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Heblish

  1. Intro
  2. Vowels
  3. NIS
  4. Text Direction
  5. Text Selection




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Windows Heblish

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Text Selection
This section deals with a problem in all Hebrew computer support and not only with Heblish. In the discussion below, anything said about the English language is equally applicable to other left-to-right languages.

When typing English and Hebrew together, it can be difficult to select text with the mouse. For example, try selecting with the mouse "Dude, מה":
Dude, מה נשמע?

Notice it is awkward to do so. The problem is that when you move the mouse over a sequence letters, the sequence of letters is a sequence according the Display Order*, i.e. the order in which the letters are displayed, left-to-right. The selection of the text, though, is according to Typed Order*, the order in which the letters were originally typed. In the example above:
Typed Order‭D-u-d-e-_-מ-ה-_-נ-ש-מ-ע-?‬
Display Order D-u-d-e-_-מ-ה-_-נ-ש-מ-ע-?

When you move the mouse to select, "D", "D-u", ... "D-u-d-e-_", everything is fine because the Display Order is the same for these sequences as the Typed Order. When you move the mouse to select "D-u-d-e-_-ע", the problem first occurs because in the Typed Order there is only "D-u-d-e-_-מ".
One way to deal with this is to use the keyboard to select text instead of the mouse. When using the keyboard to move the cursor, the movement goes according to Typed Order. Sometimes positioning the cursor for inserting text is also difficult with bidirectional text. (e.g.: Insert a word before "מה" in example above.) Navigating by keyboard can also help with this.

Keyboard Selection in Windows (other Operating Systems are similar).

The following tips are for Windows Hebrew and is not special for Heblish.
To select a sequence of bidirectional (English & Hebrew) letters in Windows:
  1. Using keys below or mouse, place cursor before first letter of sequence.
  2. Using keys below, move cursor past last letter of sequence while pressing <Shift> key
Keys which move cursor:
KeyAction
HomeMove cursor to before first letter typed in line
EndMove cursor to after last letter typed in line
Left ArrowMove cursor to previous letter typed
Right ArrowMove cursor to next letter typed
Ctrl + Left ArrowMove cursor to previous word typed
Ctrl + Right ArrowMove cursor to next word typed



** Technical note **

Typed Order is usually called Logical Order.
Display Order is usually called Visual Order.