Special characters

Ruth · Post by **Ruth** » 2008-02-20 04:37:34

I would like to ask you to add to the list of special characters H,S,T,h.s.t with under-dots. This will make Nisus Pro the best choice for those who use the standard transliteration of Arabic and Hebrew to Latin letters. Many people need this facility. Thanks Ruth.

Hamid · Post by **Hamid** » 2008-02-20 05:25:16

These characters have always been available in NWE/NWP from the keyboard. If you use the U.S. Extended keyboard layout, for example, you can obtain dot under characters by first entering Option-x followed by the character.

ProfT · Post by **ProfT** » 2008-02-20 05:36:26

The special characters needed for transliteration can also be inserted using the character palette. Pretty much everything you'd need is found in the latin set (including 'h' with rocker or dot, and the full variety needed for marking various 's' consonants).

Ruchama · Post by **Ruchama** » 2008-02-20 05:55:18

I think the special characters list you mean is a part of the mac OS and not of nisus. meaning- you can access any character apple included in the system. in the unicode system all nikud options are available from the hebrew showing fonts.
basically- you should look for a unicode font where you can also get the under-dotted letters. (take for example the lucida grande font).

Ruth · Post by **Ruth** » 2008-02-21 02:12:00

Hamid, many thanks for your answer. I use a MacBook and cannot find how to simulate the option key on my key-board. Do you know? Thanks again. Ruth.

mrennie · Post by **mrennie** » 2008-02-21 02:40:49

Ruth Glasner wrote:Hamid, many thanks for your answer. I use a MacBook and cannot find how to simulate the option key on my key-board. Do you know? Thanks again. Ruth.

Hi Ruth,

the Option key is also known as alt key, it is to the right of the Ctrl key.

Hamid · Post by **Hamid** » 2008-02-21 02:48:54

On the MacBook keyboard, (and on most keyboards) the option key is marked 'alt'.

To use 'U.S. Extended' keyboard layout, add it to your input source from:

System Preferences=>International=>Input Menu

Option-x followed by any charcer will give dot under characters with U.S. Extended, and Option-a followed by any character will give a macron on that character.

Several fonts already have the glyphs to write special characters used in transcription. There are some free fonts that you can use, for example, Junicode and Gentium.
You can download Junicode from:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfile ... _id=158636

It is the zip file entitled 'junicode-mac-0-6-15' (Mac Universal)

You can download Gentium from:
http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page ... m_download

'Gentium 1.02 (Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux)' or 'Gentium 1.02 (Mac OS 9, Mac OS X)'. they are identical files.

You can download Keyboard See, a free utility to view the map of any keyboard layout of your choice from:

http://www.fernlightning.com/doku.php?i ... eyboardsee

Elbrecht · Post by **Elbrecht** » 2008-02-21 03:22:46

Well Hamid -

with (1) OPTION-X you get deadkeys, that work with pre-composed characters available in the font only. To enter all other possible diacritical marked characters and combine-on-the-flow use (2) SHIFT&OPTION-X. Both options work with "U.S. Extended" keyboard, but remember with (1) character follows the diacritic, but with (2) diacritic(s) to follow the character!

I did customize a copy of the "U.S. Extended" keyboard to cover German Umlaute as well and named it "German Extended" - this is easily done with SIL's Ukelele tool:

http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page ... id=ukelele

And there still is the "TITUS Cyberbit Basic" Unicode font:

http://titus.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de/unicode/tituut.asp

Last but not least Leopard now comes with the big one: "Arial Unicode"...

HE

PS: there is "Keyboard Viewer" under the Input Menu to get organized: get it displayed as menu option, open and inspect any selected keyboard to find out about deadkeys, or whatever...

Ruth · Post by **Ruth** » 2008-02-25 00:40:12

Hamid, I am very grateful. I tried what you suggested. The US extended is indeed convenient. The option-a works fine on my computer but the option-x does not. I tried all the other combinations and did not manage to get the under dots.
As to the special fonts I used the Bloomington font for years, but it was inconvenient because nobody else has it. I hoped that now, in Nisus Pro there will be a more convenient way to get the under-dots. Many thanks again. Ruth.

Elbrecht · Post by **Elbrecht** » 2008-02-25 00:55:51

Dear Ruth -

I don't know about the font you got used to, but as in my previous mail: the way Hamid does it, you need a font including pre-compsoed characters with dots below to succeed! Please try other font(s) Lucida Grande, etc and maybe in TextEdit to compare with Nisus Writer. It definitely works - you only need to get used to - anew...

HE

Ruth · Post by **Ruth** » 2008-02-25 01:03:15

Elbrecht thank you.
With the US extended I get with the shift-option-x a sign under the letter to the left, not a dot in the middle. I found no way to get the under dot. Ruth.

Elbrecht · Post by **Elbrecht** » 2008-02-25 01:14:08

Hi Ruth -

as again in my pre-previous mail: when you alternatively enter with SHIFT/OPTION-X "dot" has to follow the "character/letter" as if writing with hand - over against the deadkey method doing it the other way round! So enter letter "h" first - to be followed by SHIFT/OPTION-X "dot below"...

But I personally prefer OPTION-X deadkeys, because the pre-composed characters included in my font still display better than the on-the-fly ones. Other difference is: with SHIFT/OPTION-X you can combine nearly every combination possible, while with OPTION-X only the - better - pre-composed characters included in the font used get displayed.

It's all easily done, when you dig it once and for all...
HE

Ruth · Post by **Ruth** » 2008-02-27 07:06:52

Elbrect, many thanks again. I managed with the shift-option-x. This is indeed a nice and flexible tool. Best. Ruth.

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