This mainly technological paper first provides a description of the web site called PapiLex. This first part shows how a file containing XML-structured lexical entries can be managed as a lexical database by using the Document Object Model (DOM) API. PapiLex offers the three essential management functions: creation, modification and deletion of a lexical entry. In a second part, two tools for entering Unicode-formatted text are presented: one for browsers having HTML 4 and JavaScript 1.2 capability and one for Microsoft Word. Such tools can be necessary for the minority languages which have no virtual keyboard embedded in the operating systems. 1 Starting point for building a lexical base Inside the Papillon project, the construction of a lexical base for a new language may take several different ways depending on where the author has to start. The following situations may occur regarding the availability of lexical resources1,2: • no dictionary exists, • a paper dictionary exists, • an electronic form of a dictionary exists, • a lexical database exists. In the last two cases, the question is to re-work the existing data so they meet the Papillon format and to fill the remaining fields. Tools are available for recycling electronic dictionary, (e.g. Nguyen 1998). Here, we will suppose that there is no preexisting dictionary or that its existence is limited to a paper dictionary. In such cases, the lexical entries have to be typed entirely. Among the 1: In addition to the existence of lexical resource, the script used for the language has also to be in Unicode and a font has to exist for it. Actually, the scripts of a number of minority languages are not in Unicode at the moment (e.g. Shan, Tai Dam, Mon). For some of them, fonts that really work are still missing as it is the case for Khmer. 2: In case there are existing data, property rights have to be looked at to say the resource is available. different ways in which this question can be handled, we chose a particular approach that consists in creating directly the Papillon formatted base by using generic and multiplatform Internet browsers. Section 2 will present how a standard browser can be used for this task3 (PapiLex mockup) and section 3 will show that a simple JavaScript program can provide a virtual keyboard that produces Unicode text. In section 4, another issue, less directly related to Papillon, will also be presented as it provides a very practical alternative for creating Unicodeencoded entries. It addresses a Windowsspecific tool for typing Unicode text in Microsoft Word when no standard keyboard is existing yet. The software was developed for the Lao language but can be applied to others. 2 The PapiLex mockup