Study Lebanese

Since one of my students was having trouble downloading and installing the keyboard for mac on his computer, this is a step by step tutorial on how to install the mac keyboard:

1: If you have multiple keyboards on your mac, this is what you usually see on the top right corner:

2: Go to: http://studylebanese.com/category/downloads/

3: You will need to download the keyboard file from there on your computer. Now, this is where people get confused. If you click on the link that is provided, mac will open the file. You don’t want to do that, you will need to press “ctrl” and click on the link. This will open the menu for you:

4- Select save link as and save the file on your desktop.

5- When you download it, you will see on your desktop a file called: lbkmac.keylayout. If, by any chance you get a file called lbkmac.keylayout.xml, rename it to lbkmac.keylayout

6- Open your Library folder on your hard drive

7- Open your keyboard layouts folder in the library

8- Move the file lbkmac.keylaout into that folder.

9- Restart your computer

10- You should now see the new keyboard in your keyboard list at the top right corner.

That’s it.

Today, I have great news for all MAC users. I finally developed a Lebanese keyboard for the MAC system.

The Lebanese keyboard for MAC is also simple and easy to use. You do not need to install any additional fonts. All you need to do is download the keyboard from the link provided below and put it in your “Keyboard Layouts” folder under the “Library” folder on the main disk.

How it works: It works the same as the English keyboard. Your use of your English will remain unaffected, and you can revert to it at any time. The Lebanese keyboard makes use of the Option key and CAPS button to allow typing in the 7 additional characters in Lebanese.

The additional letters to the regular keyboard are in upper and lowercase description: Ḋḋ, Ġġ, Ḣḣ, Ḱḱ, Ṫṫ, Ṡṡ and Żż.

“Option” plus d, g, h, k, t, s or z on your keyboard yields ḋ, ġ, ḣ, ḱ, ṫ, ṡ or ż respectively on your screen.

“Caps Lock” plus “Option” plus D, G, H, K, T, S or Z on your keyboard yields Ḋ, Ġ, Ḣ, Ḱ, Ṫ, Ṡ or Ż respectively on your screen.

Note: The Lebanese Letters are all Unicode 5.0 compatible, and the best font to use with the Lebanese letters is “Tahoma”.

Instructions:

1. Download the keyboard file ( right click and save as…)
2. Put the keyboard file in your “Library”>>”Keyboard Layouts” folder
3. Restart your computer

Make sure that your keyboard has the .keylayout extension. Sometimes it downloads as lbkmac.keylayout.xml instead of lbkmac.keylayout. Therefore, you have to remove the .xml ending and rename it.

You will see a language toolbar somewhere on your screen (top right), select “L.B.” to switch to Lebanese keyboard.

Have Fun.

Maroun Kassab

If you are working online, and need to use the Lebanese keyboard on a computer where you cannot install it, or if you are using a MAC, then you can click the link below

Lebanese

or you can drag this link to your Bookmarks Bar, and click it when you need to have this feature on any webpage. This feature is very useful when you want to type something online.

This was developed by Joseph Khoury, a fellow researcher at the Lebanese Language Institute, and it is still in Beta version (Testing). It works fine so far. Great Work Joe.

Download the Lebanese Keyboard here.

The Lebanese keyboard is simple and easy to use. You do not need to install any additional fonts, or and special software. All you need to do is download and install the keyboard from the link provided above.  This keyboard was developed by the Lebanese Language Institute.

How it works: It works the same as the English keyboard. Your use of your English will remain unaffected, and you can revert to it at any time. The Lebanese keyboard makes use of the Shift and CAPS buttons to allow typing in the 7 additional characters in Lebanese.

The additional letters to the regular keyboard are in upper and lowercase description: Ḋḋ, Ġġ, Ḣḣ, Ḱḱ, Ṫṫ, Ṡṡ and Żż.

Shift plus d, g, h, k, t, s or z on your keyboard yields ḋ, ġ, ḣ, ḱ, ṫ, ṡ or ż respectively on your screen.

Caps Lock plus Shift plus D, G, H, K, T, S or Z on your keyboard yields Ḋ, Ġ, Ḣ, Ḱ, Ṫ, Ṡ or Ż respectively on your screen.

Note: The Lebanese Letters are all Unicode 5.0 compatible, and the best font to use with the Lebanese letters is “Tahoma”

Instructions

1. Download the keyboard file ( right click and save as…)
2. Unzip the zipped file
3. Open the directory “Lebanese”
4. Run the “setup” program
5. Follow instructions
6. You will see a language toolbar somewhere on your screen (bottom right), select “LB” to switch to Lebanese keyboard, or you can also press left CTRL plus SHIFT to switch between keyboards.

For any comments on the Lebanese keyboard, please contact me and let me know.