In the course of preparing material for New Testament Introduction I needed to track down a quote from Papias (I am making a concerted effort to check all primary sources in so far as I am able). The result: I am increasingly impressed by the Internet Archive. Not only did they actually have Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History availabled for download, they also had it in multiple formats. And the PDF scans are searchable, which means that I could search for, highlight, and copy/paste the required text straight into my slides. As a cherry on top: the search results are tagged with faux post-it-notes, just like in real life! Powerful stuff.
Oct 152008
In honor of the release of OpenOffice 3.0 I thought I would make it my first post in the Don’t Pay for Software Series.
What is OpenOffice.org?
It is an office document suite, similar to (but better and free-er than) Microsoft Office or (for those of you who still use it) WordPerfect. Now don’t be nervous because it is free; there are good reasons to choose free software. It’s not free because it sucks, its free because it’s managed by a community of dedicated enthusiasts. The company that finances these enthusiasts makes money selling services and hardware, not software; the software is merely a means to an end, which means you get to have all the benefits of a professional grade office suite without all the cost.
Why OpenOffice.org?
What if you already have Microsoft Office? Are there any benefits to OpenOffice not available from the mainstream flagship office suite? I’m glad you asked. There are several. First, it’s free. Now this may not matter to you now, since you already have shelled out the money for MS Office, but what about when it comes time to upgrade? That time will come, you know, and before you know it. Then you will have to shell out that money all over again for what usually amounts to only a slight improvement over the original.
There are other advantages as well. Ever try to send a document to someone only to find they could not read it? Maybe they were not willing to pay all that money for Word, and now you have to convert it for them. This is all because Microsoft has a history of not supporting standards. That is changing, but it has not changed yet, so all your data is saved in a format that only Microsoft’s products can read. OpenOffice.org, by contrast, can read all your old MS Office files, but by default saves all of its information in “OpenDocument” formats. The code for these formats is made public, so any program can theoretically access them. Also, OpenOffice can automatically export all your documents as PDFs.
This is the main advantage that OpenOffice has over MS, but I would like to reiterate: in addition to this advantage, OpenOffice does almost everything else MS Office can do, and much of it can be done more easily!
What’s New in OpenOffice 3.0
Well, lots of things. Read about all of them here.
There are four features that I am especially excited about.
First, the new Welcome Screen. 
Aesthetics matter, and here MS Office has us beat hands down. But the Welcome Screen helps, and it also allows for easier document creation and template management. And with Windows at least, you also get a handy little quick-launch button in your taskbar.
Second, better document editing and commenting in Writer. 
This feature really helps OpenOffice compete with MS Word. Previously these features were pretty primitive, but now OpenOffice supports multiple editors (each editor gets a different color) and true comment display in the sidebar. This is really a plus in my book.
Third: a new, intuitive, and hugely important extension manager, similar to that implemented by Firefox. Extensions are were Open Source software really shines. Because the code is not secret, anybody can look at it and, if they’re good enough, improve upon it. Rather than add all these improvements into the original program, it is much easier, much faster (the powers that be have to approve any code changes to the base system), and much safer to provide those improvements through easily managed extensions. OpenOffice.org makes this process easy, with a dedicated extension manager that allows the user to easily search for, add, and remove functionality at will. My favorite extension so far is Zotero Integration, which allows you to automatically generate formatted citations and bibliographies in your documents. Another handy extension is the PDF Import Extension, which allows you to directly edit PDF files.
Finally, OpenOffice Impress (the equivalent of PowerPoint) is now ready for prime time. With dedicated table creation and other new features, this component of the suite is finally competitive. There is also a new extension available that allows you to use Impress with two screens, one for them, the other with notes and other helps specifically for your. Read about that here.
For a full review of OpenOffice.org, with some attention given to the Mac version, check out this post.
Alternatives
There are several Web based alternatives to OpenOffice. Google docs is the most obvious, but also check at the Zoho suite of products. These are both free. The best thing about these products is that they offer you access to your documents anywhere in the world. All you need is an internet connection; no software required. Also, both offer real-time collaboration, so you and a colleague can work on the same document at the same time and both see what the other is doing; all changes are saved and completely undo-able. Nice. Aside from these features, though, they are not yet as feature-rich as their desktop alternatives.
The other alternative I will mention is IBM’s Lotus Symphony. This Office Suite is based off of OpenOffice, actually, but an older version (the 1.0 series). It bundles that older version with a set of IBM tools for document management and collaboration. In general, however, I have found it less stable and feature-full than the “vanilla” OpenOffice, and it does not import Microsoft documents as accurately.
