Unicode Polytonic Greek for the World Wide Web
Title	▣ Home \| ◈ Contents \| △ Section \| ◁ Previous \| Next ▷

Unicode Polytonic Greek
for the World Wide Web

Version 0.9.7

D R A F T

Typing Greek Text with Notepad on Windows 2000 or Windows XP

The Notepad text editor is the default editor for text files in all version of Windows. It is a very simple program, providing nothing more than an editing window, and the ability to open and save files.

In Windows 2000 and Windows XP, the Notepad program has full Unicode capabilities, and can be used with the Windows XP system keyboards (like the polytonic Greek keyboard on the Windows CD) or with Tavultesoft Keyman keyboards (like David Perry's keyboard from the Fonts for Scholars site). Notepad will not work with Ralph Hancock's Antioch (but his Vusillus Old Face fonts will).

Here's a text typed in notepad using the polytonic Greek keyboard that comes with Windows XP:


						ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ

						πλάγχθη, ἐπεὶ Τροίης ἱερὸν πτολίεθρον ἔπερσεν:

						πολλῶν δ' ἀνθρώπων ἴδεν ἄστεα καὶ νόον ἔγνω,

						πολλὰ δ' ὅ γ' ἐν πόντῳ πάθεν ἄλγεα ὃν κατὰ θυμόν,

						ἀρνύμενος ἥν τε ψυχὴν καὶ νόστον ἑταίρων.

						ἀλλ' οὐδ' ὣς ἑτάρους ἐρρύσατο, ἱέμενός περ:

						αὐτῶν γὰρ σφετέρῃσιν ἀτασθαλίῃσιν ὄλοντο,

						νήπιοι, οἳ κατὰ βοῦς Ὑπερίονος Ἠελίοιο

						ἤσθιον: αὐτὰρ ὁ τοῖσιν ἀφείλετο νόστιμον ἦμαρ.

Screenshot of Notepad from Windows XP showing Homer α 1-9 in the Palatino Linotype font at 18 pt
Figure 1. The Windows XP version of Notepad, showing Homer α 1-9 in the Palatino Linotype font at 18 pt.

You can download the sample file shown in the screen shot.

Four things to remember when using Notepad with Windows 2000 or Windows XP:

First, change the font used to one of the Unicode fonts on your system that supports polytonic Greek. Go to Format on your menu, then select Font. A font selection window (Figure 2) will appear on the screen that will allow you to set your default font for use in Notepad. Note that while monospaced fonts work best in Notepad, but you can use any font you wish. You should select the same font for both "Western" and "Greek." See the Fonts section for a listing of supporting fonts, and see the Windows 2000 or Windows XP platform section for instructions on installing the font on your system.
Save your text files as UTF-8. You could save them as UTF-16 instead, but some users will may have trouble reading UTF-16 text; in Notepad, the settings for UTF-16 are called "Unicode" [which is UTF-16 LE] and "Unicode Big Endian" [which is UTF-16 LE]. This setting is at the bottom of the "save as" browse window in Notepad for Windows 2000 and Windows XP (See Figure 3).
Save your text files with an HTML (.html) or TEXT (.txt) extension (I'd save them with a .html extension and add the HTML right there in Notepad)
Remember to assign a choice of Unicode-capable fonts in the web page using CSS.

Screenshot of the Windows XP Notepad font selection window.
Figure 2. The Windows XP Notepad font selection window.

Screenshot of the Windows XP Notepad Save As window
Figure 3. the Windows XP Notepad "Save As" window.

For more information on using Windows Notepad, see:

Notepad.org
Notepad Help
David A. Karp, Tim O'Reilly, and Troy Mott, Windows XP in a Nutshell. Cambridge, MA: O'Reilly and Associates, 2002. (ISBN 0-596-00249-1)
David Pogue, Windows XP Home Edition: The Missing Manual. Cambridge, MA: O'Reilly and Associates, 2001. (ISBN 0-596-00260-2)

Unicode Polytonic Greek for the World Wide Web Version 0.9.7
Copyright © 1998-2002 Patrick Rourke. All rights reserved.
D R A F T - Under Development
Please do not treat this as a published work until it is finished!

▣ Home | ◈ Contents | △ Section | ◁ Previous | ◁ Next