SansBlogue: Unicode for Dummies II (on Windows XP)

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Mark has posted a fuller and more detailed post that links to sets of instructions for those who are not geeks but want to use Unicode to make their biblical language text transportable to other computers (like my post below, he focuses ion Windows XP - one day enough people will have Vista for someone to worry about the differences!). So if:

you are not at all tech savey and just want to type Hebrew, Greek or transliterations that others can read - go HERE and use the Tyndale Font Kit
you are a bit tech literate AND you would like a choice of fonts - go HERE after installing the Tyndale Font Kit (but BEWARE do not follow the advice at Greek Geek to install or use BW fonts, they are great for users of the BibleWorks program but they are "legacy fonts" and do not transport well)
you are moderately techie, and want (possibly better) a choice of different keyboards and fonts perhaps even for Syriac or Coptic - go HERE and feast

I have been remiss in not highlighting the SIL fonts and system, I just wanted to keep things as simple as possible for the people who ask me about "fonts" for Hebrew. The SIL fonts and systems for many many languages are HERE, just make sure that if one is listed as "Unicode" you choose that one!

Bible Texts in Unicode (for cut and paste if you do not have Logos and can't make BibleWorks export in Unicode):

TanakhML Hebrew Bible Browser (nb. at the right under "Display" you have a choice of turning vowels, accents and other marks "On" or "Off" to make your text maximally readable turn accents "Off" - they will show as little empty boxes for people without the specialised fonts, while the basic consonants and vowels should display OK even for them)
Greek NT and LXX (I was not able to find an accented Greek

Labels: greek, hebrew, open.biblical.studies

¶ 8:09 AM

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Since I'm sitting here with Linux in front of me, I decided to see how this sort of thing might work with that. (Specifically, I'm using KDE as my desktop, rather than Gnome or anything else.) I went into the Control Centre, and had a look at the Regional options. All sorts of keyboard layouts were waiting there for me, so I chose to enable the Israel one, as well as the U.S. English one. A little icon appeared in my system tray to let me switch between them. I went into OpenOffice to test them out, and sure enough, I could choose to type in either the Roman alphabet or the Hebrew one.

Furthermore, the Sword project's free software integrates directly into KDE's file browser, so you can read "over 200 texts in over 50 languages" without leaving home, or at least those texts that you choose to install. You can copy and paste from there, and even switch on links to dictionary entries for Greek words in the New Testament, for example. Not being a scholar of any Biblical languages, I haven't yet bothered to find out if there are any accented Greek versions of the New Testament, or anything like that.

I understand the Sword project has software that works with Windows, too, but I haven't personally tried it.

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By tjm1983, at June 19, 2007 3:27 PM

Thanks, I couldn't really comment on Linux, I am stuck with XP, and most of the people who ask my help use it too. Linux users on the whole are tech savey enough to fix it themselves!

Sword is also available for PC (and I think Mac) it is probably the best multilingual Bible software available for free, though e-Sword for PC is easier to use. For serious sustained work with the languages one of the paying programs is well worth the money (if one has it) but the free programs allow one to do a lot.

By Tim, at June 20, 2007 4:48 PM

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