Rajiv’s sleek new converter
Rajiv Rawat has a sleek-looking new webpage featuring his latest conversion tools. This iteration adds the ability to convert old Macintosh “Vowel First Dene” documents directly to Unicode. There are new “general purpose integrated keyboards” that covers all the Dene Languages. Instead of having to click a different Unicode keyboard for each language, those who work with multiple languages can now type them all from one keyboard. Rajiv also features a collection of free web fonts that are compatible with the Dene Languages.
Web fonts are of special interest to web page developers. Instead of relying on the user’s computer to provide the correct fonts for displaying the Dene Language characters, webfonts reside on a server somewhere in cyberspace and are linked to the webpage using a special code that displays the characters correctly no matter which fonts are installed or missing on the viewer’s computer. (Whew, didn’t know I could pull so many pages of reading about webfonts together so concicely. Yeah, I know, it probably sounded like a long sentence to you.)
One more thing Rajiv has added is a macro to install commonly used Aboriginal place-names to your MS Office auto-correct. I find it very convenient not to have to change keyboards every time I need to type the word “Tłı̨chǫ” or “Behchokǫ̀”. Just type the normal English transliteration, and the characters jump to the correct Dene Language spelling magically when you hit the spacebar or punctuation mark.
Oh yes, where is this magic happening?
It’s a hidden page on the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre website.