Entering Hebrew Characters
Accordance automatically uses Yehudit and the right-to-left direction for all Hebrew text. Most of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet are easy to find in the familiar positions of their transliterated letters in Roman fonts.
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Note If incomplete sections of mixed language text (such as part of a verse reference with some text) are selected, copied and pasted, the results can be anomalous. Similarly, the selection of parts of commands in the argument entry box, and the wrap-around of long commands to the next line may appear anomalous. |
Three text entry options are available, via the Greek & Hebrew area of the Preferences dialog box, which affect entering Hebrew characters via the keyboard.
- Automatic final letter: This option alters the form of certain Hebrew letters depending on their position in the word. As you enter the word, the final form, for example of the mem, appears. But if this letter is followed by another letter, the previous letter reverts to the regular form. If not selected, the Hebrew characters appear exactly as entered. The other Hebrew characters with ending forms, caph, nun, peh, and tzadi, are treated in the same way.
- Automatic diacritical marks: This option affects overstrike characters—the vowel points and the dagesh. Most accents and other diacriticals are entered after (to the left of) the character. Most are offered with a short, medium, and long overstrike for correct positioning over or under each character. Some marks, such as the dagesh, have special positions for specific characters.
- As you enter any position for an overstrike character, the character is positioned with the correct amount of overstrike for the previous or following letter. This option help lets you learn just one keystroke for each overstrike character, and still create correctly pointed text.
- Example: If you type any dagesh after a character which takes a dagesh, the correct dagesh is entered.
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Note Automatic entry of the correct overstrike does NOT apply to cantillation marks (te‘amim or accents). See sections below for an explanation of the different positions of these accents. |
- Use Israeli keyboard layout for Hebrew: When selected, this option converts keyboard entry to the layout used by Nisus, Israeli, and other Hebrew right-to-left systems. Text can then be entered as in a Hebrew right-to-left word processor.
More About Various Keyboards
Keyboard entry of Greek and Hebrew into Accordance depends on two settings:
- The keyboard selected in the Greek & Hebrew area of the Preferences dialog box. By default, the standard Accordance keyboard is selected. You can also select a Greek Polytonic or Israeli Hebrew keyboard.
- The keyboard selected in the
If your operating the system is set to non-English Unicode then the keyboard in Accordance is the one matching the current operating system settings. You can see which layout is being used on your computer via the On-screen Keyboard application on your computer (pre-installed with the operating system). The Onscreen Keyboard displays the mapping of the current keyboard and reflects the changes when a key is pressed, such as <SHIFT>.
- To view the keyboard layout, search for OSK via the Start menu and select On-Screen Keyboard.
- To display optional characters, press <SHIFT>.
- The left <ALT> key does NOT change the character assigned to a key.
- For newer systems with some Unicode languages, both <AltGr> (on the right of the keyboard) and <SHIFT>+<AltGr> can be used. To type alternative Unicode positions, press <ALT> and the unicode character number on the number keypad.
- Reminder: When the system is set to English, the character entry in Accordance depends on the keyboard selected in the Greek & Hebrew area of the Preferences dialog box.
- Customized keyboards are available, as are programs that let you customize a keyboard, such as Keyman for PC.
Issues with Shin and Sin (Sheen and Seen)
In Hebrew, a single character can become two characters depending on the position of the dot; these are treated as separate letters of the Hebrew alphabet:
- Unpointed Shin:
- Shin:
- Sin:
Even in fully pointed Hebrew texts, Accordance accepts the unpointed shin and finds both shin and sin. However, most people prefer to specify which they want to search for. The following table shows the keystrokes needed within Accordance for each of these characters, with different Accordance and System settings:
| System Keyboard Setting | Accordance Keyboard Setting | Unpointed Shin | Sin | Shin | Add Left Dot to Unpointed Character | Add Right Dot to Unpointed Character |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | Accordance Keyboard (default) | Shift+C | C | V |
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| Israeli Keyboard (selected from Greek & Hebrew Preference pane) | A | AltGr+A | Shift+A | |||
| Hebrew | Either Keyboard | A | AltGr+A | Shift+A | AltGr+Q | AltGr+W |
| Hebrew or English with number keypad | Israeli Keyboard (selected from Greek & Hebrew Preference pane) | Alt+134 | Alt+65 |
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Note If you prefer using the Israeli Unicode Hebrew keyboard, we recommend choosing it from within Accordance; this way you will not have to switch the system language to Hebrew each time. |
More About the Yehudit Font
As mentioned above, most of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet have been placed in the familiar positions of their transliterated letters in Roman fonts. Vowel points and other special characters are organized in an easy to find manner.
