OS X
If Liz is using Macintosh OS X, she doesn't need any new fonts â" characte=
rs with
appropriate diacritics come with the system software. To access these chara=
cters, she will
need to either use the Character Palette or the Unicode Hex Input. I hope t=
hat the
following instructions won't be too condescending - I don't know Liz's leve=
l of tech
savvy. I also hope that they won't be too confusing - these things are a li=
ttle difficult
to explain without pictures.
To activate both the Character Palette and Unicode Hex Input, go to the App=
le menu and
select 'System Preferences...' In the 'Personal' section, select 'Internati=
onal'. Select 'Input
Menu', and see to it that 'Character Palette' and/or 'Unicode Hex Input' ar=
e checked.
At this point, there should be a new input methods menu in the righthand se=
ction of the
menu bar. This menu will have an icon, rather than text. On my computer, it=
's an
Australian flag. On others, it will be other national flags, depending on t=
he keyboard input
method of choice of the user. In any application, all she needs to do is se=
lect the proper
input method from this menu in order to have access to the Pali characters.=
For both of these input methods, you need to understand what Unicode is. Un=
icode is
meant to be a unique numeric mapping for every character in every language.=
Thus, it is
important to know the number of each character that will be used. For Pali:=
"n - 1E404/1E405
~n - 00D01/00F01 * This can also be produced through the usual option-n n.
.t - 1E60C/1E60D
.d - 1E00C/1E00D
.n - 1E406/1E407
.l - 1E306/1E307
aa - 01000/01001
ii - 0120A/0120B
uu - 0160A/0160B
The number before the slash in each group is the uppercase, and the number =
after is the
lowercase. There are letters mixed in with the numbers because these are he=
xidecimal -
base 16 - numerical represenations. Basically, the numbers 10-15 are repres=
ented as
single digits by the first six letters of the alphabet. There are a lot of =
great resources on-
line that explain hexidecimal quite well, but you don't really need to unde=
rstand the math
in order to understand how to use the Unicode representations.
To use the Character Palette, select it on the Input Methods menu (the one =
represented by
a symbol in the upper right). A panel which floats on top of every other it=
em on your
screen will appear. Given that you now know the Unicode IDs of all the char=
acters you'll
need, it's probably easier to select characters from the Unicode Table than=
from the
Unicode Blocks. Once you've selected the necessary character, either hit en=
ter, double-
click on the character, or click 'Insert'. It would probably be wise to mov=
e all of the
characters into your Favorites list. That way, you don't have to search thr=
ough the table
every time you want a particular character.
To use Hex Input, simply select it from the Input Methods menu. To add any =
of the Pali
characters, hold down the 'alt'/'option' key while typing in the Unicode en=
coding. This is
faster, but, given that there's not 'Favorites' list, it takes a bit more m=
emorisation than
does the Character Palette.
For converting files from a PC, it will probably be necessary to do about e=
ighteen 'replace
all's.
A final note for OS X - this will not work with Microsoft Word unless you'r=
e using the 2004
release. Prior versions are not Unicode compliant. Which is stupid. For pri=
or editions of
Microsoft Word, it will be necessary to use an OS 9 method. There will be d=
ifficulties, as
Word might not let you access some of the characters.
OS 9 and Prior
Advice has already been posted. I would only add that the Norman and LeedsB=
it fonts in
the Files section of this group (for those who have only used the group via=
e-mail, this can
be accessed at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Pali/) have both worked on my =
OS 9.2
Mac quite well. Mac has been able to use TrueType fonts since System 7.0. F=
or converting
files that come from a PC, it will be necessary to find and replace certain=
characters, as in
OS X.