Using the Biblical Fonts in Microsoft Word

Now that you have downloaded and installed the fonts and keyboards for the biblical fonts, let's put them to good use.

In this post, I'm going to show you how to use the biblical fonts through a couple of easy steps.  In the next, I'm going to show you how to create Macros in Microsoft Word to make using the fonts even easier.  I suggest learning both methods first, and then choosing whichever one you find easiest (I like the macro version).

Using the Biblical Fonts

Using the biblical fonts in Microsoft is fairly easy. In order to type in a biblical font, Microsoft Word needs you to pair up one of the language keyboards with a font.  So, in order to type in Hebrew in Microsoft Word, you need to choose the Hebrew keyboard as well as a Hebrew font.  The same with Greek.

First things first, open up a new document.  Once the document is open, the first thing you need to learn how to do is switch between which keyboard you want to use.  There are two ways to do this.

Switching Keyboards Using the Language Bar

The first way to switch keyboards is using the language bar.  If you followed the instructions in the previous post, your language bar should already be located on the taskbar at the bottom of your screen, left of the clock/date.  It should be set to read "EN" and might have a keyboard icon next to it.  To change your keyboard, click on the "EN".  A box should pop up and give you all the different keyboard options that have been installed or added by you.  There should at least be English, Hebrew, and Greek on the list.  Simply click on whatever language you want to type in.  That's it, pretty easy.

Switching Keyboards Using the Keyboard

A second way to switch keyboards is to press Alt+Shift within Microsoft Word.  Each time you do this, your keyboard setting will go through the list of different languages in the Language Bar.  In other words, with the Word screen opened, if your keyboard is set to "EN", then press Alt+Shift.  The "EN" should change to either "HE" (Hebrew) to "EL" (Greek).  If you press it again it will switch to the third language, and then once more and it will switch back to English.  Pretty easy, huh?


Switching Fonts to Type in a Biblical Language

Once you have chosen your keyboard, the final step is choosing the correct to go along with it.  For the Hebrew keyboards, the two fonts you can use are SBL Hebrew and SBL BibLit.  For the Greek keyboards, the two fonts you can use are SBL Greek and SBL BibLit.  So, if you only installed SBL BibLit, you should be good to go.  Again, some people prefer to use the SIL fonts rather than the SBL ones.  It's really only a matter of preference, as both fonts are designed very well.  The SIL fonts are designed to look closer to the fonts you find in your typical critical editions of the Bible (e.g. BHS).


Once you've matched up your keyboard and font, you should be able to type in Greek and Hebrew!  The final step is learning where all the different letters and vowels and various marks are on your new keyboards.  This will take some practice, but isn't too hard.  Also practice switching back to English by choosing the EN keyboard and going back to your English font (e.g. Times New Roman).

You should now be able to type a sentence in English, quote the biblical text, and then go back to English all on the same line.