Linux IPA: Main page

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on March 22, 2008 at 11:38:13 am

Generating IPA Characters on Linux

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First things first General stuff

Office Applications Browsers Email Applications

First things first

You won't be able to use IPA on your Linux computer until you have an IPA font installed, and most distros don't install one by default. So if you don't have an IPA font installed yet, go to Cool free IPA fonts to download and download one. If you need help installing it, go to How to install fonts on your computer.

General stuff to know about using IPA on Linux

Basic way: If you’re using a kernel later than 2.6.18 (e.g., Ubuntu Edgy or later) then hold down Ctrl-Shift, type u, then the hex number (column 3 in the RTF file that you can download from Download a table of IPA codes). For earlier kernels, hold down Ctrl-Shift and type the hex number. To see what kernel you have, open a terminal and type "uname -a." Works system-wide, in all applications.

Alternative method: Use the character map utility that is part of your desktop. “Character Map” is what it’s called in Gnome (Applications > Accessories > Character Map). In KDE it is "Kcharselect" and will be also be found on your applications menu. If you are using some other desktop poke around, but if you can't find one you can probably install the Gnome or KDE version. Once you select the character in your character map utility you can copy it to the clipboard and then paste it wherever you want it. Pasting usually works either by Ctrl-v or center-mouse-click, or either way, depending on the application. Note a special feature of whichever character map utility you are using - when you select a character it will tell you the hex code for that character. If you're going to use the character a lot it might be faster just to make note of the code and then insert the character with the Basic way above.

Application method: Some applications (e.g., full-featured word processors), have an Insert Special Character feature. See further details under the applications below.

Custom keyboard method: Go to Mapping Your Keyboard to learn how to set up a custom keyboard for IPA on Linux.

Office applications

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OpenOffice Microsoft Office Abiword KWord

OpenOffice.org (Writer, Calc, Impress, Base)

You can use the system method above under General stuff to know about IPA on Linux above to insert IPA characters into OpenOffice.org, and many users do this as their normal method. But if you just need to insert an occasional character it may be easier to use the Insert Special Character feature of OpenOffice.org than try to insert it with the system method above.

To do this in Writer go to Insert > Special Character. A window will pop up showing characters and it will be set by default to Verdana or some other font that you are not using. Therefore, the first thing to do is use the drop-down to set it to the IPA font you are using. (Tip: Click on the drop-down, then type the first letter of the font you are using, which will pop the drop-down directly to your font.)

To the right of the font drop-down you will see "Subset" and another drop-down. This drop-down will start out with "Basic Latin" and with the drop-down you can see other Unicode subsets - "Latin-1," "Latin-Extended-A and -B," "IPA Extensions," "Spacing Modifier Letters," and "Combining Diacritical Marks." There are more in the drop-down, but these are the ones you will be most concerned with. There is also a scroll bar on the character display and you will note that the subset in the drop-down will change as you scroll down.

If you select a character in the display you will note a number in the lower right corner of the popup window. For the first 255 it will show the hex code followed by the decimal code (0-255). Characters with higher numbers will just show the hex code. If you are going to use the character a lot you might find it easier to take note of the hex code (the decimal codes don't work on Linux) and then insert the character as described under General stuff to know about IPA on Linux above.

One cool feature of the Insert Special Character feature is that you can select multiple characters and paste them all at once. You could, for example, create a transcription for an entire sentence all at once. You still have to hunt and peck in the display window to find the characters, but at least you don't have to reopen the Insert Special Character window for each character.

Sometimes you are working on a document where you will need only half a dozen different IPA characters or fewer. A trick that some people have used for such a situation is to insert all the characters at once and set them at the top of your document. Then copy them all to the clipboard and when you need one, paste them all and delete the unwanted ones.

Another trick that some people use is to define the IPA characters in the Autocorrect utility. To do so go to Tools > Autocorrect, and click on the Replace tab. You will see a long list of typos and spelling errors in a column on the left and the correction in a column to the right. OpenOffice.org comes with several hundred of these, but you can add and delete as you wish. To make a new entry type a couple of characters that will never occur in the real world but that are still mnemonic for the character into the Replace box. For example, for the eth you might enter "d-." In the With box to the right enter the eth, using Insert Special Character or any of the above methods, then click on the New button. Now, whenever you type "d-" followed by a space OpenOffice.org will automatically insert the eth. Of course, you need to keep track of what special combinations you used for the different IPA characters, but if you aren't going to need more than a few of them this may be the best method for you.