- The majority of vowel points are right overstrike characters. They must be typed to the left of the letter in order to appear over or under it.
- The main overstrike characters have three positions, depending on the width of the associated letter.
- The medium overstrike character is the most accessible. In general, the shift position is used for medium overstrike characters, the option position is used for short overstrike characters, and the shift-option position is used for long overstrike characters.
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Note
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Diacritical Characters and Cantillation Marks
Tables for entering the Diacritical Characters and Cantillation Marks are given below.
The accents are listed according to their significance following the arrangement in BHS and Gesenius. The BHS code is followed by the name, an example of the accent and the code number in the Michigan-Clairmont text. An asterisk beside the code indicates that this accent is identical to and uses the same character as another accent in the table.
The position of the accent relative to the letter on which it is placed is followed by up to three keystrokes for different overstrike positions. The keystroke in bold style is the one most commonly used (for accents above the word this is the medium width overstrike, for accents below the word this is the narrow overstrike for combination with vowel points).
Accents above the word are in shift positions, and accents below the word are in option positions. The most common overstrike positions are arranged in approximate order of significance from left to right across the top of the keyboard.
The note at the end supplies further information (usually the BHS code of the accent used in place of this accent). Mini-spaces (option space) can be added to adjust the accent positions. In particular, use two spaces between the final nun N and an accent (or vowel).
The Michigan-Clairmont code number sequence lists the accents by their position relative to the letter, without regard to their function.
) instead of the option key.
The Characters Popover
The Characters popover displays the special characters of the selected Accordance font. You can enter characters in the Search Entry box of a tab, or in any Edit window.
To open this popover, do one of the following:
- Click Characters (
) on the toolbar - Select Characters from the Window menu.
- Press
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Note The Characters Popover can also be detached using by clicking the Detach button ( |
), and then closed manually.When working with the Characters popover, note that:
- If the insertion bar rests in suitable editable text, such as an entry box, clicking a character highlights it and enters it into the window.
- You can change the font in the Characters popover and then enter the correct font, character and direction in the User Tools or User Notes Edit windows, the User Layer of the Atlas, and the description boxes of Construct and Reference list tabs.
- If you set the Preferences to use a modern Greek or Hebrew keyboard, the popover enters the correct character even though the Details Bar at the bottom of the box identifies the keystroke in the standard Accordance font.
The Characters popover is shown below.
| No. | Button/Option | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Font | Opens the Font pop-up menu for selecting a special Accordance font | Items are: Helena, Yehudit, Rosetta, MSS, Sylvanus, Peshitta, and Salaam |
| 2 | Show/Hide options | You can show or hide the letters, diacriticals (Greek), pointing and cantillation (Hebrew), or special characters | The popover automatically resizes to fit your selection |
| 3 | Float | Click to change the popover to a floating palette that remains open after working with it | Normally the popover closes after each use. If you want to access it more often, click this item. |
| 4 | Letters | Displays all letters for the selected font | Characters can only be entered into a Search Entry box that is set to the same font. Clicks are ignored if the search Text or Tool field requires a different font. |
| 5 | Diacriticals (Grk) or Pointing and Cantillation (Hebrew) | Displays diacritical characters for this font (or pointing and cantillation for Hebrew fonts) | Overstrike characters are shown relative to the gray boxes |
| 6 | Special Characters | Displays other special characters with this font | |
| 7 | Details Bar | Identifies the character and associated keystroke for the indicated letter | This is updated as you move the cursor over the characters |