Disadvantages
The main disadvantage with OpenOffice is the lack of any email/productivity manager, such as Microsoft’s Outlook. This is actually not a huge problem since Mozilla’s Thunderbird will do the job quite nicely. Add the Calendar Extension and you have everything Outlook has to offer (combine it with Gmail and Remember the Milk, and you have an always-in-sync online version as well). A full post on this is coming soon.
Conclusion
So I would suggest giving OpenOffice.org a try. You have nothing to loose. Their main page is here. Versions are available for every operating system (Windows, Mac, Linux).
“How do I convert format x to format y?” I get that a lot, and I have already posted a couple of ways to turn Word docs into pdfs. Here are a couple of other services that can convert files from one format to another.
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From Lifehacker:
Zamzar is a web-based file conversion tool that can convert your video, audio, images, and documents from nearly any format to nearly any format you like. For example, if you’ve never felt that you could quite figure out how to convert that video you took on your cameraphone to a format you can play on your iPod, Zamzar can do it for you.
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Convert by email! That’s right, just attach a file to an email and send it to a specific address and your files will be converted and sent back to you quickly and easily. This can also be handy for transferring or backing up files, and it supports a wide range of formats. Read about it here.
Zotero is releasing a second beta version of their upcoming 1.5 edition. The biggest enhancement for 1.5, introduced in the first preview release, is the ability to sync Zotero information between computers.
The second preview adds attached files to that functionality, but only if you have a WebDAV account (or server).Unless someone is providing you with a WebDAV service (iDisk, online storage, etc), WebDAV is not the easiest of protocols to set up.
Another, perhaps more important, new feature is the ability to automatically download (from Google Scholar, I think) PDF metadata. This is yet another way Zotero makes organizing and locating files easier. If you have a stack of PDFs on your computer, many of which probably have non-descriptive filenames, this feature is for you. You can see this feature in action here.
A more thorough list of features, and a download link, can be found here.
Google Docs is great, but it can often be a pain to add files to your account. This post links to a Firefox plugin that makes adding files a little easier, at least for documents hosted on the internet. Right click on any supported file on the web (such as a PDF) and send it straight to your Google account. I hope someone develops a similar tool for Windows/Linux file managers. If you know of one, leave a comment!
If you use Openoffice.org or run a Linux operating system, saving any document as a PDF is easy. There is also a plugin for recent versions of Microsoft Office that can do this. But what about exporting web pages, or documents created by other software? For this you will need a “Print to PDF” driver. A “Print to PDF” Driver works exactly like any other printer, only instead of actually printing your document it generates a PDF in a folder of your choosing. This is very easy to set up: here are the details.
Linux provides the same functionality. Most distributions include a driver that does this: just go to your printer settings dialog, “Add” a printer, and look for an entry like “Print to PDF.” I’m sure MAC users have something similar, so perhaps one of our MAC readers could post a comment regarding how to set that up.
Jul 282008
My work in Hebrews (and the General epistles) has lead to frequent side-tracks into the nature and necessity of perseverance in the Christian life. Here are a couple of quotes from an excellent article by Thomas Schreiner.
No genuine believer will ever apostatize. Nonetheless, the warning passages in the Scriptures are addressed to believers, and they are threatened with eternal destruction (not loss of rewards) if they commit apostasy.
We must pay heed to the warnings in order to be saved on the day of the Lord.
The label “Poison!” on a bottle seizes our attention and awakens us to the peril which awaits us if we swallow its contents. Thereby we take special care when handling such a container and do not put it in the same cupboard with soft drinks. The warnings in the scriptures are also intended to arouse us from lethargy and propel us onward in the pathway of faith. They provoke a healthy fear (Heb 4:1!), so that we are not casual and relaxed about entering the heavenly rest. Of course, this fear is not the same thing as the paralyzing fear which suppresses all activity (1 Jn 4:18). It is the same kind of fear which causes us to put on our seat belts when we drive and which causes us to place railings where a fall would be deadly. Fear in these instances does not paralyze us but actually contributes to our confidence when driving or climbing. Similarly, hearing and obeying the warnings in scriptures does not sap us of confidence and assurance. It is the pathway for full assurance in the faith.
Some protest that this is works righteousness, but such an objection fails to see that such perseverance is the fruit of faith and grounded in God’s sustaining and electing grace. Yes, works are necessary to be saved. No, this is not works righteousness, for the works are hardly meritorious. The grace of God is so powerful that it not only grants us salvation apart from our merits, but also transforms us. Christians are not only declared righteous but also experience observable and significant change in their lives.
