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--- Classical Greek Fonts and Utilities ---
-- Help and FAQs --
General questions: downloading files, etc.
General questions about fonts
Questions about the macros
- When I try to add an accent or breathing to a letter, two copies of the letter appear, one with an accent, the other without.
- When I try to add a dot to a letter with GreekAddDot, I get a string of about 20 weird characters.
- I press one of the keys shown in the instructions, but either nothing happens or the computer beeps at me.
- Word won't let me assign keys to the macros.
- I am using Word 97/2000, and whenever I try to accent a character I just get a question mark.
- I am using Word 97/2000, and whenever I try to add a Circumflex I get the message "Else without IF".
- I am using Word 97/2000, and whenever I use the macros, a window appears telling me that I have an Error Message 5
- I can no longer get the characters epsilon asper grave, iota with diaeresis, or the opening curly double quotation mark - I see a box instead.
- None of the questions above are relevant - I am still having trouble and I need help.
General Questions: Downloading, etc.
Q: What are ZIP and EXE files?
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A: Every file available for download from this site will be either a ZIP or an EXE file. The two types of file need to be handled in different ways:
-- (i) ZIP files consist of one or more files packaged together and compressed, and they must be de-compressed by a utility such as Winzip before they can be used. If you have such a program installed, you can open a ZIP file by double-clicking on it. One then usually extracts the compressed files to a new location.
-- (ii) EXE files are actual programs (EXE is short for EXECUTABLE): the executable files on this site will either be installation programs (which will install programs such as Son of WinGreek or Antioch) or 'self-extracting archives': that is, compressed archives which can de-compress themselves without the need for any utilities. They can be run by double-clicking on the file.
Important note - While all the files on this site have been checked for viruses, you must always check files you have downloaded (especially EXE files) for viruses yourself before running them.
Q: How do I download a file?
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A: In most cases, clicking on the specified link should be enough to start the download process. The browser will attempt to determine the kind of file you are downloading, and deal with it accordingly. In Internet Explorer, a window may appear asking you if you want to "Open this file from its current location" or "Save it to Disk". You will want to "Save it to disk" - you can choose where to save the file, and it will save a lot of time if make sure you remember where you save it.
Things are going badly wrong if after clicking on a "download" link, you see a screen full of meaningless text. You can try pressing SHIFT while clicking on the link, or right-clicking and choosing Save Link As, but if that doesn't work you will need to get in touch with a nearby computer person to help you.
General questions about fonts
Q: How do I install a font?
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- Click on Start, then settings, then Control Panel
- A new window will appear. Find the icon listed Fonts and double-click it.
- A window entitled Fonts will appear. Click on File, Install New Font... [Help! I can't see Install New Font...]
- Another new window will appear. You will need to know the location of the font(s) you wish to install. Choose the correct drive in the Drives box, the correct folder in the Folders box, and then wait for the font(s) to appear in the List of Fonts window.
- Ensure the Copy Fonts to Font Folder box has a tick in it, select all the fonts you wish to install, click on OK. The fonts are now installed.
- If you are currently running a program that allows you to choose fonts, you may not be able to choose the newly installed font(s) without shutting down the program and starting it up again.
Q: I can't see Install New Font on the Font panel
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Sometimes, when you are in the Fonts window, and click on File, you cannot see the option Install New Font. This can happen if, for some mysterious reason, the Fonts folder has lost it's 'System' attribute. There are two solutions. Either ...
- Start Windows in MS-DOS mode (Select Start > Shut Down > Restart the computer in MS DOS mode)
- At the DOS prompt type: attrib +s c:\windows\fonts
- Restart Windows
or get hold of a copy of TweakUI, one of Microsoft's PowerToys, and choose Rebuild System Folders
Q: I try to type an apostrophe or a upsilon with an acute accent and the character then mysteriously changes into something else
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This is a common problem, and arises from the fact that the word-processor believes you are typing in a normal Roman script: typing an apostrophe in Greek is equivalent to typing a straight apostrophe in Roman script - which most word-processors will then automatically convert to a curly quote. But in the WinGreek encoding, the curly quote character is actually a circumflex over a smooth breathing. My macros have a special key-combination to allow the insertion of an apostrophe - otherwise you should ensure that auto-correct options (Tools / Auto-Correct / AutoCorrect or AutoFormat As You Type) such as "Replace straight quotes with curly quotes" or "Correct Two Uppercase Letters" are not selected.
