Jewneric: A New Platform for the Jewish Voice

Posted September 5 2007 by Shalom Silbermintz

Teaching an old keyboard new tricks

So did you hear the big announcement today? No, not the iPod announcements coming from Moscone West, the other groundreaking announcement of the day. Getting little press today, because of the SteveNote, is a small application released by Microsoft called The Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator that has major impact on the Modern Orthodox Jew.

According to Microsoft this application allows you to “easily define your own keyboard layout for a language Microsoft doesn’t support … Or define your own keyboard layout so you can quickly and easily enter your favorite symbols with a simple keystroke” How can this possibly be of any use to me? I’ll tell you how, this simple utility makes it possible to create one of the most requested items for entering Hebrew into a computer, A phonetic Hebrew keyboard.

Now you can hit the M key and get a מ, and you can hit the S key when you need a ס. It just makes sense, and for anyone who occasionally enters Hebrew text, it makes life a whole lot easier.

Download Files for the phonetic Hebrew mapping here and get your phonetic on.

In order to use this you must have installed support for right-to-left languages in Windows Regional and Language options. Let us know if you have any thoughts on this phonetic keyboard mapping and any ideas for improvements.

Thanks to Isaac Shalev and ReJewVenate for the phonetic keyboard mapping.

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7 Comments currently posted.

Dave says:

That is a fantastic innovation.

sjacobson says:

It sounds great for the average user who might want to type in Hebrew on rare occasions. But what about the person who wants to type in Hebrew frequently - the professor or rabbi preparing a Shi’ur; the new ‘Oleh to Israel; the college Israeli literature major? Would it not serve these people better to learn the “official” layout of the Hebrew keyboard, just as they learned (probably in high school or junior high) the QWERTY keyboard for English?

Dave says:

Seth, it is a lot harder to “teach an old dog new tricks” especially when it comes to technology. I am a fast typist AND I have been typing in Hebrew for years….It is still a challenge for me. I can never find the letters I am looking for because I don’t use Hebrew nearly as often as I use English.

spam says:

It always pays for people to learn a keyboard if they are going to be using it a lot. Most people I know only need to enter text occasionally, and even then at most a few words at a time so this is perfect.