Several of Schreiner’s books are currently on sale at the Westminster Book Store.
This is the third past in a series of posts about typing in Greek. The first post was about the the joys (and necessity) of Unicode character encoding. The second detailed how to set up a Greek keyboard. Now you need a good font. While up to this point we have been dealing with encodings and characters, the way in which an operating system matches the push of a key to a letter in a given language; now we are going to focus our attention on glyphs, the way in which different characters are represented by a particular font.
What do you want in a Greek Font?
Eye Candy: The most immediate qualification for a good font is eye candy. Seriously: this is important. The better looking your font, the easier it is to read, both for you and your audience.
Check out the image to the left. Which do you like better? The top glyph is what we call “sans serif” because it does not have the fancy shaping and decorative formatting that the bottom glyph has. Sans serif fonts are particularly common on the internet because they are the easiest to read, even if not the prettiest over all. Times New Roman, by contrast, is a serif font. If you write your papers using a serif font, your Greek should be a serif font as well (and vice-versa). This is usually just a matter of personal preference, but generally readers prefer serif over sans serif for extended amounts of text, and the opposite for presentations (PowerPoint) and Web pages.
A more specifically Greek decision involves accents, the most important of which is the circumflex. This again is a matter of preference, but I prefer the full semicircle over the tilde. Having said that, the font I am eventually going to recommend uses the tilde. Oh well…
Free: The second (and most important) qualification of a Greek font is that it should be free. There are two types of free: free beer and free speech. The former is probably the most immediate concern, but the latter is really the most important. A “free beer” font will be free to use and will not encumber you with licensing fees should you decide to publish your work using that font. The Microsoft fonts seem like they are free-beer fonts—at least you probably do not remembering paying for them—but in reality they are encumbered by a pretty strict license. They will be fine for basic personal use, but if you are planning to start a Greek-Verse-Greeting-Card business, or am online journal for NT studies, you might want to pick something else. At the very least, you want to use a font that is free for both non-commercial and commercial use.
You may also be interested in a “free speech” font. In addition to being free as in free beer, free speech fonts allow you to redistribute, modify, and have absolute control over all underlying mechanics. You can use them, change them, and distribute them, all without asking permission.
In short, you want a font that is licensed under an a so called “copy left” license. These are “open source” licenses. Applied to fonts, these licenses define the parameters by which you can use and modify the glyphs in question; they will be royalty-free (“free beer”) and also free-to-modify (“free speech”) under certain conditions. .
So what fonts should I use?
The following is a list of the best fonts available. Only Unicode fonts are included:
- Gentium would be my first-choice recommendation. It is a serif font. The standard versions uses the tilde for the circumflex, though an alternative version (GentiumAlt) is now included in the download that uses the half-moon. It includes a full Latin set of characters, which means that in addition to being your Greek font, you could use it as a whole-sale replacement for Times New Roman, or whatever default font you use in your documents—a one-stop shop for all your Latin-based language needs. Additionally, it is fully open (both “free beer” and “free speech”), and is licensed under the SIL Open Font License, which is excellent.
It includes installers for Windows, Mac, and Linux, as well as source code. The recent addition of GentiumAlt to the font family eliminates all my previous hesitations about recommending this font. It really is excellent, and its Latin characters are so nice that I have begun using it as my default serif font for all my documents. Gentium is maintained by SIL, which has developed quite a reputation among linguists, and promises robust future development while maintaining an open licensing schema. (By the way, if you are using Ubuntu/Debian Linux, you can install from the command line: “sudo apt-get install ttf-gentium”.) - Galatia SIL is a serif font that uses a half-moon circumflex. It is “free beer” but not “free speech.” This is a slight problem because the font no longer appears to be actively developed, which is unfortunate because it is probably the best-looking Greek font available. A font that is no longer supported by those that made it can be problematic because errors will not get fixed, and errors might crop up as the rest of the computer world marches on.
- Freefont. I have not had much experience with this font. It’s biggest claim to fame is its audacity: the goal of the project is to support every unicode character, which is pretty ambitious. It looks nice and is licensed under the GNU (pronounced GooNoo) public license, the best and original “copy-left” license. You can check out more information on the project here.
- Linux Libertine and other OpenType fonts are available for Linux and other operating systems, including Windows, despite the name. A good choice. Fully open. But they are not the prettiest fonts available, and I’ve had issues with software compatibility (such as exporting a document to PDF).
