Yuhalu User Manual

Purpose

• The primary purpose of this software is to provide learning and teaching tools to help users learn the Hmong language and preserve it for future generations.
• Another intention of writing the software in Java is to allow it to run on multiple platforms such as Windows, Mac, Linux, Unix, and others.

Features

1. Dialects Supported
   This software supports both White Hmong (Hmoob Dawb) and Blue Hmong (Hmoob Leeg) dialects, written in the Romanized Popular Alphabet (RPA) used in Southeast Asia. It can also read English text.
   
   Mixed texts may be placed together in the same document by using inline tags such as:
   
   • <Dialect:Dawb> — Normalizes all numbers into White Hmong words for subsequent text.
   • <Dialect:Leeg> — Normalizes all numbers into Blue Hmong words for subsequent text.
   • <Dialect:English> — Indicates that the following text should be interpreted and read as English.
2. Audio Files
   Each voice contains more than 6,200 audio files used for text-to-speech synthesis.
   
   Note: Some sounds ending with tone marker g were removed in version 2.0 because they sound identical to the tone marker s in many cases. Examples: chaus sounds like chaug, haus sounds like haug, faus sounds like faug, and others.
   
   Users may also create their own voice by recording each syllable as a WAV file. See the Voice\Hmong subfolder for naming examples.
   
   Using syllable and word concatenation, the software can also read other Hmong scripts if their transliterations are supplied in RPA.
3. Inline Commands
   Yuhalu includes a large number of inline commands that control audio speed, pitch, volume, voice selection, pause time, echo, intonation, audio playback, video playback, picture slideshows, and many animated options.
4. Lessons
   • Several lessons are included to help users learn vowels, consonants, tones, and other components of the Hmong language. Lessons may include text, audio, video, buttons on multiple tabs, or spreadsheet-style tables.
   • Users may also create their own lessons and slideshows, add music or recorded audio, and share them with others.
5. Check Spelling
   • The software can break disyllables and polysyllables into monosyllables to check spelling. Due to modern CPU speed, spelling checks are very fast—for example, checking 366,000 words takes only about five (5) seconds.
   • Note: Other commercial word processors can check spelling but usually only for monosyllables unless the user provides a dictionary containing mono-, di-, and polysyllabic words.
6. Text To Audio
   This feature exports text to audio in WAV format (44,100 samples/second, mono) by concatenating pre-recorded digital sound files, instead of recording real-time playback. This method produces much higher quality and is significantly faster.
   
   Additional export formats include AAC, FLAC, and MP3.
   Both English and Hmong text, including background music, can be exported and used for video dubbing or other multimedia projects.
7. Word Extraction
   Using modern OCR technology (such as Acrobat and others), printed Hmong dictionaries, Bibles, and publications can be scanned. This feature allows extraction of monosyllables, disyllables, and polysyllables from those documents.
8. Utility Helpers
   A number of helpful utilities are included:
   • Analyze and clean thousands of noisy audio files on the fly.
   • Convert audio files among AAC, FLAC, MP3, and WAV formats.
   • A built-in video editor with options to:
     1. Crop
     2. Cut
     3. Dub
     4. Extract
     5. Merge
     6. Normalize
     7. Overlay
     8. Stretch
     9. Trim
     10. Watermark
   • Watermark designer

Requirements

1. A computer with at least 2GB RAM, 5GB of hard drive, speaker, mouse, and keyboard
2. A monitor with resolution at least 1,024 X 768 pixel, higher resolution is better.
   Note: As option, a projector and/or speakers can be connected to a computer to be used at school, at church, and at any social gatherings.
3. Oracle Java JRE (Java Runtime Environment) software is needed to download and install for the required operating system. Refer to its download instructions online, including setting up variable path.

Manual Written Order

Title Frame

Menu Bar

1. Most of the menus have instructions on how to use them, and options to turn on or off, refer to SettingPreference.html.
2. Some menus on the Menu bar and some on the drop down menus are not active because they are not allowed to use or not applicable.
3. When shortcut key is available on menu, press the Alt key and the underlined letter to use that option, example: Alt + F to access File menu. Refer to ShortcutKey.html for more details.

Setting Menu

Utility Menu

View Menu

View Menu

Name	Function
Document Info	View the number of byte and number of word on the main document based on text selection. If no selection, the text on the whole document is selected as default.
Error Log	This feature allows you to view runtime error messages recorded by Yuhalu. These logs can be sent back to the Yuhalu developer for debugging if needed. The Error Log window provides the following options: OK – Close the Error Log window. Zip Error Log – Compress available log files into a ZIP archive for sending to Yuhalu support. This button is enabled only when log files with content are available. Delete Error Log – Permanently remove all error log files after confirmation. A password is required to prevent accidental deletion.
Invalid Word	View invalid words and data entry after check Spelling or processing reading data if there are any.

