Typing in Greek

Review of Beta Code

In the previous assignment, you learned how to write out Greek words in Beta Code. Here is the chart again to help you remember the Roman letters that correspond to Greek letters:

And remember, Beta Code does not distinguish between upper and lower-case letters. ADAM is the same as adam in Beta Code. To create an upper-case letter in Beta Code, put an asterisk in front of it. Αδαμ = *adam, *Adam, *ADAM (all the same result). There is also a way to indicate breathing marks and accent marks in Beta Code as well, although you are not going to be required to use breathing marks or accent marks in your Greek writing for this class.

Greek Typing Programs

There are three Greek typing programs I can recommend to you - one free program which is web-based, one free program which you can download to your computer, and one paid program which integrates with Microsoft Word. You need to choose which one you want to use and get it set up on your computer. The easiest way to get started is with UniGreek, since no special computer set-up of any kind is required. (Later, if you want to work offline, you will want to get a copy of Phil Dow's program, which runs locally on your computer, even when you are not connected to the Internet.)

UniGreek: This is a brand-new web-based Greek word processor built by a former OU student! He has created it for us to use in this class - so thank you, Randy! This web-based word processor has some great advantages. To type the capital letters, you do not need to use the asterisk - just use a capital Roman letter, and it will be converted to a capital Greek letter. Also, you can toggle back and forth between typing in Roman letters, and typing in Greek - so if you want to go back and forth between typing in English and typing in Greek you can use this program to do it!

UniGreekMac for Macintosh and UniGreek for Windows PC. This fabulous program can be downloaded and installed on your computer for free, thanks to the great efforts of Phil Dow (building on a prototype by Randy Hoyt). It only takes a couple of minutes to install the program, and you will find it very easy to use if you want to be typing in Greek when you are not online.

Antioch. Another valuable tool for typing Greek is the Microsoft Word utility called Antioch, which allows you to easily type both Unicode Greek and Hebrew inside Word. You can find out more at the Antioch website. Since this is a paid program, it is probably not of interest to you, but if you have a long-term interest in working with Greek (especially if you also plan on learning Hebrew), you might want to invest in this very nice little program, definitely worth the $50 it costs to register (you can download a trial version for free).

Greek in an Email Attachment

When you do your Greek composition each week, you are going to need to send it to the instructor in an email attachment. The easiest way to do that is using Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit (Macintosh). You will type out the Greek using one of the options described above, cut-and-paste your work into Notepad or TextEdit, save the file, and then send that file as an email attachment to the instructor.

• Notepad: You will find Notepad under Programs-Accessories-Notepad. When you save a file in Notepad, make sure you change the encoding from ASCII (the default) to UTF-8. (If you forget to do this, Notepad will prompt you that you need to designate the correct encoding when you save the file.)
• TextEdit: You will find TextEdit under the Applications for Macintosh OS-X. When you save a file in TextEdit, you should choose the option to save it as an "RTF" file. You should not have any trouble displaying the Greek in this format.
• Microsoft Word: You are not required to use Microsoft Word for this class! In fact, I would prefer if you do not use Word, since I try to avoid using Word myself. However, if you do want/need to use Microsoft Word for your own purpose, for another class, etc. you can include Greek in a Word document: just cut-and-paste into Word, and then select a font in Word that will display the Greek correctly. A good choice is Arial Unicode MS, or TItus Cyberbit Basic, if you have installed the Titus font on your computer.

To make sure you are able to create a file containing Greek text, try this practice assignment.

1. Using one of the options described above, type out this Greek phrase (which means "let there be light"). You will need to type the phrase using Beta Code to produce the Greek letters:

γενηθητω φως

2. Cut and paste your work into Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit (Macintosh) and save the file with the name light. You can save it on your Desktop, or you can save it in the folder you have created on your hard drive where you are saving the work for this class.

3. Go to where you saved the file and click on the file to open it to make sure the Greek was saved correctly.

4. After you have checked to make sure the file saved correctly, send an email to the instructor (laura-gibbs@ou.edu), with a subject line that says "Greek Light", and the "light" file attached to the email.

Do the Declaration for this assignment