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We turn now to the various software options for creating quality
Hebrew and English liturgy on home computers. Sources and ordering
information for all of this software can be found in
Appendix A. This section does not, of course, contain
all software that might be used --- it is but a sampling of the most
influential software to date.
A general note about entering Hebrew electronically applies to all of
the following. Entering Hebrew is difficult, not only because of the
general user's unfamiliarity with Hebrew typewriting, but especially
because of the vowels. Proof-reading Hebrew is even more difficult,
not only because of the vowels, but because most people capable of
proof-reading the material have already memorized a large portion of
it. For example, consider a user trying to enter the common prayer
avot. Those familiar enough with Hebrew grammar to check the
pointing have probably recited the prayer often enough to have
memorized it. This makes proof-reading more difficult.
For these reasons, even the best program with an ideal user
interface will not make it as easy to enter pointed Hebrew as it is to
enter English. The solutions below that provide ready-Hebrew, then,
are considerably easer to use than the others. But they do not
provide the same flexibility.
Likewise, as discussed above, printing Hebrew is a difficult task for
any computer program, because the the alignment of the vowels under
the consonants varies both with different fonts and with different
letters. (Think of the placements of the sh'va under a final
chaf and under a final kaf.) Of the programs that
follows, only ServiceMaker provides truly typeset-quality Hebrew.
Dagesh provides output that is reasonably close. WordPerfect
does not.
The CCAR Committee on Computer Technology and the Rabbinate publishes
third-party reviews of much of the software described below. See
Appendix A for information on how to obtain these.
WordPerfect is a word-processor that runs on most
major platforms, including IBM-compatibles and Mac's. Its latest
release as of this writing is Version 6.1a, which permits the creation
of near-typeset quality English with ease. An auxiliary program will
let WordPerfect users enter Hebrew right-to-left, but the
user-interface remains awkward. The Hebrew output, while very good,
remains well below typesetting standards. Additionally, adding vowels
to Hebrew text is a time-consuming endeavor. Release 6 requires
reasonably fast and modern machines on which to run. Even on an
IBM '486/33,[+] for
example, it will run slowly.
Release 5 of WordPerfect also had a Hebrew option, but it was
almost unusable for more than a few words.
Earlier releases of WordPerfect also abound, and are commonly
installed in temples, which often use older computers that cannot run
the newer releases. Releases 4.2 and 4.3 are among the most popular,
and even with Hebrew-specific add-ons they support only rudimentary
Hebrew.
The latest version of WordPerfect runs on many platforms, including
Mac, IBM-PC (DOS), IBM-PC (Windows) and Unix.
Dagesh 2.0 is a full English/Hebrew word-processor. It is
not as powerful as WordPerfect, but it is powerful enough for most
purposes, including liturgy. While it is considerably easier to enter
Hebrew into Dagesh than into any of the purely English-based
word-processors, entering fully pointed Hebrew still requires patience
and extensive proof-reading, as mentioned above.
One other major advantage of Dagesh is that the standard
Orthodox liturgy --- complete with vowels --- is available in
Dagesh-format. So, one wishing to create a service from the
standard liturgy with Dagesh will usually not have to re-key
large amounts of Hebrew. Some editing will, nonetheless, still be
required.
The quality of the Hebrew from Dagesh is higher than from
WordPerfect, but still not typeset quality.
Dagesh runs on IBM's and Mac's.
ServiceMaker is a special program solely for creating ``creative
services,'' and so presents an alternative to using a word processor
to create liturgy. ServiceMaker comes with all of the usual
Reform liturgy built-in, and with a menu-driven system for accessing
it. It also contains outlines describing the order of the standard
liturgical elements, and expert historical and practical notes about
the liturgy. It can thus be used by Rabbis and lay-people alike.
ServiceMaker is the only current product to address the
issue of quality control, mentioned above, in that ServiceMaker
provides guidelines, based upon decisions the Reform Movement has
made, that make it easier to create services that conform to Reform
traditions than those that do not.
ServiceMaker can be used to create new Hebrew passages, but the
user interface is so awkward that ordinary users will generally not be
up to the task. On the other hand, any Hebrew passage can be ordered
from the distributor for a small fee. ServiceMaker uses
typesetting technology far more advanced that what is available from
Dagesh or WordPerfect, or even DTP packages (reviewed
below), but most users will not notice the fine advantages of
ServiceMaker over DTP packages.
The English liturgy included with ServiceMaker is a new,
reasonably literal and gender neutral translation of the Hebrew, and
is not based on the CCAR's English liturgy. The program does allow
the end-user to use any English liturgy, however. Combined with the
license soon to be sold by the CCAR (see below) this could make for a
powerful combination.
At the time of this writing, a new version of ServiceMaker was
about to be released. The new version promises automatic
transliteration of the Hebrew (according to conventions that can be
changed by the end user) and vastly improved page-layout options.
ServiceMaker runs only on IBM-PC's.
One step above word-processors are ``desktop publishing'' (DTP)
programs. The output from these programs can be far superior to what
word-processing packages (such as WordPerfect or Word) can
generally produce. Most DTP packages contain a Hebrew font, and so
can produce rudimentary Hebrew, but these packages usually do not
include any convenient way of entering the Hebrew. Often they do not
even include vowels.
However, these packages can always incorporate ``graphics'' files
created by other programs. A graphics file is usually a picture, but
can also be a paragraph of Hebrew, provided the Hebrew can be prepared
by another program.
There are DTP programs available for most platforms, including IBM-PC
(Windows) and Mac.
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