Visual Menu

.

Visual Menu

Name	Function
Align	Click Left, Center or Right to align text as needed.
Left	Alight all text to the left side or left justified.
Center	Alight all text to the center.
Right	Alight all text to the right side.
Color	Click any option to show up the color menu to select color.
Caret	To select color for the caret.
Highlighter	Set the color of the highlighter while reading. Refer to this menu how it looks like. To choose a color on the popup menu, on the Swatches tab, click on the desired color to select, then click the button. Tip:In case of no need to highlight the reading word or to turn it off, set this color to the same as the background. Actually, each reading word is still highlighted, but since they both have the same color so highlighting is invisible.
Background	To select color for the background for the main document.
Background Image	To select background image for the background of the main document.
Font	Set parameters for font.
Bold	To toggle from normal to bold and vice versa.
Name	To select font name.
Size	To select font size.

Help Menu

Main Toolbar

Descriptions

Button/Name	Function
	Access Find & Replace screen with some options that are on and some are off based on the condition of the document that is editable or read only. Refer to its screen or help file file FindReplaceDialog.html
	Print the selected texts or graphics on the main document.
Autocomplete	Check to show autocomplete list based on dialect and loanwords.
Blink	Check to blink focus component and other tasks.
Talking Menu	Check to read a menu's instructions in Blue Hmong or White Hmong dialect based on setting dialect after clicking it. Refer to setting dialect help SettingDialect.html
Read Typing	Check to read typing word after pressing the space bar, and to read the whole line after pressing the return key.
Signal	Check to show the signal of a sentense, a word, syllable, or audio segment while reading. Note that the signal may differ depending on context: when a word ends with punctuation, the signal fades out gradually; when followed by another word, the end of the signal fades rapidly due to trimming, helping the reading sound more natural. Please note that when this checkbox is checked, and the reading is in progress, other menus cannot be accessed due to the signal window takes over the focus. To access other menus, uncheck its checkbox or click the button. Here is the monaural audio signal for sound a.wav. The signal is plotted based on the settings of speed and pitch so the same syllable may look different.
	Click it to show its menu with checkboxes. When any of these are checked, their features are applied for typing from RPA to diacritics, reading and translitations. If the Tone Markers checkbox is checked on the pop up menu, there will be eight buttons to show the RPA tone markers and diacritical marks. Note: As of now, these diacritical marks are in the experimental stage so they may be changed in the future. Refer to its help file DiacriticalMark.html.

Main Document

1. Text cannot be entered or edited when the Lock checkbox on the menu bar is checked and its color is red.
   While reading is in progress, this checkbox is automatically checked to prevent data entry, and to highlight reading words correctly.
2. Sometimes the screen would go blank or some of the texts would be partially chopped off when reading. When this happens, the reading words will not be highlighted or just partially. The best thing to do is to exit the software, then run again.

File Menu

Edit Menu

Insert Menu

Insert Menu

Name	Function
Character	Insert character(s) between a number and a word to the selected texts. Refer to its screen or help file InsertCharacter.html
File
	Audio Insert one or multiple audios selected from popup window to the cursor location to play audio. For more detail, Refer to its screen or help file InsertAudio.html. The inserted text has the complete absolute path, example: C:\Yuhalu\Audio\Music\MyFavoriteSong.mp3. Relative path such as Audio\Music\MyFavoriteSong.mp3 will work fine too if it is a local file. Audio formats: WAV, MP3, FLAC – speech, music, sound effects, etc. IMPORTANT: Make sure that no file name contains spaces. The software parses words using space as boundary. Remove spaces from file names first.
	Picture Insert one or multiple pictures selected from popup window to the cursor location to slide. To select all pictures in a folder, press Ctrl + A. Folder names may also be highlighted, but they are not inserted. Picture formats: GIF, JPG, PNG
	Text Insert a text file at the caret position.
	Video Insert one or multiple videos selected from popup window at thr cursor location. To select all videos, press Ctrl + A. Folder names may be highlighted but are not inserted. Note: It is recommanded to convert all videos to format MP4 using Video Auditor before inserting to the document because it takes times time to convert while reading aloud.
Inline Command
	All Commands Refer to its screen or help file InsertInlineCommand.html.
	Dialect Refer to its screen or help file InsertDialect.html.
	Pause Time Refer to its screen or help file InsertPauseTime.html.
	Read Number Refer to its screen or help file InsertReadNumber.html.
	Voice Refer to its screen or help file InsertInsertDialect.html.
Link File	Refer to its screen or help file InsertLinkFile.html.
Symbol	Refer to its screen or help file InsertSymbol.html.

