What is the best font to use?

The Ethiopian News Headlines is not associated with any commercial font vendor and we can not recommend font "A" to be more reliable and compatibly than font "B". We try to make all fonts work equally well and perfectly at our web site.

Be aware that font "A" which works fine on Windows '95 may not be as reliable on Windows '98 or in web browser "B" of version "X". This is a result of ever changing software. We can and do recommmend using a standards compliant font that will more successfully avoid the software and version matching games. The only such standard recognized by an international standards body is Unicode. If your favorite software company is not yet using Unicode, please, please, please inform them that you want it.

Where can I get free fonts on the Internet?

The fastest way to view articles is with a supported font installed on your system. Viewing pleasure can vary since not every font will contain the same characters, and only Unicode compliant fonts can be guaranteed on web browser on version 4.0 and above.

Some fonts have been tested more thoroughly than others, if you try one of these and find errors, please email us so that we might fix the problem.

Where can I get free keyboards on the Internet?

Custcor / Visual GeezNet

Ethiopic IME

GF Zemen

I can read the front page but the archives appears like garbage?

The archive materials are now available only in Unicode format. We've decided to go this route to give our readers an added incentive to migrate to Unicode. Special acceptions can be made when the materials are required for a research purpose.

Where can I go to get help?

The authorative source of information for the particulars of your font would be the company that produced the font. Help by email is available from ethiozena2000@yahoo.com but it may be a long wait to get a reply. You may also submit your question to a discussion forum for ENH users http://groups.yahoo.com/group/enhfonts/ who are their to share their advice and experience.

I tried everything but still can not install fonts for some reason.

This is sometimes the case, particularly on systems such as NT and 2000 where you may not have administrative access. If you truly have no other choice, and by chance have the right browser version etc, you might get http://pfr.ethiozena.net to work for you.

When the page downloads all I see is garbage. Why?

If you download a PFR page please wait for the PFR file to finish downloading (an extra 10 seconds with a 28.8 Kbaud modem), watch the status box at the bottom of your browser or the NS/IE icon to see when the downloading completes. When the PFR finishes downloading your web page will be refreshed automatically in Ethiopic.

If you are viewing the ENH with some other font selection you may see garbage if you do not have the font installed on your computer! Be sure that you have selected to view the ENH with a font that you are certain you have on your system. Other reasons that fonts may not be displayed properly could stem from low memory on your computer or an error on our part (if you have reason to believe so, please inform us).

Why can I view only 4 or 5 PFR pages before I get garbage again?

We have found this occurs with both Netscape and IE 4.0 when available RAM memory runs low. This problem is more common on computers with 16 Meg of RAM or less. Restarting NS or IE usually remedies the problem but only for a short time before it reoccurs. It is recommended that your web browser be the only open application you have running when you view PFR pages with less than 16 Meg of RAM.

What is the ``A required resource was not found'' error mean that Netscape keeps telling me?

Again an apparent memory related issue that occurs when Netscape looses communication with its PFR rendering agent. Restarting Netscape and shutting down other applications will alleviate this problem.

How can I get the ENH interface in my language?

If your Ethiopian language is not found under the "Languages" menu we would be happy to add it. But we'll need your help for this! The terms we use on the front page can be found here.

How often is the ENH updated?

No more than once a day and generally 6 days a weeks. The number of times the ENH is updated, and the hour of the day that it is updated, will vary depending on the availability of the internet service in Addis Ababa.

How are articles chosen? What are the ENH publishing policies?

The ENH tries to select material from every view point represented in the printed media. The ENH does not work directly or indirectly with any 2^nd or 3^rd party in the selection and republication of materials. The ENH takes no responsibility for the information content of materials it publishes. Nor does the ENH modify in any way the content of the materials it places online -what we see is what you get!

With that said, the ENH staff tries first to select news items that you would not hear or read about outside of Ethiopia. We try next to select articles that present the local perspective on the major stories in the international press. Thirdly, we do monitor access statistics for each article to see what is popular. Finally, since both us and you benefit from the fruit of another's labour at the ENH (namely that of the editors and journalist at the newspapers themselves), we do try and add news items that impact the indsutry that feeds us.

