word order Hebrew in Word for Mac

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Albert van der Heide
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word order Hebrew in Word for Mac

Post by Albert van der Heide »

I regularly have to write texts in Dutch about Hebrew, grammar and idiom, for a group of users of Word. Word for Mac cannot handle Hebrew properly (shame on them) so I write my Hebrew sentences in Mellel and past them into my Word document. Sometime this works well (though quite laborious) and sometimes, for no obvious reason, not. For a while I thought hat it depends on choosing the proper word order in Mellel, but the situation may change during one and the same working session without my being aware of any difference of procedure.
Can I be helped?
jannuss
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Re: word order Hebrew in Word for Mac

Post by jannuss »

Yes, the sometimes-it-works-and-sometimes-it-doesn't issue with WORD is well-known.

Usually, I have the problem coming in the opposite directions -- sometimes Hebrew text from WORD arrives correctly on my Mac and sometimes it doesn't.

My solution is simple: stop using WORD for Mac!

I'm very happy with LibreOffice.
Others on this list may suggest different Office clones. [Not iWork, of course, because it still doesn't do right-to-left text correctly.]

Also, it's helpful to make sure that your colleagues with PC WORD are using the same Herew font that you are
and
Never use Times New Roman for Hebrew. Many versions of that font have bugs in the RtL implementation.

Janet
Albert van der Heide
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Re: word order Hebrew in Word for Mac

Post by Albert van der Heide »

Thanks Janet. It's good to know that I'm not alone in his world, even though I'd preferred a less drastic solution.
Albert
jannuss
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Re: word order Hebrew in Word for Mac

Post by jannuss »

Drastic, yes, but I don't think Microsoft deserves the heavy tarrif they charge for giving us a broken product.

You can try LibreOffice for free.
If it solves your problems, then I do suggest you make a yearly contribution.

Janet
Albert van der Heide
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Re: word order Hebrew in Word for Mac

Post by Albert van der Heide »

My solution should include free and easy interchange with my WORD user colleagues. Does LibreOffice?
Over the years I have learnt to work with WORD. Mellel as an alternative is good, but I am still clumsy on many details. How would that be with LibreOffice?

Albert
rpcameron
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Re: word order Hebrew in Word for Mac

Post by rpcameron »

Both Mellel and LibreOffice support RTF, which allows for every feature that is found in Word for Windows; you can use that as an interchange format. Also, Word is close to offering full native support for ODF/ODT, which is LibreOffice's native format.
— Robert Cameron
jannuss
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Re: word order Hebrew in Word for Mac

Post by jannuss »

My colleagues usually prefer to send/receive doc or docx files.

Everybody has slightly different requirements. For example, I do a lot of work with NIKUD and TAAMIM. I prefer to do this on Mellel, but if I have to make changes to a doc/docx file, I'll do that on LibreOffice.

As I said, LibreOffice is free. Try it and see if it suits your particular needs.

Also, I make heavy use of LbreOffice spreadsheets (in Hebrew and English) which I share with a number of people on PCs without difficulty.

Janet
shades
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Re: word order Hebrew in Word for Mac

Post by shades »

Just a note: I saw that MS now has a free preview of MS Office 2016. I have not been a fan of MS Office since Word 5.0, but perhaps this will be a change in the right direction.
Rich
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rpcameron
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Re: word order Hebrew in Word for Mac

Post by rpcameron »

While the preview is free, the final version will require a license/subscription.
— Robert Cameron
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