SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

found to be inadequate for use in such articles. Third, a great deal of Coptic characters was needed. This resulted in the need to develop these special symbols graphically to preserve the meaning desired. Over 180 graphical symbols were created and inserted in the text in thousands of places. Despite the use of OCR software, the preparation of this volume took as much time and effort as the other seven combined. For those that appreciate the Coptic Language, it was time well spent. Technical Specifications: In its final form the electronic edition was produced in Adobe Acrobat PDF format, compatible with version 3.0. The textual contents of each volume is included in a single electronic file with each illustration in that volume stored in a separate electronic file. All the files belonging to each of these volumes are grouped in a separate directory. The exception to this rule is the introductory portion of Volume 1 which is kept in the root directory of the CD. Navigation between the different articles is available through a set of links from a master list of articles, stored on the root directory of the CD. Also each volume has internal bookmarks to navigate to any article within that volume, as well as to return to the master list. The Search engine used is that of Adobe Acrobat Reader program. All 8 volumes are indexed in a single index system, accessible through the root directory of the CD. This index can locate the occurrence of any word or a string of characters in English or Coptic (when the Coptic characters typed with their keyboard equivalent as included in Volume one of the Coptic CD). However, words in Volume 8, that special graphic characters have been added to, can not be searched. The installation files for the Acrobat Reader program is included in both version 3 and 5. Help on using the program is available on the program menu after it is installed. A C++ compiled program (developed by Mr. Pishoy Maksy of Los Angeles) will start after the insertion of the CD in the drive, to aid the user in installing the necessary components as well as starting the program. The

above assumes a PC configuration, for Mac computer users, they can install the Acrobat Reader first then manually open the menu file included. Differences between the Original and the Electronic Editions: From the beginning, it was decided that this edition is not just a replica of the original. Issues such as user requirements, software limitation, ease of display, efficient search capability, and of course economics determined the final shape that this product was produced in. This meant the departure from the 2-column format found in the Original Edition, and thus the page numbering. In its final format, the electronic edition applied the following distinctive rules and variations: 1. Each article is treated as a separate file, regardless of its length. At the beginning of each article a reference is inserted, indicating the corresponding page and column number of its beginning and its end in the original edition, e.g. CE:107a-108b for article in volumes 1-7 and CE:A19b-A20a for Volume 8. (the designation a, b is for column one and column 2 respectively). 2. Illustrations are stored as separate files with the page designation of where it is in the Original Edition. 3. The list of articles with the authors for volumes 1-7, included in Volume 1 of the Original Edition, was replaced with a master list of the article names without the author, arranged by volume, including those of Volume 8. This master list has dynamic links to each article it references. 4. In the first seven volumes, long vowels used in transcription of Arabic words is substituted for with the letter without the overline, e.g. ‘ū’ in the original edition becomes ‘u’ in the electronic edition, … etc. This is due to the unstable behavior of large PDF files, containing many of these letters in it. Also the incorporation of the long vowels does not allow for inclusion of the Coptic letters in the same file and complicate the search process.

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

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