LaserHebrew Converter

LaserHebrew Converter

*Easily Convert ASCII-Encoded Hebrew Text To Unicode-Encoded Text, and convert Fully-pointed text to Vocalized or Consonantal text.*	for Windows
	for Macintosh

No longer do you need to retype your Hebrew to change its format!

LaserHebrew Converter will help you do three things:

	Convert LaserHebrew and LaserHebrew II (ASCII-encoded) Hebrew text typed in Microsoft Word to the new Unicode-encoded fonts in LaserHebrew in Unicode.
	Convert LaserHebrew and LaserHebrew II fully-pointed Hebrew text to Vocalized text (with accents removed but vowels retained) or to Consonantal text (with both accents and vowels removed). With Consonantal text you also have the option of having sin and shin distinguished or their dots removed.
	Convert LaserHebrew in Unicode fully-pointed Unicode-encoded Hebrew text to Vocalized text (with accents removed but vowels retained) or to Consonantal text (with both accents and vowels removed). Just as above, with Consonantal text you also have the option of having sin and shin distinguished or their dots removed.

LaserHebrew Converter is a series of macros embedded in four Microsoft Word documents. You simply copy the appropriate macro(s) into your Word Normal template or into your Word documents that contain the Hebrew text and run the macro(s) to convert the text to the desired format. The macros do not affect any other text in your documents except the Hebrew text that you choose to convert, allowing you to retain your document's original formatting. The LaserHebrew Converter makes a nearly impossible task possible for anyone who owns Microsoft Word.

If you have been considering changing from the LaserHebrew and/or LaserHebrew II ASCII-encoded fonts to our lovely LaserHebrew in Unicode fonts, but have hesitated because you have years of work formatted in the older, ASCII-encoded fonts, you now can convert those old documents into the new fonts without retyping your work. One additional benefit of converting to the Unicode-encoded fonts is it will allow you to share documents back and forth between Windows and Macintosh users with no other conversion being necessary. With the ASCII-encoded fonts sharing was difficult, but with the Unicode-encoded fonts it is easy. With the LaserHebrew Converter you can convert your old documents to the new font encoding without the need to retype any of your work.

For example, if you have documents containing LaserHebrew or LaserHebrew II text, as in this NewJerusalem sample,

the LaserHebrew Converter will convert one Hebrew passage at a time to the equivalent font in the LaserHebrew in Unicode product, as the following NewJerusalemU sample shows. This gives you the benefit of the more perfect positioning of vowels and accents in the Unicode-encoded fonts shown here.

However, if you are not changing the encoding of your fonts, but do want to change the format of the Hebrew in your documents, then the LaserHebrew Converter will make it very simple, whether you have ASCII- or Unicode-encoded fonts. You can change fully-pointed text such as the above NewJerusalemU sample, to vocalized text (removing the accents), as shown here

or you can change it to consonantal text (removing both accents and vowels), either leaving sin and shin distinguished,

or removing the sin and shin dots from your document, as in this example:

With a single command, you can convert every instance of fully-pointed text in your document into vocalized or either consonantal format. Or, you can convert individual passages of Hebrew, permitting a mix of formats in the same document.

In addition to the above, LaserHebrew Converter for Macintosh can convert SuperHebrew and first-generation Hebraica text to the current generation of ASCII-encoded LaserHebrew fonts and/or LaserHebrew in Unicode fonts. See below for more details on this Mac-only feature.

Complete instructions for setup and use are included in the LaserHebrew Converter User's Manual. You do not need to have any experience using Word macros to convert your Hebrew text!

LaserHebrew Converter for Windows

LaserHebrew Converter for Windows includes 116 macros embedded in four Word for Windows documents to convert LaserHebrew and LaserHebrew II (ASCII-encoded) text to LaserHebrew in Unicode (Unicode-encoded) fonts, and to convert full-pointed text to Vocalized text or Consonantal text (with or without sin and shin dots).

System Requirements:

Operating System

To convert LaserHebrew and/or LaserHebrew II text to LaserHebrew in Unicode text, or to convert LaserHebrew in Unicode fully-pointed text to vocalized or consonantal text, you must have Windows Vista, XP, or 2000, with Complex Language Support installed according to the instructions in the LaserHebrew in Unicode User's Manual. (See LaserHebrew in Unicode for Windows for details.)

To convert LaserHebrew and/or LaserHebrew II fully-pointed text to vocalized or consonantal LaserHebrew and/or LaserHebrew text requires Windows 95 or newer.

Applications

To convert LaserHebrew and/or LaserHebrew II text to LaserHebrew in Unicode text, or to convert LaserHebrew in Unicode fully-pointed text to vocalized or consonantal text requires Microsoft Word 2007, 2003, or 2002 (XP). The documents you are going to convert must be Word for Windows documents, since the macros are Word macros embedded in Word files.