It is often difficult to recognize truth from fiction (or sensationalism) in the Ethiopian press, ENH staff tries to apply a reasonable amount of discretion in the selection of opinionated materials. The ENH also avoids publishing the blatantly slanderous, obscene, and other offensive materials.

Can I link to your headlines from my web page?

Yes of course! Our current headlines are available in the xml formatted file http://www.ethiozena.net/zena.xml. A sample headline grabbing and parsing script in Perl is also provided http://www.ethiozena.net/zena.pl.txt. A JavaScript based approach is also available.

I represent newspaper (XYZ) how can I get my newspaper published online?

Ask and ye shall receive.

I want to see more of (XYZ) type of article, what can I do?

Ask and ye shall receive (if the subject type does not conflict with publishing policies).

I have some interesting materials using Ge'ez script that others might enjoy, can the ENH help me publish them online?

By all means yes! To reach the Ge'ez Frontiers Foundation's goal of 1 million words online, contributions are encouraged from all corners. The ENH can assist you in translation of your document into other font formats and even publish it online at the ENH. Please feel free to contact us about any Ge'ez publishing efforts.

How can I help insure the news keeps coming every week?

The weekly publication of the ENH is sponsored by only a few individuals. This of course impacts the number of articles that appear online and how often. Encouraging your favorite business or organization to advertise at the ENH is the best way to help support the delivery of your favorite newspaper each week. Personal contributions can also be accepted.

You can also support Ethiopian public and private press by subscribing to the printed version of the newspapers you enjoy reading online. Writing back to the editors is also encouraged. Let them know you read their articles at the Ethiopian News Headlines!

So do you guys proofread or what?

Or what :-) What we see is what you get. We do not modify the documents we are providing other than for format. Spelling errors are left in, the reason harkens back to how the ENH got started -as the corpus for a research project where the materials had to be representative of actual documenation practices. This aspect is still important to researchers. We try not to insert too many of our own errors :-)

I'm a student doing research on (Amharic language, Ethiopic script, etc) is your archive available to me?

Ask and ye shall receive.

Is the software used at the ENH available to other web sites?

Yes! We run on 100% Open Source software and always have.

What does "Mac Friendly" really do?

The "Mac Friendly" option will encode 8-bit characters into 7-bit safe escapes. This seemed to help some of the early versions of the Machintosh web browsers under OS 7 and earlier. This option helped insure that letters did not disappear or turn into garbage. Don't use it unless you have to! The articles you view become larger and take longer to download.

Why do files end with ".sera.html"?

Articles are composed with Emacs and saved as SERA encoded HTML. The SERA based HTML file is then our starting input system for conversion into any of the myraid font systems as output. Our preferred output system will always be Unicode but SERA remains invaluable to us as a storage format. Rationale are: 1) SERA works with no complications in the "vi" Unix editor, we can telnet from any machine and make edits as needed. 2) SERA has no complications in scripting languages. 3) By nature SERA files will always consume nearly half the disk space as would a Unicode file in UTF-8.

How can I make Unicode web pages?

Office 2000 products should work fine for making Ethiopic Unicode web pages using the free typing software. If you can not set the content type of web pages on the server side, add the meta directive below to the top of your web pages:

Can I put your headlines on my page automatically?

Yes! With two JavaScript approaches you can. First you will need to make sure your web page is set for Unicode (see above). For simple headlines that you may format as you like use:

somewhere in your web page, the headlines will update the moment the ENH is updated, you need never modify your web page again. Configuration options will be offered soon. For fancy scrolling headlines see this page.

...and who exactly are you guys?

The ENH production team consists of 3 individuals working under the auspices of the Ge'ez Frontiers Foundation. The motivation behind providing the ENH online newspaper service is a fun way for the participants to take the Ethiopic publishing tools a step further. We hope in this way you are also enjoying the testing and development of the software resources used at the ENH. Indeed, your feedback and bug reports are vital to the perfection of the tools.