Converting BW Fonts to Unicode

[pgons]

I'm sold on unicode; that's all I use anymore--Gentium for Greek and SBL Hebrew for Hebrew. I'm convinced of its superiority. It's definitely the way to go, IMO. I have scores of old docs with BW fonts. I'd like to update some of them to unicode.

I've made use of John Kendall's macro for converting bwgrkl to unicode. Thanks, John! But it doesn't seem to work in the footnotes. Should it? Maybe I'm doing something wrong. Is there any way to easily convert bwgrkl in footnotes? I'd appreciate any help with this.

I'd also like to convert bwhebb to unicode. Has anyone created a macro for this? I'd love to get a hold of it if it is available.

I was really quite surprised that BW7 was not a unicode application. The ability to export to unicode is nice, and the ability to type in unicode in the editor would be nice if it worked properly (I still get ?s for diacriticals), but I was hoping for more unicode functionality. I really wish BW7 had a built-in conversion tool for converting documents with the BW fonts into unicode! That would be very nice. Logos has a conversion tool that will convert their old Greek and Hebrew fonts to unicode. Too bad it doesn't work with BW fonts. Any plans to make something like this available in BW?

Thanks for any help here.

Phil Gons

P.S. I apologize if this is not the right place to post this. Please let me know where to put it if it is not.

[jdarlack]

There is a macro for converting BWGrkl, BWHebb, BWLexs and BWSyms fonts in MSWord. You have to install the macro using the text found in the C:/Program Files/BibleWorks7/unimacro.txt file.

To make it work, first you have to change any place where bwcom.document is found to read bibleworks.automation.

You can then change the Unicode fonts that will be used in the conversion by changing the green text below into the appropriate font names:

Sub ConvertAllBwGrk2Unicode()
ConvertBwGrk2Unicode "bwgrkl", "Arial Unicode MS", True
End Sub
Sub ConvertAllBwHeb2Unicode()
ConvertBwHeb2Unicode "bwhebb", "Ezra SIL", True
End Sub
Sub ConvertAllBwLex2Unicode()
ConvertBwLex2Unicode "bwlexs", "Arial Unicode MS", True
End Sub
Sub ConvertAllBwSym2Unicode()
ConvertBwSym2Unicode "bwsymbs", "Arial Unicode MS", True
End Sub
Sub ConvertNextBwGrk2Unicode()
ConvertBwGrk2Unicode "bwgrkl", "Arial Unicode MS", False
End Sub
Sub ConvertNextBwHeb2Unicode()
ConvertBwHeb2Unicode "bwhebb", "Ezra SIL", False
End Sub
Sub ConvertNextBwLex2Unicode()
ConvertBwLex2Unicode "bwlexs", "Arial Unicode MS", False
End Sub
Sub ConvertNextBwSym2Unicode()
ConvertBwSym2Unicode "bwsymbs", "Arial Unicode MS", False
End Sub

As of now, I don't see any documentation for these macros in the HelpFiles. I haven't used the macro too much, so if you see any bugs be sure to send them in to the support staff.

[pgons]

Jim,

Thank you for the helpful reply. I thought they may have included something like that. I found the file, made the changes that you told me to make within the text file, and switched the Unicode fonts to the ones I wanted. The text in bold is what I inserted in place of "Arial Unicode MS" and "Ezra SIL" respectively (see below). I did not change the others since I do not have any text in bwlexs or bwsymbs to convert. Should I have, or doesn’t it matter?

End Sub
Sub ConvertAllBwGrk2Unicode()
ConvertBwGrk2Unicode "bwgrkl", "Gentium", True
End Sub
Sub ConvertAllBwHeb2Unicode()
ConvertBwHeb2Unicode "bwhebb", "SBL Hebrew", True
End Sub
Sub ConvertAllBwLex2Unicode()
ConvertBwLex2Unicode "bwlexs", "Arial Unicode MS", True
End Sub
Sub ConvertAllBwSym2Unicode()
ConvertBwSym2Unicode "bwsymbs", "Arial Unicode MS", True
End Sub
Sub ConvertNextBwGrk2Unicode()
ConvertBwGrk2Unicode "bwgrkl", "Gentium", False
End Sub
Sub ConvertNextBwHeb2Unicode()
ConvertBwHeb2Unicode "bwhebb", "SBL Hebrew", False
End Sub
Sub ConvertNextBwLex2Unicode()
ConvertBwLex2Unicode "bwlexs", "Arial Unicode MS", False
End Sub
Sub ConvertNextBwSym2Unicode()
ConvertBwSym2Unicode "bwsymbs", "Arial Unicode MS", False
End Sub

On the positive side, it is very fast (it doesn’t convert character by character); but I did run into several problems.