To convert LaserHebrew and/or LaserHebrew II fully-pointed text to vocalized or consonantal LaserHebrew and/or LaserHebrew II text requires Microsoft Word 97 or newer. The documents you are going to convert must be Word for Windows documents, since the macros are Word macros embedded in Word files.

Fonts

To convert LaserHebrew and/or LaserHebrew II text to LaserHebrew in Unicode text requires one or more of the LaserHebrew and/or LaserHebrew II (ASCII-encoded) fonts from Linguist's Software and the corresponding Unicode-encoded font(s) from LaserHebrew in Unicode for Windows.

To convert LaserHebrew in Unicode fully-pointed text to vocalized or consonantal text requires the LaserHebrew in Unicode font(s) used in the document.

To convert LaserHebrew and/or LaserHebrew II fully-pointed text to vocalized or consonantal text requires the appropriate LaserHebrew and/or LaserHebrew II font(s).

The LaserHebrew ASCII-encoded fonts used in your documents must be version 9.0, dated April 29, 1997 or newer to be successfully converted. (LaserHebrew II fonts all are new enough.) If your LaserHebrew fonts are older than version 9.0 you must first upgrade LaserHebrew and convert your documents to the new version of the ASCII-encoded fonts following instructions in the Troubleshooting Manual. Then the LaserHebrew Converter can be used to convert your documents to the Unicode-encoded version of LaserHebrew. How do I find the version number?

Documentation

All documentation is in Adobe Acrobat PDF format, so Adobe Reader must be installed on your computer. If you do not already have it installed, you can download Adobe Reader free from the Adobe web site.

Cost: US$ 79.95 Order

LaserHebrew Converter for Macintosh

LaserHebrew Converter for Macintosh includes macros to convert LaserHebrew and LaserHebrew II (ASCII-encoded) text to LaserHebrew in Unicode (Unicode-encoded) fonts, and to convert fully-pointed text to Vocalized text or Consonantal text (with or without sin and shin dots). In addition, the LaserHebrew Converter for Macintosh includes macros for converting SuperHebrew and first-generation Hebraica text to LaserHebrew (ASCII-encoded) text, and even to LaserHebrewU (Unicode-encoded text). SuperHebrew and Hebraica are obsolete and no longer sold. They had Mac System 6 arrangements, and LaserHebrew Converter will allow users to convert documents typed with those old fonts either to the current generation of ASCII-encoded fonts (in a one-step process) or to the new Unicode-encoded fonts (in a two-step process).

(For more on the history of our Hebrew fonts, see here.)

System Requirements:

Applications

To convert LaserHebrew and/or LaserHebrew II text to LaserHebrew in Unicode text, or to convert LaserHebrew in Unicode fully-pointed text to vocalized or consonantal text requires both Microsoft Word 2004 and Mellel. (The files are converted in Word 2004 but then transferred to Mellel for use. Although the macro language in Word will do the conversion, Word does not support the complex OpenType layout features in the Unicode-encoded Hebrew fonts. At this time we know of no other application besides Mellel that supports these features. Mellel is available for only $25 when purchased with our fonts.) Word 2008 does not support Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macros and therefore will not work. You must have Word 2004. (Microsoft left VBA out of Word 2008.)

To convert LaserHebrew and/or LaserHebrew II fully-pointed text to vocalized or consonantal text requires Microsoft Word 98 or newer (through Word 2004) and does not require Mellel.

To convert old Hebraica or SuperHebrew files to the ASCII-encoded LaserHebrew and/or LaserHebrew II fonts requires Microsoft Word 98 or newer (through Word 2004) and does not require Mellel.

The files you are going to convert must be Word for Macintosh files, since the macros are Word macros embedded in Word files.

See LaserHebrew in Unicode for Macintosh to be sure you understand the System Requirements for the Unicode-encoded fonts.

Fonts

You must install both the ASCII-encoded fonts used in your files and the ASCII- or Unicode-encoded fonts to which you are converting the files.

To convert old Hebraica and/or SuperHebrew documents, the LaserHebrew Converter includes a version of Hebraica and SuperHebrew which may be used for the conversion process (since the old font you own will not work in OS X).

To convert Hebraica or SuperHebrew files to Unicode-encoded fonts you must have one of the LaserHebrew or LaserHebrew II ASCII-encoded fonts for the first step in the conversion from Hebraica or SuperHebrew. If you do not own either LaserHebrew or LaserHebrew II you can purchase the Hebraica II font for $39.95 as part of Graeca II & Hebraica II. You must also have the LaserHebrew in Unicode font to which you will convert the text in the second step.

Documentation

All documentation is in Adobe Acrobat PDF format, so Adobe Reader must be installed on your computer. If you do not already have it installed, you can download Adobe Reader free from the Adobe web site.

Cost: US$ 79.95 Order

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