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Hebrew

How to set up LyX under Windows to use it for Hebrew

Installation

1. Install LyX for Windows using the official installer or this alternative installer
2. Download and run the culmus.exe to install fonts and other needed Hebrew files.
   Assure that you install them to the default location that is shown in the dialog window of the culmus.exe.
3. Open a command prompt. Run the following commands (no messages will be displayed):
   initexmf -u
initexmf --mkmaps
4. Install the Hebrew spell checker from here or here
5. Copy the file he_cua.bind to ~:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\lyx15\bind\. Then open LyX and use the menu Tools → Preferences to set he_cua.bind . Also go to the Language tab and check the Right-to-Left Language Support check box. Click Save and restart LyX.
6. If LyX doesn't correctly accept your keyboard input, open the menu Tools → Preferences to use a keyboard map as shown in this screenshot. Then click Save and restart LyX.

Testing the Installation

1. Run LyX and press Ctrl-N to open a new document. Write a few words in English, and press Ctrl-D.
   Yap, MiKTeX's DVI-preview program should be opened; check that it displays the text correctly.
2. Open another document and call the menu Document → Settings.
   Select there in the Document-class drop-list the class article (Hebrew),
   press OK and then F12 to switch to Hebrew (It seems that in LyX 1.3.x you do not need to switch Windows' input to Hebrew, however in the newer LyX 1.4.x series you only need to change the Input Language. The F12 key would change the directionality of the typed text (right to left or left to right), so in a Hebrew article you only need to change Windows' Input language, and in an English one you need to change both Windows' Input language, and press F12).
   Type in a few words. Press Ctrl-D and check the output.

Possible problems

• When upgrading from MiKTeX 2.5 to 2.6 you need to repeat steps 2 and 3 in order to have the Hebrew fonts installed in the new LaTeX-distribution.
• If F12 and F11 does nothing, the he_cua.bind file is not in the place or set in the preferences as described above.
• If you do not see Hebrew, check that LyX's preferences are properly set (Check if the screen fonts support Hebrew).
• If nothing happen when you press Ctrl-D after changing the document's class to article (Hebrew), try also setting document-->settings-->Language-->Hebrew
• If you succeed in viewing an English DVI file, but fail with the Hebrew one, there is a problem with the Hebrew TeX packages.
  Assure that culmus.exe extracted the files to MiKTeX's config directory (~:\Documents and Settings\all users\Application Data\MiKTeX\<MiKTeX version number>\) while you had admin permissions.
• If you have several partitions it is highly possible culmus has been in the right folder at the wrong partition. Check the drive letter when installing culmus.
• If the above does not solve your problem, open the file updmap.cfg from the culmus package (to find it extract culmus to some temporary folder) and copy it's contents to the end of updmap.cfg in the folder: ~:\Program Files\MiKTeX <MiKTeX version number>\miktex\config. You need to re-run the initexmf commands as described above after doing this. (This is relevant especially if when rendering the file you get a message in the dvi viewer saying something like mktexpk failed or making of a pk font failed).

Notes

• The only difference between he_cua.bind and LyX's default cua.bind is a line that binds the "F12" key to switch to Hebrew and binds "F11" to switch to English.
• It is possible to add new templates to LyX. Place the template files in
  ~:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\lyx1.4.x\templates. Then reconfigure LyX by using the menu Tools → Reconfigure and restart LyX.
• It is probably advised to set in the preferences menu the option right-to-left language support to on.

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References (not only for Windows)

• Hebrew translation's homepage has explanations in Hebrew on how to set up LyX.
• Dekel Tsur's LyX pages explain how to set up LyX for Hebrew on Linux, how to set up LyX for Arabic, and how to use Hebrew True Type fonts with pdflatex.

Windows Hebrew