Text Services Framework
What is the Text Services Framework?
The Text Services Framework, or TSF, is a set of components for modern applications that support advanced input and text processing. It supports features such as keyboard drivers, handwriting recognition, speech recognition, as well as spell checking and other text processing functions.
In Windows 7, the Language Bar is the core user interface for TSF. From the Language Bar, you can select the input language, and control keyboard input, handwriting recognition and speech recognition. In Windows 8, the Language Bar is no longer used, and the interface is tightly integrated into the taskbar.
With Keyman Desktop 9 and later versions, all keyboards are registered through the Windows interfaces, and the key advantage is that Keyman now automatically detects applications that have support for TSF and upgrades the experience for those applications.
For those applications that support TSF, the most important advantage is that Keyman can read the current 'context' from the application. The 'context' is the characters on the screen around the insertion point. Earlier versions of Keyman remembered the context while inputting text, but as soon as an arrow key was pressed, or the mouse clicked, Keyman would forget the context. This means that existing text can be edited in a much more intuitive manner when using TSF.
What applications support TSF?
TSF is supported by a wide range of software and Windows components.
