SIL Converters
Microsoft Word/COM support for TECkit, CC, and ICU, Perl and Python
About
This package provides tools through which you can change the encoding, font, and/or script of text in Microsoft Word and other Office documents, OpenOffice and LibreOffice documents, XML documents, and SFM text and lexicon documents. It also installs a system-wide repository to manage your encoding converters and transliterators (TECkit, CC, ICU, Perl, or Python based, as well as support for adding custom transduction engines).
For developers, it provides a simple COM interface to select and use a converter from the repository. It is easy to use from VBA, C++, C#, Perl, Python or any .NET/COM enabled language.
The core EncConverters assembly is fully integrated with FLEx (FieldWorks Language Explorer), Speech Analyzer, Phonology Assistant, Adapt It and OneStory Editor software. It provides the same system-wide registry of installed and available encoding converters for all of these user programs. Additionally the package includes some extra utilities such as a clipboard converter for manipulating text between cut and paste operations.
The following picture illustrates the suite of tools, utilities, and applications that are available and how they interact:
Figure 1. SIL Converters Suite
Figure 1 shows the three distinct layers to SIL Converters.
- At the top are various client applications. These user-oriented programs use the EncConverters core assembly to provide encoding conversion and other transduction facilities to their users.
- The EncConverters core provides an abstraction layer so the client applications can access the various transduction engines without having to implement the interface to each one separately.
- The transduction engines are the server applications that provide the actual conversion/text processing capability.
If you are an end user, you are probably most interested in how to use EncConverters with client applications—for example:
- Using the Bulk Word Document Converter to convert the encoding of text in one or more Word document to Unicode, or
- Using Bulk SFM Converter to convert SFM documents into Unicode (typically texts and lexicons from Shoebox to Toolbox)
If you are a developer, you may be interested in
- Using EncConverters to gain access to the different transduction resources available by writing to the single EncConverters’ interface. See the Developer Documentation page for details and code snippets.
Upgrade! New Features
For version 5.2.8.0
- Upgrade nuget package version to remove a vulnerability in v5.2.7.0 and v5.2.6.0
- Includes support for Python 3.x, NLLB (hosted locally), Azure Open AI, and Vertex AI Translators.
For version 5.2.7.0 (this version is no longer available because of a vulnerability, please upgrade)
- Bug fixes for Paratext functioning.
For version 5.2.6.0 (this version is no longer available because of a vulnerability, please upgrade)
- Includes support for Python 3.x, NLLB (hosted locally), Azure Open AI, Vertex AI Translators, and the new Paratext Project EncConverter for use in the Paratext BackTranslation Helper dialog (e.g. to use a Serval-generated draft as a resource). See Paratext Back Translation Helper plug-in tutorial.
For version 5.2.5.0
- Includes support for Python 3.x, NLLB (hosted locally), Azure Open AI, and Vertex AI Translators.
For version 5.2.0
For version 5.1
- Includes support for the new Bing and DeepL Translators and the Paratext Back Translation Helper Plug-in. See Paratext Back Translation Helper plug-in tutorial
- Warning: Do not use the Bing or DeepL translator as the ‘Transliterator’ in a Paratext ‘Transliteration (using Encoding Converter)’ project. Instead, use the Back Translation Helper plug-in which works on a verse by verse basis.
For version 5.0
- Support 64 bit version of Microsoft Office, as well as continued support for 32 bit versions. See the documentation below for how to determine which bitness of Microsoft Office you have, and therefore which installer you should download.
- Support newer versions of Microsoft Office (including 2019 and 365).
- TECkit mapping editor can now show characters outside of the Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP), that is, Unicode characters above U+FFFF.
- Updated TECkit maps.
- Updated TECkit to support Unicode 13.
For version 4.0
This version (4.0) was released to fix various bugs including most significantly the removal of the core EncConverters assembly from the Global Assembly Cache. From v4.0 and following, client applications will redistribute the core assemblies ECInterfaces.dll and SilEncConverters.dll with their applications directly. They can still share the same global system repository of activated converters, but there will be less dependency between the various clients in terms of release requirements.
