TibetDoc - wordprocessing/e-mailer for Windows


Tibetan Word-processing Software Overview part 2

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With TibetDoc, you can type documents in Tibetan, English and other European languages, and it also has the Sanskrit diacriticals needed for serious work. It allows you to make a pecha from any Tibetan text, whether you type it yourself or obtain it from any of many sources, such as Padma Karpo Translation Committee or many of the Tibetan monasteries in India and Nepal. Just click a button in TibetDoc and a fully authentic pecha format appears. Click the same button and the text returns to Western format. Furthermore, there is a complete set of controls so that the basic pecha format can be changed into any of the several, traditional formats that Tibetans use. A special feature of the software is that you can click on a Tibetan word in TibetDoc and do a direct lookup into any of our dictionaries that are installed. (This last feature makes the software especially useful for Westerners, including translators and is in use by Tibetan khenpos who are learning English, too). The dictionary lookups can be done, whether the text is in Western or pecha format. Lookups are immediate and it is even possible to browse the dictionary from the lookup window. This is especially useful for Western dharma students who want to have their practice texts in pecha format and who need to lookup the words in dictionary as they go. It is an excellent way to teach yourself to read the pecha.

TibetDoc is made equally for Tibetans and Westerners. For Tibetan purposes, it has many special features built into it for those doing serious Tibetan text preservation work, such as special comparator/correction software that makes it easy to correct a text that has been input. It has a Tibetan spelling checker of course. You can work directly in pecha format, too. Press a button to start the pecha, type your pecha, spell-check and correct it, and print! We even have Tibetan-Tibetan dictionaries so that the zhu dag pa who are correcting the texts can look up words in a dictionary in their own language. What used to take days or weeks can now be done in minutes or hours, quite literally. (If you are a Tibetan whose monastery has been using our WordPerfect software, please do contact Lotsawa Tony immediately to get the new software.)

In general, how you obtain the software? The wordprocessing software can be purchased in either of the two packages shown at the top of the page. The TibetD software comes as TibetD Reader with all the texts and dictionaries available through the Padma Karpo Translation Committee.

Which wordprocessing package do you need? For many students of the language and for most monasteries, TibetDoc is sufficient. Therefore we sell it as a standalone product. Some people also need to type Tibetan text directly in Word or WordPerfect for Windows. The Tibetan! 5 add-ins for Word and WordPerfect give that ability, making a nice complement to TibetDoc, so we also sell TibetDoc bundled with these two add-ins. The bundle is called The Tibetan Complete WordProcessing CD. If you want to make pecha, TibetDoc is the way to do it; WordPerfect has too many problems and Word simply cannot make pecha. If you need to type Tibetan text and export it to another program, TibetDoc is also the way to do it; type your text and copy and paste it.

Which fonts do you need? All of our products come with the standard Tibetan typeface called TibetanMachine. This is a good, basic typeface and suffices for the needs of many Westerners. However, if you are publishing and want the highest quality typefaces, or if you are Tibetan and want the most authentic typefaces, you will want to purchase one of our better quality typefaces, such as Tibetan Calligraphic or Tibetan Classic.

Where do you purchase them? Any of these products and any of the dictionary and text products of Padma Karpo Translation Committee can be purchased directly from our electronic shop and obtained by immediate download. Alternatively, if you need to have a physical CD, you can purchase them directly from us or from one of our distributors.