- Other SIL fonts. The Summer Institute of Linguistics specializes in languages, translations, and technological tools. There are many fonts available on their site, most of which provide Unicode support, many of which are licensed under their OFL. If you are in search of a different Greek font, or a font for a non-Latin character set (coptic, Hebrew, etc.), this is the place to start.
- The Free Font Foundation has several Unicode fonts that are worth checking out.
- Gentium Basic and Gentium Book Basic are not yet ready to deploy, as they do not yet support Greek characters. Nevertheless, they are the next “upgrade” to the wonderful Gentium font family, listed above. Gentium only builds regular and italic glyph-sets into its definition: no additional weights are included. This is not a problem for basic users; almost all Word Processors are able to automatically “add” bold weighting to any font, regardless of its internal definition (at least that is my understanding—I am able to get great-looking bold characters with the regular Gentium fonts listed above). Publishing companies, by contrast, will not want to rely on a particular Word Processor’s interpretation of a font, and will therefore require additional “built in” weights. So, to make up for this deficiency, SIL has split Gentium development. Both Gentium Basic and Gentium Book Basic are based on the Gentium glyph-set, but will include bold-weight characters, as well as some other features not included in the original Gentium (again, this is my understanding of their explanation, and I invite correction from anyone with more accurate knowledge). They do not yet support Polytonic Greek, however, though eventually they will support every character that Gentium supports. Keep an eye on these; when they are finished they could supply the biblical scholar and publisher with all their Latin-based-character needs.
- Still looking? While the above fonts are, in my judgment, the best available, there are others. The above link provides some additional online resources. This site might also come in handy, though some of the fonts listed are either terrible or not free in any sense.
- SBL has an collection of legacy fonts available at their site, none of which are included in the above lists due to their non-open license, and also because only a few of them include Unicode support.
What about Hebrew?
I have given short-shrift to Hebrew, and I apologize. There are reasons, however. There really is only one decent open-standard font that I know about for Biblical Hebrew: Ezra SIL. It’s fully open under SIL’s OFL, it supports every character used in the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, and it’s easy on the eyes. You will need to download a special keyboard to get it working, though. Instructions for doing so are available on the download page, where you can also find a keyboard map of the layout. Also: you may run into small problems with Macs and in Linux, though nothing catastrophic. If anyone has other Hebrew fonts they would like to recommend, please do so in the comments.
Ros Clarke notes in one of the comments that SBL has a good Hebrew font available here. It is a very well designed font that includes Linux support. The only disadvantage is that it is not licensed under an open standard, though SBL does provide it free of charge for non-commericial use. Thanks Ros.
Conclusion
Don’t forget to check out my previous posts on Unicode and on setting up a Greek keyboard. All this might sound a bit intimidating, but it really will make your life easier in the long run.
Now that you have a full appreciation of Unicode it’s time to setup windows to type in Greek (and Hebrew, for that matter).
Getting Started
First, open up your favorite document editor. I’m using OpenOffice.org, a free, powerful, and interpolatable solution to Microsoft Office. 
For testing purposes we need to use a Unicode font that supports the full set of Greek characters. If you’re using Vista, you can leave it on Times New Roman. Everyone else (and Vista users too, just to be safe), should set their font to either Palatino Linotype or Arial Unicode MS (I prefer the latter). Start typing. Still English. Now the fun begins.
Adding Keyboards
Access your control panel and select “Regional and Language Options.” I am using Vista, so the name’s might be changed for XP or 2000 (and if you’re using ME or 98, it’s time to either upgrade or switch to Linux). 
Click on the “Keyboards and Languages” tab, which will open a new window. Click the “Add…” a keyboard/language button, which opens up yet another window. Browse for “Greek,” and then select the “Greek Polytonic” keyboard. Other keyboards will not work; you need Greek Polytonic. Click Ok, then Apply. Notice the Greek keyboard has been added to your list.
You will need an easy and convenient way to switch between keyboards, so click on the “Language Bar” tab.
Choose any option other than “hidden” (I suggest docking it in the taskbar). In the “Advanced Key Settings” tab you can set special keyboard shortcuts for switching between keyboards, in accordance with your preferences.
There are other keyboards you might be interested in. Notice that I have two keyboards under “English.” The “United States-International” keyboard allows me to type words like “Bëla Fleck,” “Käsemann,” and “vis-à-vis” with particularly pretentious accuracy. I also have a Hebrew keyboard installed, which requires some comment. The Hebrew keyboard included in Windows is terrible; the layout is counter intuitive, and it lacks vowel pointings. You will have to install another keyboard, which can be downloaded here. The download includes instructions for installation and a keyboard layout in PDF.