Q: What's the difference between the two versions of the WinGreek Greek font?
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The most recent version of WinGreek comes with two versions of its Greek font. Version One appears readily enough when one unzips the file: it is dated 21/04/1993 and is 55 Kb in size. Version Two is contained inside a folder named 'Version 2', and is dated 31/08/1993, 71 Kb in size. Version Two is a symbol font, so it will display all its characters in Windows 98 but will suffer from other problems, while Version One is a regular font but is incompatible with the Euro. I have developed a Euro-compatible version of this font, but I need to get in contact with the original developers before I can release it.
Q: I can't get an epsilon with grave accent and rough breathing / iota with diaresis
Q: I can't get the left opening parenthesis
Q: I can't get ANSI characters 128, 142 or 158
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These are all symptoms of the problems caused by the introduction of the Euro symbol. The combination of Windows 98 and above running Word 97 or above means that these characters cannot be displayed. More details are given in the Basics Page. In brief, the only solution is to get an updated version of the font, or to use Word 95.
Q: My Greek text spills over into the next line in the middle of a word
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This problem affects all symbol fonts when used in Word 97 or above: Word sees
the spaces not as actual spaces (and thus word-breaks), but as little
pictures. More details can be found on the Basics page. A work-around is to use Word's Search
and Replace function to replace the symbol spaces with ordinary Times New
Roman spaces. Details of this process can be found on Jeffrey Rusten's GreekKeys
site.
Q: What is Unicode?
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A description of Unicode and its features can be found on the Basics page.
Q: How do I convert from one font to another?
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If the fonts involved belong to the same encoding system, then you can convert one font to another in a number of ways.
- Search and Replace: the following is the procedure for Word 2000 - something roughly similar should work in most word-processors.
- Click on Edit / Replace
- A window appears. If you cannot see a button marked "Format", click on the button marked More
- Click in the Find What box. Click on the Format button, and then select Font...
- Select the font you wish to replace (e.g. Milan). Click on OK and you should see this font appear underneath the Find What box (e.g. Font: Milan Greek)
- Click in the Replace With box. Click on the Format button, and then select Font...
- This time select the font you want to change to (e.g. Korinthus). Click on OK and you should see this font appear underneath the Replace With box (e.g. Font: Korinthus Greek)
- Then click on Replace All and off you go!
- Font Substitution - this is can only be used when you have been given a document containing a Greek font you do not possess in the same encoding as a font you do. It is similar to the process above, except that it does not actually change the name of the font.
- Click on Tools / Options / Compatibility
- Click on Font Substitution
- In the Missing document font box, click the font you want to replace
- In the Substituted font box, click the font you want to use instead of the missing font.
- Click on OK and that should do it.
If, however, you want to convert fonts which have different encodings, things are slightly more complicated.
Q: I can't print Unicode Greek characters - they look fine on the screen, but they print as small squares or boxes
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Although an increasing number of programs support Unicode, many printer drivers are still not fully Unicode compatible. The printer driver's job is to work out the instructions it needs to send to the printer to get the printer to print a particular character. To speed things up, the printer driver stores the instructions for every character it prints in a cache - thus if the same character appears more than once, the printer driver can re-use the instructions from the cache, rather than working them out each time. Unfortunately, it is often the case that these caches cannot deal with the less common Unicode characters (such as accented Greek), and this is why these characters are printed as square boxes. There are a number of possible solutions:
- The first step is to see if you can find the option "Print TrueType fonts as Graphics" in your Printer Properties pages. If you can, select it and see if that makes a difference
- If that fails, visit the website of your printer manufacturer and make sure you are using the very latest version of their printer drivers
- If that fails, then use the default printer drivers that come with your Windows CD. To do this,
- make a note of your printer's make and model number
- dig out your Windows CD from wherever it is hiding
- disconnect your printer from the back of the computer
- click on Start / Settings / Printers
- double-click on Add Printer
- after a few windows, you will be asked to choose the manufacturer, and then the model number of your printer. If you do not see your printer's model number (this may happen if your printer is fairly new), try choosing a similar, but older, model
- click on Next, rather than Have Disk, as you want to install the driver supplied by Windows rather than the one supplied by your printer's manufacturer. At this point you may need to insert the Windows CD into your CD-drive
- follow the prompts, reconnect the printer and fingers crossed ...
