Setting and Getting Math Speech, Braille, UnicodeMath, LaTeX…

This post augments the post Inserting and Getting Math Text in RichEdit by documenting the RichEdit options for ITextRange2::SetText2(options, bstr) and ITextRange2::GetText2(options, pbstr) including those for math speech and math braille. As such, this post is for programmers. But more generally, it reveals that RichEdit supports Nemeth math braille (!). All options work in the current Microsoft Office RichEdit (riched20.dll in an Office subdirectory); the Windows RichEdit (msftedit.dll) hasn’t exposed math functionality yet. The options are defined in the following table in which s/g stands for SetText2/GetText2. For convenience, non-math-specific flags are also included

Option	Value	s/g	Meaning
tomUnicodeBiDi	0x00000001	s	Use Unicode BiDi algorithm for inserted text
tomAdjustCRLF	0x00000001	g	If range start is inside multicode unit like CRLF, surrogate pair, etc., move to start of unit
tomUseCRLF	0x00000002	g	Paragraph ends use CRLF (U+000D U+000A)
tomTextize	0x00000004	g	Embedded objects export alt text; else U+FFFC
tomAllowFinalEOP	0x00000008	g	If range includes final EOP, export it; else don’t
tomUnlink	0x00000008	s	Disables link attributes if present
tomUnhide	0x00000010	s	Disables hidden attribute if present
tomFoldMathAlpha	0x00000010	g	Replace math alphanumerics with ASCII/Greek
tomIncludeNumbering	0x00000040	g	Lists include bullets/numbering
tomCheckTextLimit	0x00000020	s	Only insert up to text limit
tomDontSelectText	0x00000040	s	After insertion, call Collapse(tomEnd)
tomTranslateTableCell	0x00000080	g	Export spaces for table delimiters
tomNoMathZoneBrackets	0x00000100	g	Used with tomConvertUnicodeMath and tomConvertTeX. Set discards math zone brackets
tomLanguageTag	0x00001000	s/gg	Sets BCP-47 language tag for range; gets tag
tomConvertRTF	0x00002000	s/g	Set or get RTF
tomGetTextForSpell	0x00008000	g	Export spaces for hidden/math text, table delims
tomConvertMathML	0x00010000	s/g	Set or get MathML
tomGetUtf16	0x00020000	g	Causes tomConvertRTF, etc. to get UTF-16. SetText2 accepts 8-bit or 16-bit RTF
tomConvertLinearFormat	0x00040000	s/g	Alias for tomConvertUnicodeMath
tomConvertUnicodeMath	0x00040000	s/g	UnicodeMath
tomConvertOMML	0x00080000	s/g	Office MathML
tomConvertMask	0x00F00000	s/g	Mask for mutually exclusive modes
tomConvertRuby	0x00100000	s	See Inserting and Getting Math Text…
tomConvertTeX	0x00200000	s/g	See LaTeX Math in Office
tomConvertMathSpeech	0x00300000	g	Math speech (English only here)
tomConvertSpeechTokens	0x00400000	g	Simple Unicode and speech tokens
tomConvertNemeth	0x00500000	s/g	Nemeth math braille in U+2800 block
tomConvertNemethAscii	0x00600000	g	Corresponding ASCII braille
tomConvertNemethNoItalic	0x00700000	g	Nemeth braille in U+2800 block w/o math italic
tomConvertNemethDefinition	0x00800000	g	Fine-grained speech in braille
tomConvertCRtoLF	0x01000000	g	Plain-text paragraphs end with LF, not CRLF
tomLaTeXDelim	0x02000000	g	Use LaTeX math-zone delimiters \(...\) inline, \[...\] display; else $...$, $$...$$. Set handles all

 

Mutually exclusive options

Nonzero values within the mask defined by tomConvertMask (0x00F00000) are mutually exclusive, that is, they cannot be combined (OR’d) with one another. These options include setting text as UnicodeMath, [La]TeX (tomConvertTeX), and Nemeth math braille (tomConvertNemeth). You can set only one at a time. But other options can be OR’d in if desired.

Nemeth math braille options

A string bstr of Nemeth math braille coded in the Unicode range U+2800..U+283F can be inserted and built up by calling ITextRange2::SetText2(tomConvertNemeth, bstr). If the string is valid, you can get it back in any of the math formats including Nemeth math braille. For example, if you insert the string

⠹⠂⠌⠆⠨⠏⠼⠮⠰⠴⠘⠆⠨⠏⠐⠹⠨⠈⠈⠙⠨⠹⠌⠁⠬⠃⠀⠎⠊⠝⠀⠨⠹⠼⠀⠨⠅⠀⠹⠂⠌⠜⠁⠘⠆⠐⠤⠃⠘⠆⠐⠻⠼

you see

You can also input braille with a standard keyboard by typing a control word \braille assigned to the Unicode character U+24B7 (Ⓑ). (See LaTeX Math in Office for how to add commands to math autocorrect). The \braille command causes math input to accept braille input via a regular keyboard using the braille ASCII codes sometimes referred to as North American Braille Computer Codes. The character ~ (U+007E) disables this input mode. These braille codes are described in the post Nemeth Braille—the first math linear format and can be input using refreshable braille displays. Alternatively, such input can be automated by calling ITextSelection::TypeText(bstr). Just as in entering UnicodeMath, the equations build up on screen as soon as the math braille input becomes unambiguous. The implementation includes the math braille UI that cues the user where the insertion point is for unambiguous editing of math zones using braille. Note that as of this posting, the math braille facility isn’t hooked up to Narrator or other screen readers.

Getting (and Setting?) Math Speech

The tomConvertMathSpeech currently only gets math speech in English. Microsoft Office apps like Word, PowerPoint and OneNote deliver math speech in over 18 languages to the assistive technology (AT) program Narrator via the UIA ITextRangeProvider::GetText() function. Other ATs could also get math speech this way. Dictating (setting) math speech would be nice for both blind and sighted folks. Imagine, you can say a² + b² = c² faster than you can type it or write it! The SetText2(tomConvertMathSpeech, bstr) is ready to handle such input, but it’s not implemented yet anyhow.