In BibleWorks 7 through 10, Unicode may be used in the BibleWorks editor (see note 1 below); and BibleWorks Greek and Hebrew text may also be exported in Unicode using the Options | Fonts menu (see note 3 and image below). Unicode export does not currently extend to the Export Database function.

The command line supports IME Unicode input for certain languages like Chinese and Korean that require it. The BibleWorks Help (click Help | BibleWorks Help Contents) explains how to use IME input.

New BibleWorks reference texts will customarily be created in Unicode and the older ones converted as resources permit. For the foreseeable future, however, input to the Version Database Compiler (VDC) will necessarily be restricted to fonts that have code pages supported by Windows. The VDC requires indexing, sorting, and other font semantics contained in the code pages but not provided in the font by the Unicode per se. Eventually, it may be feasible for users to provide these needed semantics (perhaps through something like a Windows utility that generates Windows-acceptable code pages), expanding the range of Unicode fonts the VDC can process.

BibleWorks customers should maintain a current e-mail address through the BibleWorks registration and registration update process to be assured of being notified promptly of new capabilities, such as those involving Unicode, being made available to them.

Notes:
1. Unicode Greek or Hebrew can be typed into the BibleWorks editor using standard Windows keyboard layouts. BibleWorks 7 through 10 also include a Unicode Hebrew keyboard driver that uses the same keyboard layout as the BibleWorks non-Unicode Hebrew font (bwhebb.ttf): see the BibleWorks Help (click Help | BibleWorks Help Contents) for installation instructions.

2. All parts of BibleWorks other than the Editor use the BibleWorks non-Unicode fonts (bwgrkl.ttf and bwhebb.ttf). These fonts were designed to allow all users on any operating system to share documents containing Greek or Hebrew and to make typing in Greek or Hebrew very simple for the majority of our users. (If you know the Greek or Hebrew alphabets you generally type the logical Latin character on your keyboard. For instance, to type a or a type a; to type b or b type b. To type the command .ihsouj cristoj simply type .ihsous cristos. To type the command .~yhla hwhy simply type .yhwh alhym.) For more about these fonts including keyboard layouts click here.

3. BibleWorks 8, 9, and 10

BibleWorks 8, 9 and 10 export Greek and Hebrew text in Unicode when using its default settings.

BibleWorks 9 and 10 ship with both the SBL Hebrew Unicode font and the SBL Greek Unicode font. BibleWorks 8 ships with the SBL Hebrew Unicode font. The SBL Greek Unicode font is available as part of the BibleWorks fonts update found under Help | BibleWorks on the Internet | Check for updates. After running the update you may set the Unicode Greek option to SBL Greek [If Times New Roman is displayed, please note that it is not a Unicode font. Please change the Greek Unicode font to SBL Greek or to Palatino Linotype, which are both Unicode Greek fonts].

If you wish to disable Unicode export and export in the BWGrkl or BWHebb fonts, uncheck the checkbox for Export Greek resources (Analaysis Window, Lexicons) as Unicode and/or Export Hebrew resources (Analaysis Window, Lexicons) as Unicode.




BibleWorks 7
You can set BibleWorks 7 to convert Greek and Hebrew text automatically into Unicode when it is copied/exported from BibleWorks by doing the following:

• Click Tools | Options and go to the Fonts tab.
• Select Export Fonts under Font Set to Edit.
• Then change the Hebrew font to SBL Hebrew, the Greek font to Palatino Linotype and make sure you check the Unicode check box to the left of both Hebrew and Greek (see screenshot below). Click OK and BibleWorks will from now on convert all Greek and Hebrew text to Unicode text when you copy/export.

NOTE: Not all Unicode fonts are up to date and therefore not all will work for all text (especially Hebrew text containing accents). We therefore recommend that you use the SBL Hebrew Unicode font that comes with BibleWorks 7 for Hebrew and the Palatino Linotype Unicode font that comes with Windows for Greek. Of course in theory all Unicode fonts are supposed to work, but that ideal does not yet exist.

4. Conversion of Vocabulary Flashcard Module data to/from Unicode involves going through each character in a file and replacing it with a Unicode equivalent. In Hebrew it is more complicated because the words must be reversed and accents moved from after a character to before. Greek accents must also be moved. The conversion could certainly be done outside BibleWorks but there would have to be a program written to do that. BibleWorks did publish a set of Word Macros a while back that do it for Word.

Last Update: MC/November 16, 2017