The Windows drivers do not allow any letters to be stored in a cache, so the problem discussed above cannot arise. The downside is that printing might be slower, and you will not have access to any special features of your printer. You may therefore want to use this printer driver only when printing Greek.
All that is important in the above text comes from a message sent by the ever-wise Ralph Hancock to the Classics email list. His original version, which also contains a very useful overview of Unicode and supporting platforms, can be found here
Questions about the macros
Q: When I try to add an accent or breathing to a letter, two copies of the letter appear, one with an accent, the other without.
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Solution: Go to Tools/Option/Edit, and click in the box next to "Typing Replaces Selection" - there should now be a check mark in the box.
Q: When I try to add a dot to a letter with GreekAddDot, I get a string of about 20 weird characters.
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Solution: Go to Tools/Option/View, and uncheck the box marked "Field Codes".
Q: I press one of the keys shown in the instructions, but either nothing happens or the computer beeps at me.
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There are a number of possible problems and solutions:
- the macros were assigned to keys on a British keyboard - it may well be that you will need to reassign the keys to suit your own keyboard layout. Full instructions are given in the documentation. [Help! Word won't let me assign keys to a macro...]
- if this doesn't work, it may be that you have not copied over all of the macros. Go to Tools/Macros (Word 95) or Tools/Macro/Macros... (Word 97/2000) and see if all of the macros listed in the documentation can be found there. If not, copy over the missing macro (instructions are given in the documentation).
Q: Word won't let me assign keys to the macros.
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Solution: First, ensure that you are following the instructions properly. Be especially careful that you have specified the right template in the Save changes in... box. If this doesn't fix things, then you have found yourself in the odd but not uncommon situation where Word has become confused about its key-assignations - this happens when multiplte changes are made to the Normal template without any saves in between. This situation can arise in a number of cirucmstances: for example, failing to shut down Word when instructed to do so during the automatic installation routine. To clear things up again:
- Go to Tools/Customize/Keyboard
- Click on Reset All... button. This will clear any key assignments you have made in the template specified in the Save Changes in box. If you have made several of these, you will unfortunately have to do them again.
- Word will ask if you really want to remove all the key assignments. Click on OK
- Click on Close, then Close again, and then SHUT DOWN WORD. This is very important.
- When you restart Word, you should be able to assign the keys without any problem.
Q: I am using Word 97/2000, and whenever I try to accent a character I just get a question mark.
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Solution: You are using the old version of the macros. Get the new ones from my webpage.
Q: I am using Word 97/2000, and whenever I try to add a Circumflex I get the message "Else without IF".
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Solution: You have fallen victim to Word's buggy automatic conversation of Word 95 macros. Get the new macros from my webpage.
Q: I am using Word 97/2000, and whenever I use the macros, a window appears telling me that I have an Error Message 5
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Solution: Get the new version of the macros.
Q: I can no longer get the characters epsilon asper grave, iota with diaeresis, or the opening curly double quotation mark - I see a box instead.
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Solution: see the answer given above
Q: None of the questions above are relevant - I am still having trouble.
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Solution: send me an email (matthew.robinson@balliol.ox.ac.uk) and I will see what I can do.
This particular page was last updated on 4th March, 2002
If you have any comments or queries, please feel free to email me at matthew.robinson@balliol.ox.ac.uk.