Resources for Hebrew Language Students
How to enable Hebrew Language input on your computer...
Choose your operating system: Windows | MacOS
MacOS
To type Hebrew with your computer you need to activate Hebrew for
your Keyboard, and as an input Language
- Click on the Apple logo
and choose System Settings...
- Select Keyboard
in the sidebar.
- Go to the Text Input on the right and clik Edit.
- Click the Add button
and choose Hebrew. Choose Hebrew [rather than Hebrew-QWERTY]. This is the keyboard layout for Israel.
- Click Add.
- After you add an Input source, the Input menu in automatically shown in the menu bar.
To begin typing in Hebrew select the Keyboard input type for Hebrew.
Here is how...
- Log out and log in again or reboot your computer to ensure the changes you have made take effect.
- When rebooted look for the Input Menu [located on the top right side of your screen near the clock.] You will see a language icon for the current language you are using (e.g. US if you have English US enabled) on the bar. Pull down the language icon on the Input bar
and select HE for Hebrew language input.
Note. the Language icon may appear as a Country Flag on the Menu bar.
If you don’t see the Input menu in the menu bar, choose Apple menu choose System Settings, then click Keyboard in the sidebar. (You may need to scroll down.) Go to Text Input on the right, click Edit, then turn on “Show Input menu in menu bar.”
You can now change languages by pulling down on the Input menu. Select Hebrew.
There is also an option to view the keyboard layout using the Keyboard Viewer. You can set an option in Keyboard settings to change input sources by using the Fn key or 
key. Choose Apple menu 
> System Settings, click Keyboard in the sidebar (you may need to scroll down), then set “Press Fn key to” or “Press key to” to Change Input Source.
- You can now type Hebrew.
- The following Keyboard Layout is the one used in Israel. You can download the keyboard map below.
This standard Keyboard Map for Hebrew for a Macintosh can be downloaded here. This keyboard maps the letters and vowels. Print, laminate, and keep beside your computer's keyboard for easy reference.
Additional Hebrew diacritical marks (e.g., meteg, revia) can be included in your documents using the Character palette. [Select Show Character Palette under the Language icon on the top left of your screen.]
The Biblical Hebrew Tiro keyboard
The Society of Biblical Languages has made available Hebrew keyboards which map the unicode characters of Biblical Hebrew including letters, cantillation marks, vowels and other grammatical and punctuation symbols. The keyboard is available free and can be downloaded from the Society's web site complete with instruction manual.
The society offers two options for the Mac OS:
1. the Biblical Hebrew SIL keyboard which maps a phonetic keyboard and
2. the Biblical Hebrew Tiro keyboard which follows the common pattern of the Modern Hebrew keyboard layout used for Israel and Hebrew enabled computers. This layout is the standard layout for Hebrew keyboards in all operating systems.
The Biblical Hebrew Tiro keyboard works best with the multilingual word processing appliction Milell which supports inter alia the correct positioning of the Hebrew letters with the diacritical marks and directionality.
The Biblical Hebrew keyboards and instructuions are available from the Society of Biblical Literature HERE. The Society also makes available a Hebrew font [SBL Hebrew, OS X 10.4 and higher]. Download both the Biblical Hebrew Tiro keyboard driver and manual and follow the instructions provided for installation.
A useful video for installation of the Mac Hebrew keyboard and Biblical Hebrew Tiro keyboard on the Macintosh can be found HERE.
