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Yakov · 05:48 AM

Any Hebrew users out there?
I'm preparing to switch to Mac, but I need to know more about the Hebrew support. It seems to be pretty solid on Windows, with Hebrew incorporated into Arial and Times New Roman fonts, and a cursor with a little flag to show you which direction you're typing in. How does this all work on Mac?

Does Hebrew work with Word? How about OpenOffice?

And the big fantasy question -- unlikely but -- is it at all possible to buy a mac laptop with a bilingual English/Hebrew keyboard? I'd like to avoid buying a sticker set -- they're so unpretty... it'd be nice to have that "native" on the keyboard, especially if I get a model with a backlit keyboard...

Thank you all very much.

y.

(I know this could just as easily fit into the OSX category... sorry admins. if you think it's in the wrong place, please move it, thanks)

analogika · Apr 2, 2006, 06:35 PM

Hebrew support is built-in and works on all native software, with very few exceptions - OpenOffice is not native software, since it runs in X11, so it does NOT support OS X's international type and language features. NeoOffice, however, does. That's OpenOffice ported to run natively on Mac OS X. (It does NOT currently run on Intel Macs, yet, though.)

If OpenOffice supports Hebrew on Windows and Linux, it does on the Mac, too - just not via OS X's excellent own system.

For all others:
In the System Preferences, under "International", go to "Keyboard menu" and switch on "Hebrew" or "Hebrew QWERTY". A flag will appear in the menu bar at the top of the screen, allowing you to switch languages and keyboard layouts on the fly.

mindwaves · Apr 2, 2006, 07:13 PM

Mellel

Multilingual support

Export and import to RTF
Export and import to .doc
Full Unicode support
Chinese, Japanese and Korean input support
Full Arabic and Persian support
Full Hebrew support
Full Greek and Coptic support
Full support for Cyrillic languages
Full Syriac support
Special setup for writing in multiple languages
Export using 21 different language encodings (text)
Import using 21 different language encodings (text)
Ancient language support (Thaana, Etruscan, etc.)

Chuckit · Apr 2, 2006, 07:29 PM

Mac OS X natively supports Hebrew, and thus most applications do as well — though not Microsoft Word, which doesn't support right-to-left languages (d'oh). There's actually another word processor for Mac, Mellel, that was created specifically for Hebrew.

analogika · Apr 2, 2006, 08:23 PM

Ah - should have figured that Microsoft wouldn't support the standard.

As you say, d'oh!

Person Man · Apr 3, 2006, 11:16 AM

Originally Posted by Yakov

And the big fantasy question -- unlikely but -- is it at all possible to buy a mac laptop with a bilingual English/Hebrew keyboard? I'd like to avoid buying a sticker set -- they're so unpretty... it'd be nice to have that "native" on the keyboard, especially if I get a model with a backlit keyboard...

Well, since you live in Israel, you might be able to get the Mac laptop with Hebrew letters on it.

The Apple representatives in Israel are Yeda. You might try calling them to ask if they offer Hebrew on the keyboard natively.

Yakov · Apr 4, 2006, 10:24 AM

reg. office software / OS-level heb support: thanks for the info and links.

Mellel confuses me. It seems to cost money but also there's a link to download the program that looks like it works. Is the program free or not? Maybe the download is a crippled version?

it's actually good to know that Word:mac doesn't support Hebrew; I already felt like going with an alternative office suite anyway [free or cheap] -- this now gives me a very, very, very good reason to not use Word.

reg. keyboards / buying in Israel: yeah, i figured... the only problem there is the weird twilight zone between buying electronics in the states and buying it in "the land of milk and high tech prices." on Yeda's website (containing no info about whether the hebrew's on the keyboard or not; I would actually suspect NOT) the entry-level macbook (at 1.83 ghz!) costs 12,683 shekels, or $2,717 USD.

oy!

for $700, I'll just go with the stickers... I guess...

i'm excited about buying a Mac... I won't be buying it for another two months (when I get back to the States), by which time hopefully the smaller Macbook will have been released, and some of the weird problems solved.

(for those of you who might remember my posts from last year: I was planning to buy a computer last summer, but decided to hold off a year. Looks like it's a good thing I did, since my computer will have to last me a LONG time, and this Intel thing looks like a big deal.)

much love
yakov.

Chuckit · Apr 4, 2006, 12:33 PM

Mellel is shareware. You can download and try it for 30 days, but you have to pay if you want to keep using it.

RadarBob2 · Apr 4, 2006, 11:18 PM

Nisus Writer has been the processor of choice on Macintosh for foreign alphabets for years. Yes, right to left stuff. Yeah, it costs money (there are different versions and prices) but you get what you pay for.

Yakov · Apr 5, 2006, 05:49 AM

wow... Nisus looks HOTTT.
it definitely costs money, though.
i guess my #1 question would be -- how good is it with Word? Completely transparent?
I don't think I'd ever save anything in Nisus format -- I'd be working entirely in DOC...

OreoCookie · Apr 5, 2006, 07:01 AM

Originally Posted by Yakov

wow... Nisus looks HOTTT.
it definitely costs money, though.
i guess my #1 question would be -- how good is it with Word? Completely transparent?
I don't think I'd ever save anything in Nisus format -- I'd be working entirely in DOC...

Nisus uses rtf as its standard format which is natively supported by Word (it is a Microsoft format). There is usually no need saving it as .doc files.

Also, if you want to get a suitable word processor, then, yes, you'd have to spend a little money on it.

SSharon · Apr 5, 2006, 07:58 AM

It's always nice to see another Hebrew user around here. Much of what I would have said had I seen the thread earlier is already here so I will just say Apple needs to add hebrew support for the ipod the way it has it in itunes (or better yet - allow bilingual tags).

ghporter · Apr 5, 2006, 08:32 AM

I'm disappointed to hear that Word doesn't support right to left languages on Macs, particularly since it explicitly supports them for Windows, as do all the other Office apps. Dumb, Bill, very dumb.

And I thought not having native Greek characters for scientific writing in Office for Windows was a pain!

OreoCookie · 10:33 AM

It's not even dumb. I remember that Apple Israel was willing to pay MS' MacBU to add support for Hebrew! Nor would they a third party to do that for them.

Edit: I've added some articles.