As of v3.1.1, a new transduction engine was added that provides support for the webpage-based converters in the Scientific and Technical Hindi Google Site. The Converters section of that group contains a number of webpage-based encoding converters and transliterators for numerous Indic legacy encodings. The conversion code embedded in these web-pages can now be used to convert data with any SIL Converters client application (e.g. the Bulk Word Document Converter) by using the new Technical Hindi Html EncConverter Add-in. To activate this new add-in be sure to check the Maps and Tables, Indic converters feature during installation. Once installed, you can read Help for Technical Hindi (Google group) Html Converter Plug-in (in Start, All Programs, SIL Converters, Help) for further instructions.
The Bulk Word Document Converter was also updated to fix a few problems related to converting text that was inserted into a document a single character at a time (thru the Insert Symbol command).
SILConverters 4.0 corresponds to the same version of the core EncConverters assembly as Fieldworks 7.1 and overcomes the uninstallation problem previously encountered in Speech Analyzer 3.0.1 and Phonology Assistant 3.0. If you uninstalled any of the applications which used the earlier version of the EncConverters core, it would become unavailable to the other applications that used the same, earlier version of the EncConverters core until an installation Repair was done.
The Bulk Word Document Converter has been enhanced by adding a search feature which will search your hard-drive for documents containing specific fonts to be converted.
The TECkit Map Unicode Editor has also been enhanced to show character maps for both the left and right-hand side of a conversion so that a point-and-click approach to encoding conversion can be used in developing the map.
Quick Installation Overview
Note: You will need Administrator privilege on the computer to install this software.
The Master Setup program runs a series of installers:
- Software prerequisites—Necessary system updates and add-ons are installed on your computer.
- SIL Encoding Converters 4.0 Setup—Conversion applications are installed and conversion Maps and Tables are copied to your hard drive.
- SIL Converters for Office 2003—Currently this installer only installs an additional operating system update.
- Converter Option Installer—A utility that allows you to activate the conversion Maps and Tables you want to use.
Full installation instructions can be found in the SILConverters 4.0 Installation documentation (download below). This document is intended to guide you through the Master Installer installation screens and initial SIL Converters 4.0 Setup.
Downloads
Documentation
| SILConverters 4.0 Installation documentation | for all platforms | |
| SILConverters Documentation | for all platforms |
Newest Release
SIL Converters x64 installer (for 64-bit Office and Paratext Plug-in) 5.3.0.0
Includes the 'Translation Helper' dialog for use in the Clipboard EncConverter application. New Transducers/Translators supported: Python 3.x, NLLB (hosted locally), Azure Open AI, Vertex AI Translators (including support for the Gemini™ LLMs; e.g. gemini-1.5-flash and gemini-1.5-pro). And the new Paratext Project EncConverter for use in the Paratext BackTranslation Helper dialog (e.g. to use a Serval-generated draft as a resource). See Paratext Back Translation Helper plug-in tutorial
SIL Converters x86 installer (for 32-bit Office) 5.3.0.0
Includes the 'Translation Helper' dialog for use in the Clipboard EncConverter application. New Transducers/Translators supported: Python 3.x, NLLB (hosted locally), Azure Open AI, and Vertex AI Translators (including support for the Gemini™ LLMs; e.g. gemini-1.5-flash and gemini-1.5-pro). Does not install the Paratext Back Translation Helper plug-in.
There are two installers: one is for users who have a 32-bit Microsoft Office installation and the other is for the more commonly used 64-bit Microsoft Office installation. (See the FAQ if you do not know whether you have 32 or 64-bit Office.
Both installers may require an internet connection if you do not have .NET 4.8 installed. The installer will prompt you for necessary prerequisites.
There are no specific Installation instruction for this. However, you should find the installation instructions in the above pdf helpful although we realize it is out-of-date.
Previous Versions
SIL Converters Maps and Tables
This section describes the encodings, font names, and converters contained in the different Maps and Tables packages available in the SIL Converters installer. You can check below for the fonts/encodings that you are interested in to see which Maps and Tables package to install.
Most end-users are interested only in a small number of encodings. Typically, computer support people have created TECkit maps and/or CC tables for the various encodings used in each entity, alleviating most end-users from having to create their own maps and tables.
Because there are hundreds of possible encoding converters and transliterators that different end-users may be interested in, they are packaged into logically-related groups of converters and are available via a two-step process.
Steps
- Use the SIL Converters installer to install the package(s) or converter likely to be useful to you (e.g. based on your entity).
