Need suggestions: multi-lingual PS fonts & moving table columns

[Jay Smith <jay@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Greetings,

Win95, FM 556

I am facing a potential nightmare project.  We have been asked to develop a
multi-lingual word list for a certain technical subject.  At the beginning,
there will be at least 12 languages involved, but it has the potential to grow
significantly.

The initial languages involved will all be various "European" -- no Asian.  I
do not know what the future holds, however.

We generally prefer to work in a Postscript environment.

Our plan is to start by forming the provided information into a table
structure, rows for the words and columns for the languages.  Initially there
will be a lot of empty cells that will have to be filled in by various
reviewers -- some working on paper, others computer capable.

HOWEVER, it will be necessary to sort according to any given column AND when
doing so, that column will have to be moved the the left-most position.

So...the questions:

1) What font or type of font to use that will likely have all needed
characters.  I already know that the "standard" PS fonts that I have don't
have everything that will be needed.  

1a) For such a font, are their any cautions or special concerns.

1b) If we have to use a special type of font, how do we handle the issue of
sending the content files to only-marginally-computer-capable content
reviewers.  These are surely brilliant people, but they are not sure what a
font is, to say nothing of installing one.  We would like to have them "fill
in" the empty spots in the table, but without the proper font on their system,
they will likely see gibberish.

2) Sending files (that can be edited) to reviewers means sending them in some
form other than Frame.  These nice folks have never heard of Frame.  That
suggests to me that sending as RTF (that can be opened in any word processor)
is a reasonable idea.  However, there may (again) be font issues in going to
RTF.  

2a) When the reviewer's file comes back as RTF or some native WP format, I
will need to bring it back into FM and do a compare with our version -- I am
concerned that the compare will show that EVERYTHING is different.  Any
experience with this?

3) As mentioned, the different columns will have to be sorted....

3a) This brings up the issue of sorting the "non-English" characters into
their appropriate positions for each language.  That may require a second
"hidden" sort-key column for each language.  What experiences have people had
in this regard?

3b) When the content is presented with an Icelandic sort or a Hungarian sort,
that country's column will have to be left most.  Moving columns around, in
Frame, bothers me.  Any thoughts?

4) It sounds like it might be a lot easier to do all of this in WordPerfect
and when it is all DONE (never, really), move it to FM for publication.  WP
seems to have better/easier table navigation and sorting capabilities.  Any
thoughts?

5) We also have the possibility of using our Oracle 8i (soon) and JBuilder
front end to do the application.  However, this presents other complications
in getting drafts to the authors and has even more complexities from the font
perspective.  Thoughts?

6) Lastly, what happens if we have to add Asian languages?  I am completely in
the dark here.

-- 
Jay Smith

e-mail: jay@jaysmith.com

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