QText Version 8.0 Help Notes
Installation/Configuration Notes

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1. When you first install the program, you must set a number of configuration options which are not explained or made available during the installation process. I suggest reviewing the following simple steps before you try to use the program.

2. Install per manufacturer’s instructions. Click the down arrow next to the drop-down font menu. This is the drop down menu which is just to the left of the numerical Point Size drop down menu.

3. Following is a list of all the Hebrew/Yiddish fonts that come with QText. Look to see whether or not you see all of these options available in QText:

Q-Aharoni
Q-Ateret
Q-Calligrafic
Q-David
Q-Frank
Q-Haim
Q-Mantova
Q-Mantova-Decor
Q-Miriam
Q-Prague
Q-Rashi
Q-Yad

4. If any (or all) of the above fonts are missing, do the following steps. You might want to do this anyway, even if you don't have any problem finding the fonts in QText, so that you can use the fonts in other Windows programs; e.g., for pasting text from QText into Word, etc.

A. Close QText

B. Go to Windows Start/Settings/Control Panel/Fonts

C. Go to File/Install New Fonts

D. Browse to \QTW\TTF\

E. Select all the files which are named Q*.ttf (You can select them all at once by selecting the first one and then holding the Shift key while you tap the last one.)

F. Hit O.K. to install these QText fonts as Windows fonts

5. Back in QText, you must decide which kind of keyboard you’d like to use. You can change your mind at any time, later, but none of the Yiddish keyboard options will work unless you ensure that the following settings are configured.

A. Use the keyboard layout that comes with the program. This is based on a modern Israeli keyboard layout (which was originally developed from the manual Yiddish typewriter keyboard layout) as retrofitted back to accommodate the extended Yiddish character set, adjusted for modern orthography. To see what it looks like, click here and look at the first layout ("Windows Hebrew-Yiddish Keyboard," Mark David 6-30-97).

B. Use a phonetic or other keyboard. There are several versions floating around (including one replicating the Royal typewriter layout from the 1930s) which have been developed (as of  March, 2001) or if you bought the program from the Yiddish Voice on-line store  http://store.yv.org/ (a wise choice) they may have a better one to send you. Click here to try one of the existing Yiddish phonetic or other customized QText keyboards that various UYIP members have created.

C. Design your own keyboard. This is not hard to do, but you will find instructions only by searching QText’s online Help/Index/Search under Define Keyboard. (Help for this topic is not indexed under the word Keyboard.) Just minimize this help topic as you work because you cannot print it out. The instructions are very clear.

The Configuration settings required for each option are as follows:

(*) Note re: Nikkud settings. The Yiddish extended characters will not work while you have Nikkud turned on (checked). In most cases, you will not need Nikkud because the extended Yiddish character set takes care of everything you would need for standard Yiddish spelling. However, should you ever want to insert Nikkud (Hebrew vowel marks) in your Yiddish document, you can do so by momentarily turning Nikkud on. Just don’t forget to turn it back off in order to access the extended Yiddish characters. You can toggle Nikkud on/off either by checking/unchecking in the Language/Configuration menu, or by hitting F-9.

6. I had a problem with the Phonetic/Custom keyboard which seemed to solve itself pretty easily (after trying everything else, which didn’t work!). Here’s what happened and what I did, in two different cases. In case you have the same problem, may your solution be equally easy.

SOLUTION I

a. I’d created my custom keyboard while using the QFrank font. It worked great. Then, when I tried the other fonts, I discovered that none of the extended Yiddish characters, such a pasakh-tsvey-yud worked in the other fonts. Eventually, I tried this:

b. I set the font to something other than the one I’d started with (i.e., other than QFrank). I used QYad. Then, I went to Language/Define Keyboard/Selected the custom keyboard that I’d already created, and then hit the Define Keyboard button. The display showed me that all the extended Yiddish fonts were in place, at the positions where I’d assigned them, although they weren’t working. I simply re-dragged one of the extended Yiddish characters to its existing customized location. Then, I saved everything and went to try it as a test. It worked, but not only for that one test character or for that one additional font, but suddenly my new keyboard worked across all fonts, including all the extended Yiddish characters.

If that doesn't work, try this:

SOLUTION II

c. Certain characters; eg.,  pasakh alef and the veys appear 2 times in the ASCII
table.
The pasakh alef is placed in: 70(D) and 215(D).
The veys is placed in 75(D) and 217(D).

Make sure that in your phonetic keyboard you use 215(D) for pasak alef, and
217(D) for veys. This will solve the problem, in case some fonts don't recognize all the extended Yiddish characters. If you have problems with any other characters, look for doubles and try the other one.

