Installation instructions for Windows XP

Requirements

You will need to install the following items:

• Meltho OpenType Fonts
• Syriac Keyboards

Microsoft Products

To work with the Meltho Syriac fonts, you must first install a Microsoft product that supports Syriac under Windows 2000. Microsoft products that support Syriac are:

• Office XP
• Internet Explorer 6.0

1. INSTALLATION

1.1. Installing Meltho Fonts

Double click on Meltho.msi and follow the instructions.

If you cannot run Meltho.msi, you can extract the files manually from Meltho.zip. The font files go to the Font directory. For Meltho.dot, see section 2.2 below. The User Guide file should go in a new directory called C:\Program Files\Meltho so that it can be accessed from Meltho.dot.

When done, reboot your computer.

2. SETTING YOUR SOFTWARE TO USE SYRIAC

2.1 Making Syriac available Under Windows XP.

Click Start | Control Panel

then Date,Time,Langauge,and Regional Options

then Regional and Langauge Options

then Click on Langauges tab.
select both the check boxes (if it start installing then wait till it finish) and then click on details

Under Installed Services, click Add

Under Input Langauge, choose Syriac Under Keyboard

Layout/IME, choose either Syriac 101 (if you want a Syriac keyboard like the Arabic one), or Syriac Phonetic (if you want a phonetic keyboard). Click OK. (If you want to install BOTH keyboard layouts, click Add again and repeat this step.)

When done, click OK twice to complete the settings.

2.2 Making Syriac available Word XP.

You must have the Word XP (or Office XP) CD to perform this step.

Make sure you have Office XP installed. Click on Start | All Programs | Microsoft Office Tools | Microsoft Office XP Language Settings. Under Available Langauges, choose Syriac. Click Add. Then click OK.

The Meltho package also comes with menus and macros that will help you write Syriac in Word. These are in a file called Meltho.dot and are located in C:\Program Files\Meltho (after you do the installation in step 1.2 above). If you want to use these menus in all your Word documents (recommended), you need to copy the Meltho.dot file to the directory C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\Startup. These menus feature:

• Easy access to Meltho fonts.
• Images of the Syriac keyboards.
• Inserting Syriac numbers: type a number between 1 and 1,000,000 and the macro will covert that into Syriac letter numbers.
• Meltho Documentation.
• Links to the SyrCOM discussion group and the Beth Mardutho Site.
• About Meltho: list of contributors and financial supporters.

You should be able to use Syriac in Word, Access, Excel, PowerPoint and Publisher. You will be able to use Syriac also in Internet Explorer for Web pages, and Outlook Express for email. Yes! You can send Syriac email!

George Kiraz, Ph.D.
Director, Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Computing Institute

Edited with Graphs by Abed Dawod (March, 2002)