Hebrew keyboard

A Hebrew keyboard (Hebrew: מקלדת עברית "mikledet ivrit") comes in two different keyboard layouts. Most Hebrew keyboards contain both Hebrew and English, as English (Latin) letters are necessary for URLs and Email addresses. Also, some contain Arabic script or Cyrillic as well.

Layouts

tandard Hebrew keyboard

without having to switch layouts. However, this only works for uppercase English (Latin) letters.

In a 102-key layout of this form, there would be an additional duplicate key to the right of the "Left Shift Key". This key would be an additional backslash key (). As a result, 102 key keyboards are not sold as a standard configuration since two keys with the same function serve no purpose.

Also the backslash key ( where it resides normally.

Hebrew QWERTY

Another layout exists which is a QWERTY based layout that, for the most part, follows the phonology of the Roman letters. However, this layout is extremely uncommon and not a standard layout. This configuration is not available to be bought as a physical layout of a keyboard, instead only available as a secondary keyboard layout option on the Mac OS X operating system. The Hebrew QWERTY is not an option for Microsoft Windows, or Linux, but can be implemented using specialized third-party software.

It also requires the use of the shift key in order to access the five Hebrew letters that have "final forms," that is, a different form of the letter when that letter falls at the end of a word. On the standard Hebrew layout, this is unnecessary, since each letter has its own key. The use of the shift key is somewhat similar to the use of the shift key to access capital letters in the English (Latin) alphabet.

Niqqud

For the Hebrew letters there is a standardized Hebrew keyboard. But when it comes to niqqud (vowel points and diacritics), different computer systems and programs provide for adding the signs in different ways.

Nevertheless, a standard is beginning to emerge in the keystrokes that enter niqqud in Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Word and Open Office alike. In these applications, to enter niqqud the typist first presses "Caps Lock." Then, to enter any specific niqqud, one presses "shift" and simultaneously presses one of the following keys:

Inaccessible punctuation

Certain Hebrew punctuation, such as the geresh, gershayim, maqaf, pasuq, sof pasuq, and cantillation marks are not accessible through the standard Hebrew keyboard layout. As a result, similar looking punctuation is often used instead. For example, often, a quotation mark for a gershayim, an apostrophe for a geresh, a hyphen for a maqaf, a vertical bar for a pasuq, and a colon for a sof pasuq, is used.

ee also

*Hebrew punctuation
*Keyboard layout
*Hebrew alphabet