The way to find out which character selections correspond to which ASCII codes is as follows:

d. Go into Language, Define Keyboard, Define Keyboard and select the custom keyboard that you're working on. Ensure that you have that window open, while you can see the layout of all the charcters which are available to be dragged onto key positions for your keyboard. Leave this open.

e. Click on the top menu Language, Character Map. Another display of all the characters opens. Drag the windows so you can see both character layouts at one time.

f. Slide your cursor (without clicking) over the Character Map table. As you point to each character, you can see which ASCII code corresponds to it. This will illustrate where to find the working vs. non-working copy of the problem character. (The working pasakh alef and beys are both somewhere towards the lower right of the diagram.)

7. After trying all the fonts, you may wish to designate default fonts and point sizes so you don't have to reset them every time you create a new document. QText allows you to set as many default setting as you like (although you’ll never find the word "default" in the Help listings). You do this by going to Document/Define Styles. If you press F-1 when this dialog box is open, you’ll get an explanation of the many options here. I chose to keep it simple and just did the following, leaving everything else alone:

a. Select a Hebrew/Yiddish font.

b. Select a point size.

c. Type in a Style name (e.g., briv for your preferred defaults for letters)

d. Check Apply to Styles Gallery, to enable the program to save these parameters. (Wouldn’t it be nice if it just said "Save Settings"?)

e. Check Apply to Document if you want to work with these settings now, in the current document

f. Click OK to save the settings.

8. Go to File/Configuration and Uncheck Use QText Libraries. You don’t have to do this, but if you don’t, you will have to learn QText’s unique system of file management, and then I wish you luck when you try to figure out where your files are (something you will need to know for publishing web pages, sending files to others via email from outside of QText, importing web pages into existing webs, etc.) Perhaps you’re more patient than me, but I just didn’t want to get bogged down in an unfamiliar method of managing my hard drive. It took a while for me to bump into the place to change this, because it was never explained during the set-up process that this was an option.

9. Go to the Document menu and be sure that Automatic Repagination is checked.

10. I recommend the following settings, all found under Language/Configuration:

• English dialog
• English file name
• Hebrew paragraph direction
• Hebrew screen orientation
• Auto push numbers
• Use F12 for Push
• Force Heb/Eng on startup
• Use AltGr
• Convert Arabic ligature

Nothing else should be checked, toggled on, or otherwise selected in the Language/Configuraton menu. (Reminder - leave Yiddish unchecked if you're using a phonetic or custom keyboard to type Yiddish.)

11. The following step is especially helpful if you plan to use QText for Yiddish email, by sending and receiving QText file attachments to/from other QText users. If you do the following, each time you receive a QText file attachment in your email, you'll be able to simply double-click on the file name, from within your email program, and QText will automatically open, enabling you to read your incoming document. It will work with most email programs, such as Eudora, Outlook, Outlook Express, etc. I can't guarantee that it will work with every email program, but it won't hurt to do the following anyway, just in case:

a. Close QText.

b. Right-click on a blank area on the Windows Task Bar. (That's the grey bar adjacent to the WIndows Start button, usually at the bottom of the screen.)

c. Click on Properties.

d. Click on the tab for Start Menu Programs (not necessary in later Windows versions)

e. Cick on Advanced. (In later Windows versions, you'll see another "advanced" button. Click that one, too.)

f. Click Tools (from the menu at the top) and then Folder Options.

g. Click the File Types tab.

h. Click New Type (or just "New" in later Windows versions).

i. Click in the area for Associated Exension, and type in "QTW" (without the quotes)

j. Click New.

The following may vary slightly depending on your Windows version. Read it through, and you should be able to do it.

k. Hit Browse. You'll get a standard Windows browse window that says "Open With." Then, you just have to browse to point to the QText program, which is probably located at C:\QTW\Qtw.exe. When you have the Qtw.exe file name in the File Name space, hit Open.

l. Then, in the New Action window, for Action, type "open" (without quotes), and then hit OK.

m. Hit Close and/or OK a couple of times until you're out of this loop.

You might notice that QText automatically creates a backup file for every document. So, although QText documents generally have a file name extension of *.QTW, you also get (without even asking) a duplicae file with an extension *.BAK. If you correspond often with other QText users via email file attachments, you might find that people sometimes inadvertantly send you the *.BAK file by mistake instead of the *.QTW file. Nisht geferlekh. You can always open the *.BAK file in QText anyway. However, you may want to repeat the above steps for the file extension BAK additionally. However, if you do that, I recommend checking the box that says "confirm open after download" since other programs might also use the BAK extension.

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Last updated: February 17, 2002 11:06 PM