1. All occurrences of bwgrkl and bwhebb in the footnotes are ignored when I use the commands “ConvertAllBwGrk2Unicode” and “ConvertAllBwHeb2Unicode.” If I move the cursor to the appropriate place in the footnotes and use the commands “ConvertNextBwGrk2Unicode” and “ConvertNextBwHeb2Unicode,” I can convert a single string of bwgrkl or bwhebb text. But then I need to repeat this for every string of text in the footnotes! Is there a simpler way? I tried to use control+y, but this just repeats the last character rather than running the macro again. This could be rather time consuming. Any suggestions?

2. All occurrences of bwgrkl in the body and tables were converted to Arial (NOT Arial Unicode MS) and Tahoma for the characters with diacriticals (notice the colored text below). (Actually, it appears that if a word begins with a character with a diacritical, all the characters will be Tahoma. If the character with a diacritical comes in the middle of the word, that character and all the following will be Tahoma.) I found “Arial” at several places in the macro. But Arial is not a Unicode font. I don’t think these should be in there. If anything, they should be Arial Unicode MS, right? Is it safe to replace these with “Gentium”?

3. A string of Greek text seems to be handled properly with reference to the text itself, but there is often a problem with the English spaces that precede or follow the bwgrkl or bwhebb text. E.g., "read: auvto,j" became "read:αὐτός," "pa,ntwn (1:17)" became "πάντων(1:17)," and "Cristo,j functions" became "Χριστόςfunctions." Notice the omission of the spaces here. BTW, these spaces were Garamond spaces (my default English font), so I’m not sure why the macro would do anything to them. This doesn’t happen consistently, and I can’t figure out why it removes the spaces sometimes but not other times. My guess is that it depends on the character that precedes or follows the text (e.g., parentheses, colons, etc.).

4. The same thing happens with Hebrew text. E.g., "hwhy of" became "יהוהof." (But notice that there is no unique character here.)

5. One other problem I’ve noticed is that no matter what size the bwgrkl or bwhebb font, they get converted to 10 pt. and 14 pt. respectively. This is very problematic for a large document with various sizes of bwgrkl and bwhebb (e.g., headings, body, block quotes, footnotes, etc.). It would be much better to leave them at their current size, or be able to specify something like if 14 then 13, if 12 then 11, etc.

The two things that I would like to adjust in the macro are (1) the bwgrkl font conversion to Gentium instead of Arial/Tahoma and (2) the size of the Unicode font. It appears to convert any pt. bwgrkl to 10 pt. Arial/Tahoma and any pt. bwhebb to 14 pt Unicode. How would I change the macro to just leave the font sizes unchanged? Any help on these matters would be greatly appreciated.

I’d also like a way to convert easily BW fonts in footnotes. Should I pass this on to the BW folks?

Thanks.

Phil Gons

[jdarlack]

Hi Phil. As far as I know these are all changes that BibleWorks would have to make internally. Regarding the font issue, for the most part (if everything's Unicode), you should be able to select your entire document and change the entire font to Gentium and SBL Hebrew all at once.

Regarding the spaces, I've noticed that too. I wonder if there's anything that can be done about it? I would think there is, given that there are other programs can do this (See BibleScript Unicode; though with BibleScript, you have to first convert BW fonts to another font and then into Unicode).

Your documentation of problems is very well done. I would make sure that you send it along to the BW support staff.

[pgons]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the follow-up. You are right: getting the fonts into Unicode is my main concern. From that point I can do a find and replace for whichever Unicode font that the Macro converts to and change it to my preferred font. The fact that it changes all occurrences of bwgrkl and bwhebb to 10 pt. and 14 pt. respectively will cause some problems, though, when a document has a variety of font sizes.

Thanks for the info about BibleScript. Not ideal, but at least it is an option. I believe I have come across a macro for converting bwgrkl to gracea or graecaII. From there I could use the Logos conversion tool, which seems to work relatively accurately and quickly.

I sent my last post to support@bibleworks.com. I will post any significant responses that I get from them.

Thanks again for your help with this!

Phil

[pgons]

Hi Jim,

I guess I misunderstood your post about Bible Script Unicode. I didn't realize that the program itself will convert bwgrkl and bwhebb to Galaxie fonts and then to Unicode. I thought I would have to find a separate macro to convert BW to Galaxie and then use Bible Script Unicode to get from Galaxie to Unicode. I contacted Hampton Keathley, and he informed me that it's as simple as clicking two buttons: "All the old fashioned fonts get converted to Galaxie's old fashioned Greek font first, then from Galaxie Greek to unicode. You have to click two buttons to get the job done." I may look into this if I find out that BW doesn't plan to update their macro soon. Sounds simple, but the downside is that it does cost $40.

Phil