Compatibility Issues with Windows 7 and the Russian Keyboard (v. 4.03) Cyrillic 2000 Font Program

[Vanchu, Anthony J. (JSC-AH)[BARRIOS TECHNOLOGY]]

Dear SEELANGtsy,

For over 10 years, we have been using the Russian Keyboard, v. 4.03, part of the Cyrillic 2000 font program from Fingertip Software, to produce materials for our students in Russian with stressed vowels.

The number of documents in our archive is quite sizeable, given our need to produce material with specific space-related content for our students, primarily astronauts who will be flying aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft and who will undergo training in Russia (and in Russian) on the Soyuz and the Russian ISS (International Space Station) systems.

Recently, several of our instructors’ computers have been upgraded form Windows XP to Windows 7 (though we’re still using Office 2007), with the rest to follow.  What we have experienced thus far vis a vis the compatibility of the Cyrillic 2000 Russian Keyboard with Windows 7 has been disheartening to say the least.  This has included the following:

•       Font program will not execute (load) in Windows 7
•       Font program executes, but then shows as “disabled” when opened
•       Font program executes, but won’t allow stressed vowels to be typed
•       Font program executes, but documents previously written using this program display word stress only on vowels common to English and Russian

The obvious solution—contacting the program’s developer, Fingertip Software, is unfortunately not an option as they are no longer in operation.

While we are in the process of trying to fix this problem with the help of IT resources available to us here, I’m also turning to the SEELANGS community in the hope that

•       Someone else is using this font program, has encountered this problem when switching to Windows 7, and has found a work-around that they’re willing to share
•       Someone might have suggestions or insights as to how we can solve this problem

Any assistance or ideas that anyone can offer, either on or off list, will be gratefully appreciated.

Thanks,
Tony Vanchu

Dr. Anthony J. Vanchu, Ph.D.
TechTrans International, Inc.
Director, JSC Language Education Center
Johnson Space Center
Houston, TX
(281) 483-0644