTL languages are currently not supported in Scrite. We will be building support for them in a future version.

Spell Check¶

Version 1.x only offered spell-checking in English. With version 2, we've expanded this capability to support more languages. Please note that Scrite does not bundle dictionaries into the application. Instead, it uses dictionaries provided by your operating system to check spellings. The Language Settings dialog box indicates whether a dictionary is available for a given language.

When a dictionary is available, Scrite automatically uses it to offer spelling suggestions.

NOTE: In a future update, we plan to offer our own spell-check dictionaries through services such as Alar, Olam, and others for select languages.

Keyboard Shortcuts¶

You can assign or change keyboard shortcut for any language by clicking on the shortcut link in the Keyboard Shortcut groupbox. If there was no shortcut assigned, then the shortcut link will report None Set.

In the Change Shortcut dialog you can assign a keyboard shortcut of your choice.

Once a shortcut has been assigned, it will also be displayed in the language menu.

NOTE: English and 11 Indian languages have hard coded keyboard shortcuts. These are shortcuts that have historically been associated with those languages, and Scrite doesn't allow altering them. You can however change keyboard shortcuts for any other language.

Font Association¶

Every language has a script associated with it.

For instance: English & French languages share the Latin script.
Hindi, Marathi and Sanskrit share Devanagiri script.
Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam have their own unique scripts.

You can associate any font to a language and have that font be used by other languages that use the same script.

Once assigned all fonts in of a given script type will be rendered as configured. This takes away the burden of having to select specific text snippets and assign fonts separately.

Input Method Mapping¶

While Scrite bundles a static phonetic translation input method for the 11 Indian languages it supports, it falls back to the default OS input method for all other languages.

Windows and macOS offer standard mechanisms for registering input methods for various languages. On Linux, however, you will have to install and configure ibus.

Once you have configured input methods on your OS you can return or restart Scrite to have it automatically register and map input methods for those languages.

Whenever you switch languages either using either the language menu within Scrite, or by using the keyboard shortcuts assigned to them, Scrite toggles the corresponding OS input method for you.

If you prefer using a different input method for a specific language, then you can configure that in the Language Settings dialog box by unchecking Auto Select and picking a specific input method.

From then on, Scrite will use the assigned input method while typing in that language.

Whenever the built-in PhTranslator is assigned to any of the Indian languages, Scrite also displays an icon on the toolbar for reviewing the alphabet mapping table.

This alphabet mapping table shows the accurate combination of English alphabets to use.

NOTE: By default Scrite insists on handling language input switch all by itself, unless you configure the app to delegate it entirely to the OS.

Third Party Input Methods¶

Native support for Nudi, Baraha, ISMv6, Alar, Olam and custom keyboard layout files is currently not available. We may build support for them in a future update.

If you prefer using third party language input methods (like Nudi, or Baraha) then read the next section to learn how to delegate input method switching to the OS.

Letting OS Manage Input Method Switching¶

Some users prefer to let their OS handle all input method switching because they are used to that with other apps. We understand that habits formed over a long time are difficult to change. In such cases, simply uncheck the Handle language input method switch option in Language Settings.

Scrite will no longer show you language switch menu, nor does it respond to lanugage shortcuts within the app. All language switching will now have to be managed by using menus and shortcuts configured with the operating system. Scrite does however show a language icon in the toolbar to report the language input method currently activated in the OS. Font associations, however, will continue to work.

When you click on the language toolbutton in the Scrite UI, a dialog box is shown as follows.

You can click Yes in this message box to open the Language Settings dialog and toggle the Handle language input method switch option ON, and have Scrite resume control of switching between input methods for languages.