Entering Greek Characters

Accordance automatically uses the Helena font for all Greek text. Most of the letters of the Greek alphabet have been placed in the familiar positions of their transliterated letters in Roman fonts. The accents and breathing marks are organized so they are easy to find. Text can also be entered using the international Greek Polytonic Keyboard; this option is set in the Greek & Hebrew area of the Preferences dialog box.

Two Accordance text entry features facilitate the correct entry of the Greek. These features can be turned off for all Accordance tabs via the Preferences dialog box (Greek & Hebrew area).

The Automatic final letter feature alters the form of the Greek sigma depending on its position in the word. As you press “s”, the final sigma form appears. But if sigma is followed by another letter, it takes the regular form.

The Automatic diacritical marks feature affects the various overstrike characters—accents and breathing marks and their combinations. Most accents and other diacriticals are entered after (to the right of) the character. Most are offered with a short, medium, and long overstrike for correct positioning over or under each character.

As you enter any of the overstrike positions of the specific accent or mark, Accordance enters the character or the combination with the correct amount of overstrike for the previous or following letter. If you enter an accent and a breathing mark after the same vowel, the correct combination character is entered. Before an uppercase vowel you must enter the non-overstrike breathing mark (option or shift-option-J) before the vowel, and any position of the accent, in order to get the combination.