Antioch

An extension to Microsoft Word for writing Classical Greek and Biblical Hebrew

With great regret I am having to withdraw Antioch from sale after 23 years, during which it has become a standard tool for writing Greek and Hebrew. This follows the sad and sudden death two years ago of my colleague and friend Denis Liégeois, whose wonderful programming skills made Antioch possible and kept it going as Microsoft introduced ever more onerous restrictions on third-party software. I was able to keep Antioch working in Word 2019, but recent changes to Windows 10 have stopped its converters for old documents from working, and I now can’t honestly offer it as a whole program.

Installation

The installer file for the latest version of Antioch remains available here. As of today, 18 February 2022, it will work in Windows up to the current version of Windows 11, and in Word up to the current version of Word 2021. Beyond that I can guarantee nothing. The installer is designed to fail safe if it encounters an unknown version of Word, and in that case not to copy any files or make other changes, but I can’t say whether that safety will continue, so please be aware that if you try to install Antioch in any newer version of Windows or Word, you do so at your own risk.

In order to install Antioch in Windows 10 or 11 you need to switch off two inconvenient Windows blocking mechanisms.

You need to turn off SmartScreen, which is Microsoft spyware intended to stop you using programs not written or approved by Microsoft. It’s convenient to leave this switched off permanently, but you can restart it if you like after installing Antioch, choosing your preferences for keyboard and font, and registering the program.

In Windows 10, in the Start menu type:
Smartscreen

You will see an item called App and Browser Control. Open it. Under ‘Check apps and files’, select Off. You can safely ignore the warning that comes up.

You also need to turn off User Account Control before installing the new keyboard.

In the Windows 10 menu type:
User Account Control

This will take you directly to User Account Control Settings. Move the slider control to the bottom of its travel. Click on OK. You will be prompted to restart the computer. Again, it’s convenient to leave User Account Control permanently switched off, but you can restart it if you like.

Run the Antioch installer by right-clicking on the icon and choosing ‘Run as Administrator’ from the menu (please note that ordinary double-clicking on the icon will start the process but then give you an error message).

After it has finished and you have restarted the computer, you will need to open Word, switch on the Greek keyboard with the G button, click on the button to the left of it to bring up the main toolbars, and go to Greek – Preferences – Keyboard to select a keyboard layout. Please make a selection for all four areas of the keyboard, even those that you want to retain their normal function. See the manual if in doubt.

If you have trouble installing Antioch, I am here to help if I can. Please write to me at the address at the foot of this page. I can also supply older versions of Antioch for Word 2003 or earlier.

The installer file gives you only the italic version of the Vusillus font. You can download the regular version (in which lower case Greek is still slanted) from here.

Registration

The version of Antioch supplied here is unregistered, and puts a reminder on the screen from time to time. Users who have already paid for and registered their copy of Antioch will have a registration key. If you have lost it, please write to me at the address at the foot of this page. If you are a new user and have managed to install Antioch successfully, please write and we will make an arrangement.

Alternatives to Antioch

The most complete alternative is the Ancient Greek extension for LibreOffice, which also enables you to free yourself from the financial burden of Microsoft Word, while still being able to read and write Word-compatible documents. You can download it from here. It offers an Antioch-style layout of diacritic keys, and the latest version (1.6-beta8) has the same letter layout as Antioch with chi on the C key and xi on the X key when the Antioch layout option is chosen.

If you need help in setting up LibreOffice to be a close mimic of MS Office, I can advise – please write to me.

Other alternatives are basic Windows and Mac keyboards written by me. They work well enough but don’t offer any of the conveniences of Antioch. All come with instructions and printable layout diagrams.

A basic Windows driver for users of QWERTY keyboards.

A basic Mac driver for users of QWERTY keyboards.

More advanced keyboards also written by me, including those for French AZERTY and German QWERTZ keyboards, offering many extra characters for use with the specialist IFAO-Greek Unicode font and also support for Coptic, can be found at my colleague Jean-Luc Fournet’s page.

Ralph Hancock

18 February 2022

You can write to me here.