More...

Diverse

Animate

Basic

Vowels

Consonants

Numbers

Calculator

1. To read a button, just click it.
2. Click this button to highlight and to read text on each button from the beginning to the end for all buttons on that tab, except the calculator tab.
3. Click this button to stop reading.
4. Click this button to show the popup note screen where file can be opened to be read.
5. Check this checkbox to show letters on buttons in upper case for vowel and consonant tabs.

Category

Body Parts

Drinks

Foods

Fruits

Kitchenware

Vegetables

Category Toolbar

Descriptions

Name	Function
	Click this button to reload file to the top pane.
	Click this button to highlight and to read the selected texts on the top pane.
	Click this button to read the texts on the buttons from the first one to the last one.
	Click this button to stop reading on pane.
	Click this button to access the Category Options with checkboxes as below. Note: When clicking a button but no sound, it means that none of the reading dialog checkbox below is checked.
Dawb	Check to read texts on clicked button in White Hmong dialect.
English	Check to read texts on clicked button in English.
Leeg	Check to read texts on clicked button in Blue Hmong Dialect.
Show text	Check to show popup window with reading texts.

Pronoun

Subjective

Objective

Possessive Adjective

Possessive

Reflexive

1. To read a button, just click it.
2. Click this button to highlight and to read text on each button from the beginning to the end for all buttons on that tab.
3. Click this button to stop reading.
4. Click this button to show the popup note screen.

English

English

English

Game

Multimedia

Table

Table

Tool Menu

Descriptions

Button/Name	Function
	Refer to this help TextSelection.html on how to select text before clicking this button. Click to process and to read text, and its shortcut key is Alt + R. Follow popup instructions what to do when they show if there are any when normalizing and tokenizing. While reading, the stop button can be used to stop, or the button can be used to pause. This is the button (option) with the most complex codes, and the following are some of the steps performed before reading after clicking it: Get a word separated by space from the selection to find out what kind of word it is? A vowel, consonant, RPA Date or time Bible verse, name of author Currency, whose and how much Name of one of US 50 state, country Website Email Number: Change 1,237 to "ib txab ob puas peb caug xyaa" for Blue Hmong dialect or "ib txhiab ob puas peb caug xya" for White Hmong's based on dialect setting. Phone and fax number Sound file and what format Unit for measurement for length, temperature, weight, etc... If invalid RPA, search in dictionaries. Keep it to spell when reading if unknown, or show as error based on setup Break disyllabic and polysyllabic words into monosyllabic ones. Tokenize, normalize, and create the needed arrays with indice to be used when reading text aloud. Keep punctuation marks to pause properly. Keep positional index to highlight word when reading. Whose voice to be used for reading Assign its sound file. Repeat processing until getting all selected words done. The reading starts until done or interrupted by the user.
	Click it to stop reading, and its shortcut key is Alt + S. After stopping, all selected texts are still kept in memory to be used by the button. Note: As soon as a character is enterred to the document, all tokenized words are gone so clicking the button will do nothing.
	This is a toggle button that changes from Pause to Resume and vice versa. Clicking it when reading changes from Pause to Resume, and the reading pauses. Clicking it when showing Resume changes to Pause, and reading resumes.
	Click to repeat reading the same texts selected by the read button. While reading, the stop button can be used to stop reading, or the button can be used to pause.
	Position the caret to the beginning of the document. It is similar to shortcut key Ctrl + Home.
	Position the caret to the end of the document. It is similar to shortcut key Ctrl + End.
	Access its screen to set pause time for word or syllable when reading. It is the time to pause before reading the next word or syllable. For normal reading, set it zero (0). Refer to this picture how it looks like.
Lock	When it is checked, click it to show a window to enter password to unlock and to allow editing and data entry. This password is randomly generated each time, and it can be highlighted with the mouse and copied (Ctrl + C), then pasted (Ctrl + V) to the Confirm password field. Use password ok in either upper or lower case letter is fine. Click the button to unlock. To lock it, just check its checkbox when it is unchecked. Notes: While reading is in progress, it is automatically checked; otherwise, the wrong words and syllables are highlighted if there are new data entry. The Edit and Insert options on the menu are grayed out or disable when it is checked. This means that data entry are not allowed on this document. It is a feature not to allow a child or unexperienced user to enter data to the document. There will be delay for large document when checking or unchecking this box.
Hide	Hide or show the main menu bar and the main toolbar on top. To use the main toolbar before hiding this main menu, drag it out.
Syllable: 30/292 10% Elapsed time: 00:00:13	This is the status bar showing the information as indicated when reading.