Unicode Greek Guidelines
updated 26 February 2007
Preparing Mss. Containing Polytonic Greek
To insure accuracy in typesetting, Oxford University Press requests authors of mss. accepted for the APA Monographs and Textbooks series to use Unicode Greek fonts when preparing their mss. for final submission.
Donald Mastronarde’s 2006 APA presentation “Before and After Unicode: Working with Polytonic Greek” (in PDF format with accompanying handouts and PowerPoint slides), is available at http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~pinax/unicodeTalk/unicodeMontrealAPA.html. It explains the protocols of Unicode Greek and provides advice on converting to the new system. At the same website, authors can also access a revised handout containing site addresses for GreekKeys(with FAQ), Unicode, Sibylla, and free Unicode fonts under development.
Authors will need to use a modern Unicode-capable word processor: examples are, for Mac, Word 2004 or later (not Word X); for Windows, Word 2003 or later. WordPerfect has never been updated to deal with Unicode. While some explanations of how to work around the problem may be found on the Internet, WordPerfect documents are not an acceptable format.
Requirements for using Unicode Greek system level tools for the Mac include a minimum of System 10.4 and Office 2004 (if you wish to use Word) [1]. Excellent instructions for the use of Apple's Unicode Polytonic Greek can be found at (http://www.xqtn.org/greek/). An alternative to using Apple's keyboard layout for Greek entry, especially for those formerly trained in GreekKeys input, is the GreekKeys Unicode input system, explained in detail in Mastronarde’s paper.
Minimum requirements for using Unicode Greek system level tools for Windows are Windows 2000 and Office 2000 (if you wish to use Word). Excellent instructions for the use of Microsoft's Unicode Polytonic Greek can be found at (http://www.biblicalgreek.org/links/fonts/keyboard.html). There are several alternatives to the Microsoft-supplied keyboard layouts. For Windows XP users, the free program Sibylla, created by the Palladium Project of the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, Spain, provides Unicode Greek input without being installed at the OS level.Alternatively, many Word for Windows users purchase the Antioch package of Ralph Hancock, which also contains a converter. An updated list of options can be found at (http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~pinax/greekkeys/WindowsFAQ.html).
If you have a document whose Greek was typed using an older, non-Unicode input method (pre-Unicode GreekKeys, LaserGreek, among others), there are tools to convert the Greek to Unicode Greek prior to submission. The GreekKeys Converter program (requiring a separate but very modest fee) can be used to change an old file containing earlier encodings to Unicode. Greek Transcoder (http://greektranscoder.org/index.html), available for Mac and Windows, operates as a Word toolbar, and is free.
[1] System 10.2.8 or higher can also be used, but require the 10.4 Polytonic Greek keyboard layout be installed manually.