Metegs and Diacritic Positioning Multi-lingual Publishing Forum

Hi Harbs,

Firstly Congratulations on your refurbished site, looks very
impressive.

I am look for an easy way to add a Meteg next to another Vowel without
messing up its positioning.  (not very well put but I'm sure you understand)

This is a very common task but I don't know how people do it without
tediously manually positioning the Meteg and the other Vowel.

My work around has been to make a copy of the font that I want to
use and change the symbol of the Vowels in this copied font so that each new
modified vowel includes a Meteg in it.  For example for a Hiriq with a
Meteg next to it I change the Hiruk in the modified font from being just a dot
to being a dot with a line next to it.  I then in indesign I create a
character style that changes the font from the non-modified one to the modified
one.  I then apply this new character
style on each letter and vowel that I wish to put a Meteg by and lo and behold,
my Meteg is in the correct place.

Using this method I also use a modified Sheva symbol to differentiate
between a Sheva Na and a Shevah Nach.

This being said I think there must be a more efficient way of doing
things.  Some way of getting indesign to know to put Metegs in without
messing up the positioning.

The Sheva problem might be more problematic as one has to modify
the font but I would like to be able to use a keyboard shortcut to add the
Sheva Na i.e. CapsLK+Shift+Ctrl+` that automatically put the modified Sheva in
the right place in the same way that CapsLk+Shift+` puts the regular Sheva in
the right place.

I thought with your work for Koren's Jerusalem Bible you should have
a few tricks up your sleeve.

Regards,

Trevor.