Smart Hyphen

Hyphenated plug-in for Adobe InDesign CS2 and InCopy CS2

Smart Hyphen is a plug-in that uses the *TALO hyphenator, or hyphenation engine. The *TALO hyphenators (www.talo.nl) follow the hyphenation rules determined by leading academies for each language, so naturally they’re more accurate. Plus, the hyphenators can be updated more frequently, so new words are more likely to be hyphenated correctly. WoodWing boasts up to a 99.95% accuracy for its hyphenation.

The installation is simple and the number of languages available is based on the license purchased. After installation, the Hyphenation setting in the Dictionary Preferences in InDesign must be set to Smart Hyphen for duplicate languages (those that also come with InDesign). Of course, you can always choose between Smart Hyphen or Proximity (InDesign’s default hyphenator) for the hyphenation engine, but it makes more sense to stick with one system. For spell checking, you can still use Proximity, but you may not have any spell checking dictionary available for Smart Hyphen-only languages. Naturally, care must be taken when sharing documents with other users.

It’s important to note that Hyphenation Exceptions and Merge User Dictionary preferences in InDesign are ignored when using Smart Hyphen. There’s a separate file for dealing with hyphenation exceptions. In addition, some languages can include custom edits to choose between the phonological (a field of linguistics dealing with the sound system of a specific language) or etymological (based on word origins) hyphenation methods

Smart Hyphen duplicates all the languages that come with InDesign, but also includes many others. If you need one of the “new” languages, Smart Hyphen is a no-brainer. Users of the languages already in InDesign should download the 30-day demo to compare the hyphenation difference and to see if they need the additional expense of the plug-in. —David Creamer

PRICE: $431 (single language)
FROM: WoodWing Software
PHONE: 313-962-0542
WEB: www.woodwing.com
RATING: 4.5

LAYERS VERDICT
HOT Adds additional languages to InDesign
NOT No spell check for added languages