Font conversion issue: TransCyrillic

Fri Jun 27 22:14:42 UTC 2003

To the computer conversion experts out there:

I work in Word 2000 under Windows 2000 Professional.

I've received a Word file from a client that I can read and display, but
the main font used is "TransCyrillic," which has the following
disadvantages:

1. The Cyrillic characters are in positions on the code page where one
might expect Western characters, so when I select Times New Roman or any
other modern (double-byte) font, I get boxes, punctuation marks, and
general gibberish:

ï€ ï€ ï€ ï€ ï€ ï–ï€ ï´ï¡ï¢ï¬ï©ï£ï¡ï¸ï€ ï°ï¥ï²ï©ï¯ï¤ï©ï¨ï¥ï³ï«ï¯ïªï€ ï³ï©ï³ï´ï¥ïï¹ï€ ï€¯ï¬ï¥ïï¥ï®ï´ï¯ï¶ï€¬ï€ ï©ïºï¤ï¡ï®ï®ï¹ï¸ï€ ï¶ï€ ï²ï¡ïºï®ï¹ï¸ï€ ï³ï´ï²ï¡ï®ï¡ï¸ï€ ï©ï€ ï¶ï€
ï²ï¡ïºï®ï¯ï¥ï€ ï¶ï²ï¥ïï±ï€¬ï€ ï¨ï¡ïï¥ï€ ï¶ï³ï¥ï§ï¯ï€¬ï€ ï¶ï€ ï®ï¡ï¨ï¡ï¬ï¥ï€ ï´ï¡ï¢ï¬ï©ï£ï¹ï€ ï°ï¥ï¨ï¡ï´ï¡ï¬ï³ï±ï€ ï´ï¯ï¬ï€»ï«ï¯ï€ ï¯ï¤ï©ï®ï€ ï°ï¥ï²ï©ï¯ï¤ï€¬ï€ ï¶ï€ ï«ï¯ï´ï¯ï²ï¯ïï€
ï²ï¡ï³ï°ï¯ï¬ï¡ï§ï¡ï¬ï©ï³ï€»ï€ ï€¯ï¬ï¥ïï¥ï®ï´ï¹ï€ ï¶ï¯ï¤ï¯ï²ï¯ï¤ï€ ï©ï€ ï§ï¥ï¬ï©ïªï€®ï€ ï„ï¡ï¬ï¥ï¥ï€¬ï€ ï¶ï³ï¥ï€ ï€¯ï¬ï¥ïï¥ï®ï´ï¹ï€¬ï€ ï®ï¡ï¨ï©ï®ï¡ï±ï€ ï³ï€ ï¬ï©ï´ï©ï±ï€¬ï€

I can convert it to barely legible form by substituting one of the old
Casady and Greene fonts, such as Vremya FWF or Svoboda FWF, but it's
still not Cyrillic:

V tablicax periodiheskoj sistemy /lementov, izdannyx v raznyx stranax i
v raznoe vremq, ha]e vsego, v nahale tablicy pehatalsq tol;ko odin
period, v kotorom raspolagalis; /lementy vodorod i gelij. Dalee, vse
/lementy, nahinaq s litiq, ...

instead of this:

В таблицах периодической системы элементов, изданных в разных странах и
в разное время, чаще всего, в начале таблицы печатался только один
период, в котором располагались элементы водород и гелий. Далее, все
элементы, начиная с лития, ...

I typed this out by hand; even by displaying it in TransCyrillic, which
makes it *look* like Cyrillic, I can't cut and paste to other Windows
2000 applications; I get the romanized stuff you saw above.

This is an inconvenience, but as you can see it is not insurmountable in
terms of reading and understanding.

2. Word's search/replace functions do not work on this font, because, no
matter whether it is displaying Western or Cyrillic glyphs, it thinks in
its heart of hearts that these are "symbols."

3. Modern computer-aided translation software does not recognize these
characters as Russian words and sentences to be translated, so it throws
up its hands and tells me I'm on my own.

4. The word count, the basis for my billing and time estimating, is only
1858, even though the document takes up 24 densely packed pages -- I
estimate 250-300 words each by eye. The excerpt above looks to Word like
"three words."

Does anyone know any tricks for converting this stuff to Times New Roman
or something else modern? If I could get it into Times New Roman Cyr,
that would be enough because Word can understand that.

TIA

--
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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