Translit instructions

What is Am ha-Aretz™ Translit?: Am ha-Aretz™ Translit is an easy-to-use web application that allows you to type in Hebrew, using any Latin keyboard, including the standard American English keyboard. You type in an English transliteration of Hebrew, and out comes Hebrew! It's that easy.
Translit? Transliteration? Romanization? Am ha-Aretz? Huh?: Translit is the generic name for any application that allows its user to convert one character set to another character set. Usually, the original character set is English / Latin and the target character set is non-Latin. While the word is not in the OED yet, it has been around since at least the early 1990's. Translit is a back-formation from transliterate.

Am ha-Aretz Translit is the name of the particular translit featured on this website. Am ha-Aretz is to translit as Windows XP is to operating system.

Words like transliterate, transliteration, romanize, romanization don't quite capture the meaning. When you transliterate or romanize something, the text appears in English letters, whereas when you use a translit, the text appears in the letters of the target language -- Hebrew in our case. Words like translate or translation might seem appropriate, because we are translating one character set into another. But, in practice, these words are ambiguous, since translation usually refers to translation from one language to another, not from one character set to another.
I love it!: Thanks. Leave me a comment.
Something's not working. What do I do?: Read the rest of this file. If the problem is not covered, leave me a comment.
OK, I typed some Hebrew text, now what?: You can copy and paste what you've typed into any modern program, including another browser window, e-mail program, or word processor. To copy the text after you type it, just select it with your mouse. To select all the text, click on Edit > Select All or press Ctrl-A. Then, click on Edit > Copy or press Ctrl-C. If you are using Internet Explorer, all this can be accomplished in one simple step just by clicking the Copy button next to the text area. Then, switch to a window to which you'd like to paste the text, and go ahead. Click on Edit > Paste in that window, or press Ctrl-V.
What if I need to type some text that contains both Hebrew and English?: You can switch between Hebrew and English by pressing the Esc key (upper left corner on your keyboard). Or, just click on the language that you want right above the text area.
Do I have to be online to use Am ha-Aretz Translit?: No. You can save the program to your computer and use it even when you are not online. Click on File > Save As in your browser. Save the program in a location where you can find it, such as the Desktop. To use the program, just double click on its icon. That should open a browser window with Am ha-Aretz Translit in it.
In which browsers does Am ha-Aretz Translit work?: In principle, it should work in any modern browser. I have tested it in Internet Explorer 6 and Firefox 1.
Can I really paste the text into any program?: Almost. The Hebrew text is encoded using a standard called Unicode. All new computer programs should support Unicode. If the Hebrew looks fine when you type it in the browser, but does not look right after you paste it into your program, most likely it's an older version of the program that does not support Unicode. If it is a modern program, there is probably a way to switch to Unicode encoding.
It's not working!: You have to allow your browser to run Javascript from this website. In Internet Explorer, if a warning pops up in the "information bar" near the top of the screen when you load the translit ("To protect your security..."), click on the warning, and select Allow Blocked Content. In Firefox, go to Tools > Options > Web Features and make sure that Enable JavaScript is checked.
On screen, instead of Hebrew, I just see a bunch of funny characters.: The problem is incorrect encoding. Click on View > Encoding > Unicode (UTF-8). In Firefox, that's View > Character Encoding > Unicode (UTF-8).
When I type, some Hebrew letters come out fine, but others don't.: Make sure your CAPS Lock is off.
I don't see Hebrew at all.: The problem is that you probably don't have a Hebrew Unicode font installed.
Search engines return very few results.: Try not using the niqqudot.
Can I paste the Hebrew into an HTML document?: Yes, if your HTML editor supports Unicode, you can paste the text as is. But if you are working with a non-Hebrew HTML document, it's best to surround the Hebrew text by span's. The raw HTML code will look something like this:

<span class="hebrew" lang="he" dir="rtl">?מה נשמע</span>

You should define a "hebrew" class in your CSS file. For example, the class could look like this:

.hebrew {
	text-align: right; 
	direction: rtl; 
	font-family: David, Code2000, sans-serif; 
	font-size: 110%; 
}

Bugs

The program currently has a couple of minor bugs.

Deleting in Internet Explorer. If you delete some text and then switch the language, the deleted text reappears. To fix this, type something (for example, press the Space key) after deleting the text and before switching the language.
Scrolling in Firefox. When you type, the text area automatically scrolls to the top of the text. If there is a lot of text in the text area, you can't see what you're typing. When you press Enter, the text area scrolls to the bottom.
Delete in Firefox. The Delete key in Firefox does not seem to work right. Use Backspace instead.

Can I copy this program and post it on my website?: You can repost this program as long as it's for non-commercial purposes and the copy is completely unchanged. In particular, leave a link back to this website intact and visible. Note that over time, there may be improvements and bug fixes. So it's best just to link to the program, not to copy it.
Version history: Current version (March 2005)

New, and hopefully more self-explanatory, name.
Single version for both IE and Firefox. Converts English transliteration of Hebrew on the fly.
Allow switching between Hebrew and English while typing.
Added Google Israel, Milon, and Yahoo! searches.
Added the Copy button (IE only).
Removed the output of HTML, since there seems to be no need for it, and it needlessly complicates things.

Initial version (April 2004)

Initial version. Called L2H (from "Latin to Hebrew").
Separate scripts for IE and Firefox. The IE version converts English transliteration to Hebrew on the fly, the Firefox version does not.
Both versions allow output of HTML, though it's a bit screwy in IE.

Author: My name is Ami Hertz. I run the Am ha-Aretz website.