* During installation, all the converter maps/tables in the selected package(s) will be installed into a fixed location on your computer (i.e. C:Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\SIL\SILConverters40\MapsTables on Windows XP or C:\ProgramData\SIL\SILConverters40\MapsTables on Windows 10).
- Use the Converter Options Installer application to install the few applications you want into the EncConverters’ system repository.
* They become available to SILConverters client applications.
Note: Installing maps and tables onto your computer with the SILConverters installer (step 1 above) will not make them available to SILConverters client applications unless you explicitly add them to the system repository using the Converter Options Installer or some other mechanism (see Adding Converters to the System Repository in the Help for SILConverters document).
Select Features — Optional Maps and Tables
The following sections give the details about fonts and encodings for different Maps and Tables packages:
Basic Converters
Converters and Transliterators common to all SIL. This includes the following:
| Converter Name | Encoding Name | Font Names |
|---|---|---|
| SIL IPA93<>UNICODE | SIL-IPA93-2001 | SILDoulos IPA93 |
| SILManuscript IPA93 | ||
| SILSophia IPA93 | ||
| SIL-IPA-1990<>UNICODE | SIL-IPA-1990 | SILDoulosIPA |
| SILManuscriptIPA | ||
| SILSophiaIPA | ||
| SIL Galatia<>UNICODE | SIL-GREEK_GALATIA-2001 | SIL Galatia |
| ISO-8859<>UNICODE | ISO-8859-1 | |
| AMER PHON>UNICODE | (SIL)-Amer_Phon_SILDoulosL3-(2005) | |
| SIL PUA 3.2<>UNICODE 4.1 | ||
| SIL PUA 3.2<>UNICODE 5.0 | ||
| SIL PUA 3.2<>UNICODE 5.1 | ||
| Symbol<>cp1252 | ||
| UTF8<>UTF16 | ||
| ReverseString | For reversing the bytes of a “narrow” (bytes) string | |
| null | No change to string, but can be used to apply a different font to some text (e.g. in the Data Conversion Macro) | |
| NFC | Convert to normal form composed | |
| NFD | Convert to normal form decomposed |
ICU Transliterators
Configuration information for the following ICU transliterators are for Unicode-encodings only.
These are not the only transliterators available via the ICU Transliterator transduction engine, but are only a few of the pre-defined latinizing (or romanizing) transliterators that can be useful in different client applications for different ranges of Unicode.
- Devanagari to Latin (aka. Devanagari-Latin)
- Bengali to Latin (aka. Bengali-Latin)
- Gujarati to Latin (aka. Gujarati-Latin)
- Gurmukhi to Latin (aka. Gurmukhi-Latin)
- Kannada to Latin (aka. Kannada-Latin)
- Malayalam to Latin (aka. Malayalam-Latin)
- Oriya to Latin (aka. Oriya-Latin)
- Tamil to Latin (aka. Tamil-Latin)
- Telugu to Latin (aka. Telugu-Latin)
- Arabic to Latin (aka. Arabic-Latin)
- Cyrillic to Latin (aka. Cyrillic-Latin)
- Greek to Latin (aka. Greek-Latin)
- Han to Latin (aka. Han-Latin)
- Hangul to Latin (aka. Hangul-Latin)
- Hebrew to Latin (aka. Hebrew-Latin)
- Hiragana to Latin (aka. Hiragana-Latin)
- Katakana to Latin (aka. Katakana-Latin)
- Jamo to Latin (aka. Jamo-Latin)
- NumericPinyin to Latin (aka. NumericPinyin-Latin)
- Any to Latin (aka. Any-Latin)
Note: These transliterators can be daisy-chained together to transliterate between non-Latin scripts using a Compound meta-converter. For example, chaining the Devanagari-Latin transliterator (in the Forward direction) with the Arabic-Latin transliterator (in the Reverse direction) gives a ‘Devanagari-Arabic’ transliterator.
