[thelist] RE: Hebrew enabled Windows & Word

[Administrative HQ]

Hi.

A couple of points.

1.I use Hebrew Enabled Windows instead of Localized
because everyone I know advised me that there were
problems with the localized version (I'm running 98
and some of this may have improved in later Windows
releases). As everyone had uninstalled Hebrew Windows
and put in the enabled version, I just took the advice
from the beginning, so I've almost never touched the
localized version and cannot comment from experience.

2. The main problem with Hebrew is bidirectionality.
This problem has never been adequately dealt with.
I've seen Israeli workarounds mentioned on the web.
Try google.co.il (or just enter a search term on
Google in Hebrew and they'll send you there).

3. Very briefly, you can type a document from right to
left in the first place. If the document is all in
Hebrew...no problem. Obviously, the same is true of
typing English from left to right.

When you need mixed text, the fun begins. I've seen
Microsoft Help documentation which was virtually
unreadable because of this problem...i.e. the words in
the secondary language are in "push mode" (written in
the same direction as the primary language of the
page). Often when saving a document of this type
everything blows apart...English words jump out of the
Hebrew sentence and appear bunched together at the
end...and other cute phenomena.

In short, formatted documents can be a problem you'll
need to play with. One tip - if things are going wrong
and you can't seem to place text where you want it
(cut & paste doesn't work, etc, etc.) - give up! That
means start a new document making sure it's set for
the correct direction, paragraph indentation, etc.
FROM THE START.

PLAIN TEXT is a disaster. No editor can handle it.
Hebrew can be typed from right to left, but when you
save the document that will be lost and your page will
be left-aligned. Mixed text...forget about it (the
only solution I've ever found was to arrange the text
so I could write the secondary language on a separate
line..looks terrible but can be read OR transliterate
English words to Hebrew letters and vice versa).

3. Having said all that, I recently got my brother
(who has regular American English Windows) to write
Hebrew in Word just by having him add the Hebrew
keyboard from Control Panel and sending him some
Hebrew fonts.

4. If you must produce nice, highly formatted
documents in Hebrew for presentations, etc., I've seen
some impressive stuff in PDF.

5. If you're writing HTML in Hebrew or mixed script,
there are other tricks to use, but that's for a
different thread.

<transliteration>
BeHatzlacha
</transliteration>

David


--- Hershel Robinson <hershelr at netvision.net.il>
wrote:
> > I have been advised the following contrasting
> information:-
> > 1. Either need to buy a new version of Windows OS
> specifically for
> > Israel/Hebrew, or,
> > 2. If have WXP Home I should be able to set it up
> accordingly for
> > Hebrew/Israel settings at no cost - may need to
> download
> > drivers/patches
> > from Micrsoft web site but that would be it.
> >
> > Additionally, and in both cases above I would then
> also need
> > to purchase a
> > copy of Microsoft Office for Hebrew/Israel too.
> 
> If you need only to send correspondence in Hebrew,
> then you do not need a
> unique operating system. MS Office 2000 and XP both
> should allow you to
> download language packs without charge. My
> installation of Office 2000 has
> the Hebrew language pack installed. I can read and
> write in Hebrew in MS
> Word and I can read incoming letters in Hebrew in
> Outlook.
> 
> I believe that MS Word 2000 or XP with the Hebrew
> language pack is the
> standard here for document sharing. For further
> information, however, I
> would recommend that you ask a local mailing list.
> The most appropriate
> being janglo at yahoogroups.com
> 
> Hershel,
> Jerusalem, Israel
> 
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