Installing the KU Homophonic Hebrew keyboard for Windows XP
The Windows operating system provides a keyboard that will allow you to type in Hebrew, but this keyboard uses the layout of the Israeli typewriter keyboard. While many are able to learn to touch type using this layout, for most students it is easier to use a remapped keyboard on which there are sound correspondences between the Hebrew and English letters. These keyboards are known as homophonic (meaning "sounds the same") keyboards. The KU homophonic keyboard attempts to reflect sound correspondences when possible, and to map other letters and symbols for ease of typing. For the purpose of illustration, the layouts are provided below:
1) Click here to download the KU Homophonic Hebrew Keyboard. Save the file to your desktop and unzip the file. Inside the zipped file, you will find an installation package, a folder containing the keyboard .dll file and a read me file.
2) Click on the KUHebrew Windows Installer Package (shown above). It may take a second for the installation to take place, so wait before clicking the icon again. When the installer is finished, the following window will be displayed.
Click the Close button and you are finished with the first part of the process. Now that you have installed the new keyboard, you will need to activate it within Windows. 3) Go to the Start button at the bottom left of your screen and click on it. Go up to Settings and click on Control Panel. Then double-click on Regional and Language Options.
4) Click on the "Languages" tab and then look at the lower area called Supplemental Language Support (see image for step 5 below). If it is not already checked, check the box for "Install files for complex script and right-to-left languages. Then click Apply. Most installations of Windows do not include support for non-Latin alphabets, so you may be asked to insert your Windows XP CD to install these files and then reboot. Once you have rebooted, return to the same control panel. If the box is already checked, proceed to the next step. 5) Go to the Languages tab and click the Details... button under "Text Services and Input Languages".
6) Click Add under "Installed Services
7) Find "Hebrew" in the list.
8) At this point your Text Services and Languages window should look like the one below:
Congratulations, you have installed the KU homophonic keyboard. Once the installation and activation are complete, you can switch back and forth between your Hebrew and English keyboards by using the toggle indicator in the taskbar (circled in red below). If you have chosen to install more than one Hebrew keyboard, you will have to expand the language bar to specify which Hebrew keyboard you wish to use. To do this, click on the interlocked squares to the right of the EN. This will open up a floating toolbar like the one shown below. To return the floating toolbar to the task bar, just click on the horizontal line in the upper right hand corner.
If the toggle indicator (which by default should read "EN" for English) does not appear in the lower right of your screen, click on the the Language Bar button at the bottom of the Settings tab (see above) and make sure that the "Show the Langauge bar on the desktop" box is checked. The layout for this keyboard was designed by Sari Havis, Coordinator of the KU Hebrew program. The keyboard and installation program were created by Nathan Mack with the assistance of Jonathan Perkins of the Ermal Garinger Academic Resource Center. |
This web site was created by the staff of the Ermal Garinger Academic
Resource Center. All questions and comments should be sent to the webmaster at egarc@ku.edu. Last updated June 8, 2007.