Export Multilingual Text

Nota Bene documents that contain multilingual text can be transmitted to publishers or colleagues who do not have Nota Bene by converting the document to PDF (Adobe Portable Document Format) or to RTF (Rich Text Format). If your goal is to have the recipient be able to read but not edit your text, you can create a PDF file. The PDF file can be opened and printed by the recipient using the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. However, if the receiving party needs to be able to edit your text, then you should create an RTF file. The RTF file can be opened, edited and printed using Microsoft Word, WordPerfect or other programs, but the recipient may need to have fonts installed to properly read the multilingual text. Conversion to RTF can be done by Nota Bene, but additional software is required to convert to PDF.

PDF files are used for transmitting camera ready copy to a publisher, or for transmitting a file to anyone who does not need to edit it. The advantages of creating PDF output are: (a) higher quality output than you can otherwise achieve when converting the files to another format, since NB's superior character-rendering scheme is utilized, rather than the much more limited font-only solutions of other software; (b) anybody -- whether running Windows, Mac, or Unix, etc. -- can read the files; and (c) the recipient does not need to have multilingual fonts installed on his/her system. You can create a PDF file by using various versions of Adobe software, or by using other PDF software such as pdfFactory (available from www.fineprint.com).

If you are creating camera ready copy in Nota Bene, you should have the PDF printer driver selected as you are writing (click File, Print and select the printer). Unlike most Windows programs, Nota Bene uses the printer driver to generate the on-screen display. Since every printer has different metrics, writing a document with one printer driver selected and then choosing another printer for the final printing may result in small changes in line breaks and page breaks.

If you plan to use pdfFactory or pdfFactoryPro to generate the final PDF file, click File, Print and select pdfFactory as the printer. Then, click the Setup button on the Print dialog. The pdfFactory Properties dialog will open. Click the Metrics tab at the top of the dialog. Uncheck the "Emulate Printer" box and select the highest possible resolution (e.g., 1440 dpi). These settings will assure that your on-screen display matches the final PDF version, and the high resolution will give you the best results for camera ready copy.

Nota Bene's RTF (Rich Text Format) filter can be used to save Nota Bene documents containing multilingual text in a format that can be opened by Word, WordPerfect or other programs. This is done by clicking File, Save As, and then selecting RTF (Rich Text Format) -- Custom in the Formats box of the Save As dialog (see more detailed instructions below).

Proper conversion of multilingual text depends on the fonts that the recipient is using. Many fonts are available and virtually all of them have different encoding. To convert Nota Bene's multilingual text, the font that will be used by the recipient must be taken into account and the recipient must have the appropriate fonts installed.

Note also that the software for which you are preparing RTF output may handle Hebrew differently. Some software will be able to automatically flip the Hebrew characters, while others will not. You may need to create different versions of the RTF export file, one with the Reverse Hebrew checkbox on the Conversion Options: RTF Export dialog checked, and another with it unchecked. Unfortunately, there's no way to be sure which option is required unless you know exactly what software your recipient is using, and how it is configured.

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Unicode fonts: As with other fonts, the receiving party would need to have a Unicode font available. This is particularly the case for Greek, where the accents and breathing marks needed for classical and koine Greek will not be converted properly without such a font. As for Hebrew, although the vowels are available in virtually all Unicode fonts (and the cantillation marks in some), many programs (including many versions of Word) cannot properly position them, with the result that only consonantal text will be properly displayed.

•	Linguist's Software fonts: These fonts are high-quality fonts, and will produce very good output. If you are sending the file to a publisher, they may very well already have these fonts, since they are standard fonts used by many people in classics, Judaic studies, and biblical studies.

•	Society of Biblical Literature/Scholar's Press fonts: These fonts are available at no cost and can be downloaded from the SBL (Society of Biblical Literature) web site. However, the quality of these fonts is not as good as the Linguist's Software fonts.

1	Make sure the document displayed on your screen has been saved in Nota Bene format (press Ctrl+S or click the Save button or click File, Save)

•	Type new filename in the box marked Filename (to Save As). If you do not type an extension, the .rtf extension will be added automatically.

•	To change the drive or path, use the Drives drop list and/or the large white boxes in the middle of the dialog to browse to the new drive and/or folder.

•	Select one of the Character Encoding options (Unicode, Linguist's Software fonts, or Society of Biblical Literature/Scholar's Press fonts).

•	Under Hebrew Options, you will normally want the reverse Hebrew box unchecked. As noted above, results may vary depending on the software that the recipient is using to read the RTF file, and in some cases this box will need to be checked to produce the desired results.

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If you leave the Save As Defaults box at the bottom of the dialog checked, then the next time you save a file as an RTF file, you can select RTF (Rich Text Format) -- Defaults in the Formats box of the Save As dialog and the same settings will be applied without opening the Conversion Options dialog.

The file will be saved as an RTF file. You will be asked if you want to open the RTF file. If you click Yes, then the file will be opened using whatever program on your computer is associated with the .RTF extension. If you have Microsoft Word installed on your computer, the .RTF extension is usually associated with Microsoft Word. You will be able to see the multilingual text only if you have the proper software (e.g. Microsoft Word) and the proper fonts (the font you selected in making the conversion) installed on your computer.

If you are converting several files at the same time, you can click to check the "Remember Format" box. This will retain the format you selected so that you do not have to change it each time. Remember to change the format back to Nota Bene for Windows and to uncheck the "Remember Format" box when you are finished.