FindPhone to IPA converters
Adds the following converters for dealing with FindPhone encoded data:
- FindPhone>SIL IPA93
- FindPhone>UNICODE
SAG Indic
Contains encoding converter map(s) for the following encoding/font:
| Converter Name | Encoding Name | Font Names |
|---|---|---|
| Annapurna<>UNICODE | SIL-ANNAPURNA_05-2002 | Annapurna |
| SAG IPA<>UNICODE | SIL-SAG-IPA | SAG-IPA SILDoulos |
| SAG-IPA SILManuscript | ||
| SAG-IPA SILSophia | ||
| SAG IPA Super<>UNICODE | SIL-SAG-IPA_Super | SAG-IPA Super SILCharis |
| SAG-IPA Super SILDoulos | ||
| SAG-IPA Super SILManuscript | ||
| SAG-IPA Super SILSophia | ||
| WinDTS Devanagari<>Unicode | SIL-WinDTS | WinDTS Devanagari |
| TransRoman<>UNICODE | SIL-SAG_TransRoman21-2002 | TransRoman2 Charis |
| TransRoman2 Doulos | ||
| TransRoman2 Manuscript | ||
| TransRoman2 Sophia | ||
| AkrutiOriSarala99<>UNICODE | Oriya-AkrutiOriSarala-99 | AkrutiOriSarala-99 |
Cameroon
Contains encoding converter map(s) for the following encoding/fonts:
| Converter Name | Encoding Name | Font Names |
|---|---|---|
| Cameroon<>UNICODE | Cameroon | Cam Cam SILDoulosL |
| Cam Cam SILSophiaL | ||
| Cam Cam SILManuscriptL | ||
| Cam2 Cam2 SILDoulos | ||
| Cam2 Cam2 SILSophia | ||
| Cam2 Cam2 SILManuscript | ||
| Cam Paratext SILDoulos | ||
| Cam Paratext SILSophia | ||
| Cam Paratext SILManuscript |
Central Africa
Contains encoding converter map(s) for the following encoding:
| Converter Name | Encoding Name |
|---|---|
| angb4<>UNICODE | SIL-angb4-2005 |
| MarcelNgbaka<>UNICODE | SIL-MarcelNgbaka-2005 |
East Africa
Contains encoding converter map(s) for the following encoding/fonts:
| Converter Name | Encoding Name | Font Names |
|---|---|---|
| Times African<>UNICODE | Times African | Times African |
| Bantu Und<>UNICODE | Bantu Und | Bantu Und |
Eastern Congo Group
Contains encoding converter map(s) for the following encoding/fonts:
| Converter Name | Encoding Name |
|---|---|
| Mayogo<>UNICODE | Mayogo |
| Komo<>UNICODE | Komo |
| KomoASCII to Unicode | KomoASCII |
| ECG<>UNICODE | ECG-Unicode(Jan.2005) |
| BuduASCII<>UNICODE | BuduASCII |
| BUDU<>UNICODE | BUDU |
| BheleASCII<>UNICODE | BheleASCII |
West Africa
Contains encoding converter map(s) for the following encoding/fonts:
| Converter Name | Encoding Name |
|---|---|
| SIL-93linb-2005<>UNICODE | SIL-93linb-2005 |
| UBS-Abidjan-2005<>UNICODE | UBS-Abidjan-2005 |
| Bambara SIL Charis<>UNICODE | Bambara SIL Charis |
| SIL-BF Font Family-2005<>UNICODE | SIL-BF_Font_Family-2005 |
| SIL-BF_Times-2006<>UNICODE | SIL-BF_Times-2006 |
| X-SIL-Fulfulde<>UNICODE | X-SIL-Fulfulde |
| SIL-Ghana Doulos-2005<>UNICODE | SIL-Ghana_Doulos-2005 |
| SIL-Mali Standard Font Family<>UNICODE | Mali Standard SILDoulos-2005 |
| RCI Standard Doulos/Sophia/Manuscript<>UNICODE | SIL-RCI Standard-1994 |
| X-SIL-Senufo<>UNICODE | X-SIL-Senufo |
| SIL-Karaboro-2006<>UNICODE | SIL-Karaboro-2006 |
| SIL Samogho Doulos/Sophia/Manuscript<>UNICODE | SIL-Samogho-2006 |
| SIL-Songhai-2006<>UNICODE | SIL-Songhai-2006 |
| Tombouctou-Dutch<>UNICODE | SIL-Tombouctou-Dutch-2006 |
| Burkina Faso Winye-2003<>UNICODE | SIL-Burkina_Winye_Unknown_Font-2005 |
Hebrew
Contains encoding converter map(s) for the following encoding/fonts:
| Converter Name | Encoding Name | Font Names |
|---|---|---|
| SIL Ezra<>UNICODE | SIL-HEBREW_STANDARD-1997 | SIL Ezra |
