Preparing Computers for Tibetan Editing
From Digital Tibetan
This article describes how to install the required software in order to be able to display and edit texts encoded in Tibetan Unicode.[1]
Contents |
Overview
In order to be able to view and edit Tibetan texts encoded in Tibetan Unicode you need three components:
- A operating system that supports displaying complex scripts.
- Tibetan Fonts in Unicode format
- A Tibetan Input Method
One of the major advantages of Unicode is that Unicode applications do not need to understand the rules how to create glyphs for a given language. The actual knowhow how to create Tibetan stacks resides within the Unicode font and the complex script support of the operating system.
Once all three components above are available, standard Unicode applications can be used to create, edit and display Tibetan texts.
A particularly useful Unicode application is OpenOffice. OpenOffice 3.1 is available for Windows, Linux and Mac, so Unicode documents created with OpenOffice can efficiently be shared across platforms. See also: Configuring OpenOffice for Tibetan script.
Use the Tibetan Unicode Test Page to verify your installation.
Preparation Guides for different Operating Systems
- Preparing a Computer running Windows XP for Tibetan Editing
- Preparing a Computer running Windows Vista or Windows 7 for Tibetan Editing
- Preparing a Computer running Mac OS-X 10.5.x for Tibetan Editing
- Preparing a Computer running Linux / Gnome for Tibetan Editing
Additional helpful tools
A number of Tibetan text editors and font conversion programs are available mainly for Windows that can be used to convert existing legacy documents in various different Tibetan encodings of the pre-Unicode era.
Additional information
- Information on Tibetan Unicode
Internal links
- How to edit Tibetan texts - This article explains the basic setup to be able to work with Tibetan texts in Office (OpenOffice or Microsoft)
- Configuring Microsoft Office 2003 or 2007 for Tibetan script
- Configuring OpenOffice for Tibetan script.
- Formatting rules for Tibetan text - This article explains the basic rules for formatting Tibetan texts, and shows how to use OpenOffice to create properly formatted Tibetan documents.
- Tibetan Formating OpenOffice.org Extension - The extension allows left/right justification of Tibetan text including automatic Rinchen Spungs Shad handling.
External Links
- http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Tibetan_Unicode_Installation (main source)
- http://www.thdl.org/xml/showEssay.php?xml=/tools/fonts/unicode-explain-eng.xml (preparing Windows XP)
