FAQs - Using DavkaWriter

How do I switch from Hebrew to English when I'm typing in DavkaWriter?

Click Alt-. or Alt-/ on your physical keyboard, or the E/Ayin buttons on the onscreen toolbar. 

Where do I position my cursor when adding nikud?

To the left of the character to which you want to add nikud.

I can’t find the Shin in DavkaWriter. Where is it?

In DavkaWriter, you type the Shin as Ctrl and the “]” key.

How do I open a Dagesh document in DavkaWriter?

Go into DavkaWriter. Go to File -> Open. Change your file type to “Dagesh/Accent Document”.

Locate the Dagesh document and double-click it. It will then open in DavkaWriter.

Please note that, when importing a Dagesh document into DavkaWriter, you may need to do some adjustment to your formatting, and some font choices may be lost.


I inserted an image or text box into a DavkaWriter document and now I can’t click and select it. What do I do?

If you are unable to click an image in a DavkaWriter document, hold down Ctrl while you click the image. That tells DavkaWriter to select the image or text box instead of the text surrounding it.


How do I get Hebrew text from DavkaWriter into Microsoft Word or other applications?

DavkaWriter offers a number of different copy-and-paste options that can be used when copying text from DavkaWriter to other programs. These options are all in DavkaWriter’s Edit menu, under the choice “Copying is For”:

• Unicode
• Hebrew Program
• English Program
• Qtext
• Email

When copying to a program that supports Hebrew in Unicode (such as Microsoft Word, OpenOffice, and others), use the Unicode option. Select your Hebrew text in DavkaWriter, copy it, and paste it into your destination program. Your font choice from DavkaWriter will be lost.

In your destination program, you may want to change your Hebrew text from the default font to some other font. A number of the fonts included with Windows and/or Microsoft Office support Hebrew.

If your font does not support proper positioning of Nikud, you will find that the Nikud will not be positioned correctly. This is a limitation of the font and/or the destination program, not a limitation of DavkaWriter.

Use the English Program option if you are copying to a program that does not support Unicode Hebrew fonts. If you use this option, your choice of font will likely be lost in the destination application as well. If that happens, select the text in the destination application and change the font to a DavkaWriter font ending in “D” or “G” (for example: DavidD or HatzviG – NOT Davka David or GuttmanD Hatzvi).

The text should then appear as it did in DavkaWriter, including proper positioning of Nikud if your destination program supports it. This text usually cannot be edited effectively in the destination program (other than changing font size).

Please note that, often, other programs (particularly Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010) do not display Hebrew as well as DavkaWriter does. This is a limitation of these programs, not of DavkaWriter.

Where do I find the texts (Tanach, Siddur, Mishna) included in DavkaWriter?

All texts included in DavkaWriter are in Tools -> Text Library.

DavkaWriter includes the Tanach, Siddur and Mishna. Additional texts for DavkaWriter are available here:

• DavkaWriter Dimensions II
• The Transliterated Siddur
• The Transliterated Tehillim
• The Transliterated Machzor

How do I type a letter with a dot/dagesh (i.e. a bet instead of vet) in DavkaWriter?

In DavkaWriter, you don’t add a dot/dagesh to a letter. You type the letter as though you were typing an uppercase letter in English – by holding the Shift key as you type the letter.

If you have already typed the letter without the dagesh, you will need to replace the letter with the letter+dagesh equivalent. The dagesh cannot be added to the letter in any other way.

How do I save a DavkaWriter document as a PDF?

DavkaWriter 6 and 7 on Windows have built-in PDF export.

To use this export function, open your DavkaWriter document. Click File -> Export and set PDF as your file type. Name the file, note the location where the file will be saved (the folder name listed at the top of that window) and click Export. Your file will be exported to PDF.

If you’re using DavkaWriter Mac, the PDF export is a button at the bottom of your File -> Print box.

Why am I getting strange characters like øàèåïíùãâ when I try to type Hebrew in DavkaWriter?

DavkaWriter and Windows’ Hebrew language support try to use the same reserved keystroke – Alt+Shift. If you are using DavkaWriter on a system that has Windows’ Hebrew language support installed (the EN/HE language selector) and you use Alt-Shift to switch languages, Windows will switch to Hebrew mode, which is not compatible with DavkaWriter.

In order to type Hebrew in DavkaWriter, Windows must be left in English mode (the EN option). You can then switch languages in DavkaWriter using Alt+/ or Alt-. instead of Alt+Shift.