NOTE: this software is for Classic Mac OS (eg: OS 9) and cannot be used on Mac OS X.
Nisus Writer Classic is no longer for sale. This page is only for archival purposes.

     When searching in Hebrew with Ignore Case checked in the Find/Replace menu or in the Find/Replace window, Nisus Writer considers the final forms of the letters as the equivalent of their medial forms.
     Two of the commands on the Searching menu are specific to Arabic language searches; these appear on the menu only if you have the Arabic Language Kit in your system. They allow you to designate all yaa' characters or 'alif characters as the same for the purpose of searches.
     The commands Ignore Diacriticals and Root of Word appear on the Find/Replace menu only if you have the Arabic/Persian and/or Hebrew Language Kits in your system.
     When checked, Ignore Diacriticals allows you to find any word in your text regardless of its diacriticals. For example, in Hebrew with Ignore Diacriticals checked, Nisus Writer considers all variants of either the Shin, the Vav or the Lamed as the same character.

Root of Word allows you to find most Arabic or Hebrew words according to their tri-literal roots. Root of Word errs on the side of inclusivity, not exclusvity. An example of searching by Root of Word:

NOTE: The Apple Hebrew Language Kit does not currently support Hebrew Cantillation characters and the T'amei Mikra command does not recognize that subset of Hebrew diacriticals that appear in fonts that do not follow the Apple Hebrew Language Kit standard.

Script Sensitivity Exceptions in Find/Replace
Those Arabic/Persian and Hebrew characters that are exceptions to Script Sensitivity are:
• Variables: insert date, insert time, insert doc. name, insert page number, cross-reference to a line number (however, not cross-referenced text itself).
The following characters change when you apply a Hebrew font to Romanic text:
• Formatting characters: tabs, Soft Returns, Returns, as well as forced page breaks
• ASCII 33 - 37, 39 - 63, 91, 93, 127 and 129.
The following characters change when you apply an Arabic font to Romanic text:
• Formatting characters: tabs, Soft Returns, Returns, as well as forced page breaks
• ASCII 33 - 37, 39 - 63, 91 - 95, and 127 - 129.
The following characters do not change when you apply a Japanese font to Romanic, Arabic or Hebrew text:
• (They are displayed here in 12 point Helvetica because that font has the most complete set of characters for ASCII values.) NOTE that ASCII 202 has no printable character and that in recent versions of some fonts ASCII 219 now displays the Euro character.
• The backslash character (ASCII 92): \ and ASCII 128 to the end:

To set up a right-to-left document:
     If you're working with a document written from right-to-left, keep in mind that the direction of script affects how pages look and the order of columns. For example, in right-to-left documents, odd pages display on the left when you choose Facing Pages or Booklet (Landscape Mode) from the Layout Page dialog.
1. Choose Page Setup... from the Print submenu of the File menu.
2. Click Right-to-Left found in the bottom left corner of the Page Setup dialog.
   The setting you choose in this dialog affects the order of the pages when printing a document with Facing Pages (in Portrait Mode) or Booklet (in Landscape Mode) layout. In right-to-left documents, the odd pages appear on the left, which is the exact opposite of English. This also reverses the order of columns.
3. Click Note Placement to see the Note Placement dialog.
   From this dialog you can determine the appearance of footnotes in your document. In a right-to-left document you may want your footnotes separator line to appear on the right side of the page.
4. Click Right in the Separator Line segment of the dialog.
To enter text in right-to-left languages:
If you write in a language that uses a right-to-left script, keep these guidelines in mind:
• If your document or a paragraph in your document is primarily in a right-to-left language, click the Directional Arrow on the Text Bar. For right to left paragraphs of text, the Directional Arrow should point from right to left.
• Press Delete to remove characters to the right of the insertion point and press the delete forward (del) key (if your keyboard has one) to remove characters to the left of the insertion point.
• If your insertion point appears at the border between right-to-left and left-to-right text, the Left and Right Arrow Keys sometimes move the insertion point to the beginning of a character string instead of a character.
Non-standard fonts
     NOTE: You can buy a variety of Arabic and Hebrew fonts which do not conform to Apple Computer standards. Some of these enter from left-to-right and do not function correctly when used in your document. If you have trouble with fonts, contact the source from which you got them.