When using Calc or Impress the above methods work exactly the same as they do in Writer. But if you need to use Base you have a problem: Databases do not save data in characters above decimal 255. So if you have such a massive amount of data that you need to hold it in a database, you will have to use a workaround. The best way is just to make up some weird combinations of letters that would never occur in the real world and use such a combination for each IPA character you want. Eventually you will pull your data out of the database file, probably as a merge into a document in Writer, Calc or Impress. After doing so you can just do a global find and replace for your weird combinations.

Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access)

General and Specific wisdom about M$ Office

Abiword

You can use the system method above under General stuff to know about IPA on Linux above to insert IPA characters into Abiword, and many users do this as their normal method. But if you just need to insert an occasional character it may be easier to use the Insert Symbol feature of Abiword than try to insert it with the system method above.

To do so click on Insert > Symbol and a window will pop up. In the upper left corner of the window there will be a font drop-down box that will probaby show Symbol as the default. Use the drop-down to select the font you re using. Underneath the font drop-down on the left of the window there will be a list of Unicode blocks. You can go directly to a block just by clicking on it. The ones you will use most often will be "Latin-1," "Latin-Extended-A and -B," "IPA Extensions," "Spacing Modifier Letters," and "Combining Diacritical Marks." On the right side you will see the characters change as you select different fonts and different Unicode blocks. The default view is Character Table, which is what you probably will need most often. Once you select a character you can click on the Character Details tab and it will give you additional information about the character. Sometimes the names they use in the Character Details are not exactly what a Phonetics textbook would call them, but they're close enough for you to know what they are. More importantly, the Character Details tab shows you the hex code for the character, so if you are going to use it a lot you can make note of the code and then insert the character as described above under General stuff to know about IPA on Linux.

Abiword is a fantastic word processor, but it does not have a spreadsheet, presentations or database application.

KOffice (KWord, KSpread, KPresenter, KChart)

You can use the system method above under General stuff to know about IPA on Linux to insert IPA characters into any of the KOffice applications and many users do this as their normal method. KOffice does not come with its own Insert Special Character feature, so most people just use the above system method. However, if you really love KOffice there is an alternative, although it may take a bit of configuring to get it working for you.

Diehard KOffice users will know we are talking about Insert > Expression. KOffice comes with a lot of preconfigured expressions, but you can add your own. Just because the preconfigured expressions are things like "Hello!" doesn't mean an expression needs to be long - it can be just one character, specifically, an IPA character. To add expressions go to Tools > Edit Personal Expressions. It would probably be best to give them their own group, so create a group called "IPA." Then add an IPA character to the group using one of the the system methods above and click on OK. Now, when you go into Insert > Expression you will find your IPA group and your personal list of IPA characters in it. Beats the heck out of an Insert Character utility because you don't have to wade through thousands of characters looking for the one you want.

KOffice also has an Autocorrection feature that some find is a good way to insert IPA characters. To do so go to Settings > Configure Autocorrection, and click on the Advanced Autocorrection tab. You will see a long list of typos and spelling errors in a column on the left and the correction in a column to the right. KOffice comes with several hundred of these, but you can add and delete as you wish. To make a new entry type a couple of characters that will never occur in the real world but that are still mnemonic for the IPA character into the Find box. For example, for the eth you might enter "d-." In the Replace box to the right enter the eth, using Insert Special Character or any of the above methods, then click on the Add button. Now, whenever you type "d-" followed by a space KOffice will automatically insert the eth character. Of course, you need to keep track of what special combinations you used for the different IPA characters, but if you aren't going to need more than a few of them this may be the best method for you.

KOffice does not come with a database utility, however, it can connect to a MySQL database. Unfortunately, MySQL (as with all databases) cannot handle any characters above ASCII 255, which leaves out all the IPA characters. If you need to keep IPA characters in a database you will need to use a workaround. The best way is to make up sequences of characters that would never exist in the real world and type them into your data in place of the actual character. Then, after merging the data from the database into a document in KWord or other application you can do a find and replace for the sequences.