Working with Hebrew in Pages 5.2

[Daniel Saunders]

According to Apple, the new version of Apple Pages should be able to support Right-To-Left languages (i.e. Hebrew), but I'm having some trouble with this.

 

Whether I copy Unicode Hebrew from Accordance or if I type it in using the HebrewTH keyboard, I don't see the 'Change Direction' button showing up in the menu, nor do I get the extra entries in the Format->Text menu that I've seen referred to on the net.

 

Does anyone here know the tricks to get Hebrew working with Pages 5?

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

Have you also tried switching the OS X keyboard to "Hebrew" when doing it? I haven't tried yet, but wonder if it'd trigger something.

[Daniel Saunders]

Great idea Nathan.

 

I'd been using the HebrewTH keyboard from Tyndale House, but for some reason this font must link fully into OS X and doesn't tell Pages that I'm using a Right-To-Left language.

 

However if I use the included Hebrew-Qwerty keyboard, and have that keyboard 'active' when I paste from Accordance I get right-to-left working. The Hebrew-Qwerty keyboard seems to have vowels (the other two keyboards are consonantal only) though not more advanced punctuation - but then again I don't type much hebrew, more copying and pasting.

[Λύχνις Δαν]

A quick test confirms Nathan's suggestion - I get characters that I cannot read but I also get the change direction button in the Style - Alignment pane.

 

I just installed the TH maps and its interesting. It seems that while the OSX Hebrew keyboard when selected causes Pages to automatically switch to RTL the TH one does not. That said I do see the RTL/LTR switch button and that works fine. So it seems that there might be something missing in the TH keyboard definition.

 

The Cardo font is kinda nice for Greek though.

 

Thx

D

Edited May 13, 2014 by Daniel Semler

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

Sounds good. So basically you do have to switch to OS X's Hebrew Keyboard for it to work? I'd love to see how well Hebrew text is working in Pages since I'm probably taking Hebrew next semester.

 

By the way, anyone got an iPad running Pages (or should I try testing it on my iPad)? I'm wondering if Apple added in the Hebrew support to Pages for iOS. I've been doing light paper typing on my iPad and a lot of my class work (lectures, reading, etc) from my iPad.

 

Thanks!

[Daniel Saunders]

Nathan,

 

I don't think you need to 'switch' to the Hebrew Keyboard. It might just be that it's got to be 'installed' (i.e. in your list of keyboards) and then when you (re)start Pages, all the RTL features appear.

 

I haven't tried with iPad yet - but for what I've seen online, RTL support came to iPad before it came to Mac.

 

D

[Rick Bennett]

For what it's worth, I emailed the person who created the Tyndale House keyboard layouts, and he was not aware of this issue with Pages, and does not plan to try and fix it since it is unique to Pages.

[EricC]

For what it's worth, I emailed the person who created the Tyndale House keyboard layouts, and he was not aware of this issue with Pages, and does not plan to try and fix it since it is unique to Pages.

I noticed in the package that comes with the Tyndale House keyboard layouts (http://www.tyndale.cam.ac.uk/unicode) that there are instructions on how to make them. Looked confusing to me, but I'm sure someone on the forum would be able to tweak it to work with Pages 5, unless there is some technical barrier.

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

Nathan,

 

I don't think you need to 'switch' to the Hebrew Keyboard. It might just be that it's got to be 'installed' (i.e. in your list of keyboards) and then when you (re)start Pages, all the RTL features appear.

 

I haven't tried with iPad yet - but for what I've seen online, RTL support came to iPad before it came to Mac.

 

D

 

Thanks for the info about the iPad and installed keyboards in general. I'll play around with it some more since I have the Hebrew keyboard enabled in OS X and iOS. Sounds great that Pages is working on better RTL support.