Now that our keyboards are installed, you should see a new little bar in your already-busy taskbar. 
This is your language bar, which you can use to select the language you want to type in, as well as the keyboard you want to use for that language (if you set up more than one). Select “EL”, which is the Greek setting (remember, the Greek word for Greek is ελληνος).
Typing in Greek
Now go back to your word processor and start typing. You should see some Greek characters now. 
If not, check your language bar again (sometimes switching applications causes the system to revert to your default language).
The Layout of your New Keyboard
Now you need to learn how to use your new keyboard. There will probably be some keyboard-concepts you are not familiar with, the most important of which are called “dead keys.” Dead keys are keys that only function in combination with other keys. The standard English keyboard does not use deadkeys, so if you are used to that keyboard, this might take same getting used to (as will the “US-International”) keyboard. With a little practice, however, you will be a master, and might even consider switching to a dead-key enabled keyboard as your default (as I eventually did).
To get started, press the ” key in your Word Processor. Nothing happened. That’s because Microsoft is waiting for another key. Now type “a”. You should see something like ἁ. Dead keys are used by the Greek keyboard to create all those diacritical marks necessary for typing in ancient Greek. Don’t worry, they’re all there, you just need to find where to find them.
Take a look at the following diagram. 
This is a keyboard map for the Polytonic keyboard. The keys in yellow are all dead-keys and will therefore only work in combination with an appropriate secondary key (and only “legal” Greek characters can be produced–the fabled λ with a smooth-breathing is still only a fantasy).
Now try this one.
Notice that the Right “Alt” key (and ONLY the right one) is greyed-in. This indicates a new keyboard state. When you hold down the right Alt key, the keyboard “shifts” to allow access to different keys, which are shown in the keyboard map. Again, the yellow keys are dead keys, so the key combination “alt-q” followed by an “a” results in the following character: ᾴ.
There are four total keyboard states, two of which you already use: (1) Standard and (2) Shifted. Now you add two more: (3) Alt and (4) Alt-Shift. Remember, it is only the right Alt that does this.
A Full Keyboard Map
Microsoft used to have full documentation of the Polytonic Keyboard layout online, but it no longer appears to be available. Rather than distribute the whole document, which is needlessly long and complicated, I have copied their map images (which I believe are public domain) and placed them in my own PDF cheat sheet. Download it here!
One more note: you may be wondering how to access keys that used to be easy to get to, such as the “;” key, which is now a dead-key. The answer: certain keys can only be accessed by typing a dead-key followed by a space. These are usually keys that are not often used, so it’s not really a problem. A map for these keys is provided on the second page of the above PDF.
Conclusion
All this sounds intimidating, but you will get used to your new keyboard quickly, and you will be proud of your efforts. No more searching that horrible “insert symbol” dialog. No more dependency on software like Bibleworks for Greek characters. Dead keys are your friends!
Next up: the best fonts for Greek and Hebrew.
Jun 272008
One question I get a lot is “how do I keep up with my Greek?” At the risk of over-simplification, my answer is… wait for it… read Greek!
Lee Irons has a variety of resources on his site to make such reading less intimidating for the beginner to intermediate Greekling. To get started, check out his introduction to his reading program. You will also want to download his more detailed Greek Reading Calendar. Most importantly, pick up a copy of his Greek Syntax Notes, which he promises to distribute in installments throughout the year.
Also, I highly recommend Young’s Intermediate NT Greek, which is concise. comprehensive, linguistically-aware, and easy to use. All together, it is an excellent reference that should be on everyone’s bookshelf, and will be enormously helpful in those tough-to-read sections.
Finally, I am making some of my beginner Form and Function guides available here. They are still a work in progress, and only cover the basics of Greek syntax, but they can serve as a good resource for reminding you of what you already know. These are highly indebted to Mounce’s Basics of Biblical Greek, Machen/McCartney’s NT Greek for Beginners and Young’s aforementioned Greek grammar (many of the terms of several of the guides have been directly lifted from the last two of these, since they are both used in my Greek class).
- Rules for Verb Forms
- Form and Function Guide
- Moods Function Guide
- Adjective Function Cheat Sheet
- Use of Autos Cheat Sheet
Stay tuned! I plan on posting a variety of Greek resources in the near future, including a guide to typing in Greek and an introduction to diagramming with Bibleworks. So if you haven’t subscribed to the site, do so!
