Character unit

Character unit overview

In CJK, especailly in China, character is used as a unit to measure some paragraph attributes, such as indent, line spacing and tab stop. etc. Character unit is most useful in processing Chinese. For example, users are used to use two characters as the indent of first line of the paragraph.

＊＊大家好

大家好，才是真的好

With character unit, users need not worry about the layout confusion due to font size changing.

For line spacing of paragraph, line unit is used.

File format support

Open XML support

• Line Spacing in Line Units

[xml]

 <xsd:complexType name="CT_Spacing">
   <xsd:attribute name="beforeLines" type="ST_DecimalNumber" use="optional">
     <xsd:annotation>
       <xsd:documentation>Spacing Above Paragraph IN Line Units</xsd:documentation>
     </xsd:annotation>
   </xsd:attribute>
   <xsd:attribute name="afterLines" type="ST_DecimalNumber" use="optional">
     <xsd:annotation>
       <xsd:documentation>Spacing Below Paragraph in Line Units</xsd:documentation>
     </xsd:annotation>
   </xsd:attribute>
 </xsd:complexType>

• Indentation In Character Units

[xml]

 <xsd:complexType name="CT_Ind">
   <xsd:attribute name="leftChars" type="ST_DecimalNumber" use="optional">
     <xsd:annotation>
       <xsd:documentation>Left Indentation in Character Units</xsd:documentation>
     </xsd:annotation>
   </xsd:attribute>
   <xsd:attribute name="rightChars" type="ST_DecimalNumber" use="optional">
     <xsd:annotation>
       <xsd:documentation>Right Indentation in Character Units</xsd:documentation>
     </xsd:annotation>
   </xsd:attribute>
   <xsd:attribute name="hangingChars" type="ST_DecimalNumber" use="optional">
     <xsd:annotation>
       <xsd:documentation>Indentation Removed From First Line in Character Units</xsd:documentation>
     </xsd:annotation>
   </xsd:attribute>
   <xsd:attribute name="firstLineChars" type="ST_DecimalNumber" use="optional">
     <xsd:annotation>
       <xsd:documentation>Additional First Line Indentation in Character Units</xsd:documentation>
     </xsd:annotation>
   </xsd:attribute>
 </xsd:complexType>

ODF support

ODF does not support Character unit yet. The following proposal will be sent to the ODF TC for discussion.