LaTeX and Glyph Scaling for Justified Text

Question

I am very new to LaTeX - and I am not sure if Latex has the capability to do what I want, so I thought I would ask here.

I am working with publishing books in Khmer (the language of Cambodia) in Unicode. I am using OpenOffice to do the basic layout of the book (which allows me to use a spelling checker and grammar checker for Khmer). The problem is using justified paragraphs in OpenOffice with Khmer looks really bad. Khmer has no spaces between words (we do use a zero-width-space between words though), and so what I really need is something like what Adobe InDesign does - glyph scaling. Does anyone know a LaTeX solution that would allow me to specify glyph scaling for Khmer Unicode? And what is the best way to go from OpenOffice to a LaTeX format?

Answer 1

Does anyone know a Latex solution that would allow me to specify glyph scaling for Khmer Unicode?

Apparently, Microtype package can do glyph scaling. http://mathoverflow.net/questions/21458/typesetting-mathematics-how-do-em-you-convert-text-into-pdf

And what is the best way to go from OpenOffice to a Latex format?

There isn't really a best way. You just have to type latex and use its tags etc. You can use many editors to write Latex, e.g., emacs vi, notepad, or MiTek. I strongly suggest keeping a latex handbook on your desk when you do this, you will be looking at it every few minutes. I found it to be faster than google (ironically).