The right-to-left ruler      With the Arabic/Persian and/or Hebrew Apple Language Kits in your system, the Text Bar (ruler) includes a Directional Arrow on its right side. The arrow indicates the main direction of the paragraph governed by this ruler. Click it to change direction of the current paragraph. The Directional Arrow points to the right for a left-to-right paragraph and to the left for a right-to-left paragraph. Left-to-right and right-to-left paragraphs are governed by left-to-right and right-to-left rulers respectively

To write an Arabic or Hebrew paragraph with occasional English words, click the Directional Arrow for a right-to-left direction, and choose an Arabic or Hebrew font. The insertion point, as well as the First Line Indent, appear on the right.
     If you change the primary direction of a paragraph that already has formatting, the tabs and the first line indent switch to their mirror images on the ruler. This reverses their meaning. A left tab in an English ruler becomes a right tab in an Arabic or Hebrew ruler. The paragraph justification also changes according to the new writing direction.
The arrow keys in bidirectional text
     Text which contains both right-to-left and left-to-right scripts is termed bidirectional. In such text, you can independently choose the direction of each paragraph and the direction of each part of text.
NOTE: The right and left arrow keys of the keyboard act differently in paragraphs of different directions.
• When the paragraph direction and text direction are the same (both left-to-right or both right-to-left) the arrow keys move your insertion point in the direction that their arrows point.
• When the paragraph and text are in opposite directions, the left and right arrow key actions are reversed.
     When you use the arrow keys to move through text which changes direction, the insertion point will jump and also change direction. When you move forward through your text, you want to continue moving forward, even if the text changes direction, as from English to Hebrew. But in English text, forward is left-to-right, and in Hebrew, it is from right-to-left. Hence the direction switches and the insertion point jumps.
Kashidas in Arabic or Persian
     Nisus Writer supports full implementation of Kashidas as selected in the Arabic Setting control panel. Kashidas are used to extend each character's width when justifying text. You can enter ("hard") Kashidas manually by typing ` accent aigu.
To Enter Text in Hebrew or Yiddish
     If you want to type with full vowel points, type with Caps Lock on. Because Hebrew does not have upper and lowercase characters, typing with Caps Lock only changes the number keys at the top of your keyboard to the Nikuddot (vowel symbols or pointing/diacriticals).

When typing in Hebrew with Nikuddot, keep a standard hierarchical sequence of characters. Type the letter, then the Dagesh (if there is one), then the vowel.


     All the Nikuddot are "zero width characters" and do not highlight when you select them. For example, when you find one using the Find/Replace tool, no selection appears. The insertion point may seem to disappear when you select one of them. By following the typing procedure described above it will be easier to use the arrow keys to move the insertion point and select text.
     In certain fonts, there are multiple forms of the letters shin, vav and lamed. To create these, use the modifier keys as illustrated here:

The SHIFT modified Shin, Vav and Lamed
The OPTIONmodified Shin and Vav

Each of these is a distinct character with a separate ASCII value.

Type OPTION-Z in the Pninim Chadash font to create the hyphen character Maqef found in classical Hebrew texts as illustrated here:

• To type a standard "em dash" in Hebrew, type OPTION-X.
     Some fonts on the market that support the needs of Yiddish writers do not match the official Apple Computer ASCII codes. This means that double clicking to select a word will not always work. The fonts supplied in the Hebrew Language Kit offer limited Yiddish support.
     Neither the System software nor the fonts in the Hebrew Language Kit support the few additional characters for Ladino text.
To insert text between bidirectional scripts:
     If you want to insert text at the boundary between texts of different directions, be very careful and precise in your actions. If you click a little too far to the side of the right-to-left text, you will pick up the right-to-left script. If you click a little too far to the other side, you will pick up the other script. In both cases, however, the insertion point ends up in exactly the same position!
     An invisible border exists between text of different directions. At this border, the insertion point can assume the attribute of either of the two scripts present. Nisus Writer chooses the script of the closest character at the instant you click.
     Watch the Script Icon at the top of the Keyboard menu as you click at the border. Click "on" the edge of the character of the script you want. With practice you will learn how to find this border.
Spaces between bidirectional scripts
     A special space, called Reversed Direction Space, is used within paragraphs whose direction is opposite to that of the text. The symbol is displayed to represent it, when you choose Space, Tab & ¶ from the Display Attributes pop-up menu on the Horizontal Button Bar.

More about editing text in multiple languages...
• Editing Text in Multiple Romanic Languages
• Editing Text In Non-Romanic Languages


More information on our Dictionaries...
More on WorldScript and Language Kits...


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