| Hebrew Unicode 4.0<>Hebrew Unicode 5.0 | SIL-HEBREW_Unicode_40-2004 | Modifies Unicode Hebrew from 4.0 to 5.0 |
Indic Converters
ISCII Encodings
The following ISCII encodings are supported:
| Converter Name |
|---|
| ISCII Devanagari<>UNICODE |
| ISCII Bengali<>UNICODE |
| ISCII Gurmukhi<>UNICODE |
| ISCII Gujarati<>UNICODE |
| ISCII Oriya<>UNICODE |
| ISCII Tamil<>UNICODE |
| ISCII Kannada<>UNICODE |
| ISCII Malayalam<>UNICODE |
Himalli
The following Himalli encodings are supported:
| Converter Name | Encoding Name | Font Names |
|---|---|---|
| HimaliNew Devanagari<>UNICODE | Devanagari-HimaliNew | For use with the Himali New font |
| Himallill Devanagari (Mac)<>UNICODE | Devanagari-HimallillMac-1999 | For use with files that use the Mac version of Himallill font |
| Himallill Devanagari (PC 2001)<>UNICODE | Devanagari-HimallillPC-2001 | For use with PC files using the Himallill font named Himallil.ttf, dated 11-Dec-2001 |
| Himalli Devanagari (Mac)<>UNICODE | Devanagari-HimalliMac-1999 | For use with files that use the Mac version of Himalli font |
| Himalli Devanagari (PC 1998)<>UNICODE | Devanagari-HimalliPC-1998 | For use with PC files using the PC Himalli font named himalli.ttf dated 12-May-1998 |
| Himalli Devanagari (PC 2002)<>UNICODE | Devanagari-HimalliPC-2002 | For use with PC files using the PC Himalli font named himalli_.ttf (note underscore) dated 18-Dec-2002 |
Miscellaneous TECkit Converters
This package contains TECkit maps for the following Indic encodings:
| Converter Name | Font Names |
|---|---|
| GujaratiLS<>UNICODE | GujaratiLS |
| KrutiDev010<>UNICODE | KrutiDev010 |
| KrutiDev011<>UNICODE | KrutiDev011 |
| KrutiDev290<>UNICODE | KrutiDev290 |
| Kantipur Devanagari<>Unicode | Kantipur |
| Preeti Devanagari<>Unicode | Preeti |
| Shusha<>Unicode | Shusha |
| Tibetan Modern A<>Unicode | Tibetan Modern A |
| UniDevanagri<>UniIPA (phonetic) | Transliteration between Unicode Devanagari and Unicode IPA (phonetic) representation |
Papua New Guinea
Contains encoding converter map(s) for the following encoding/fonts:
| Converter Name | Encoding Name | Font Names |
|---|---|---|
| SIL PNG<>UNICODE | SIL-PNG_Fonts-1998 | PNG SILCharis |
| PNG SILDoulos | ||
| PNG SILManuscript | ||
| PNG SILSophia Lit | ||
| PNG SILCharis Lit | ||
| PNG SILSophia CQLit |
NLCI (India)
Contains encoding converter map(s) for the following encoding/font:
| Converter Name | Encoding Name | Font Names |
|---|---|---|
| SL Oriya<>UNICODE | NLCI-SLOriya | |
| Winscript/iLeap Devanagari<>UNICODE | CDAC-ISFOC_DEVANAGARI | DEV Panini |
| DV-TTYogesh | ||
| Winscript/iLeap Gujarati<>UNICODE | CDAC-ISFOC_GUJARATI | GUJ Gir |
| Winscript Malayalam<>UNICODE | NLCI-Malayalam | MAL Vayalar |
| Winscript Oriya<>UNICODE | NLCI-Oriya | ORI Asika |
| Winscript Tamil<>UNICODE | NLCI-Tamil | TAM Thiruvalluvar |
| Winscript Telugu<>UNICODE | NLCI-Telugu | TEL Nirmal |
Related Resources
- SIL Converters – much more than meets the eye! — This webinar highlights many valuable applications of the SIL Converters tool
- Slideshow used in above video
- OpenOffice Linguistic Tools — this tool provides similar resources for LibreOffice
- TECkit — a Text Encoding Conversion toolkit
- To compose or decompose, that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer NFC or NFD…
Contact
If you would like to report a problem, you can create an issue in SIL Converter’s issue tracker. Or, you can send an email via the contact form below.