Download Area for Phonetic & Custom Yiddish Keyboards for Windows 2000, Windows XP, & Windows NT 4.0

IMPORTANT: These instructions assume that you have already visited a Users' Guide to Yiddish on the Internet and followed the link for your operating system to set up your computer for Yiddish. If you use Windows, this assumes that you have installed the Yiddish Keyboard Layouts at <www.shoshke.net/uyip/win-installer.htm> and have followed all instructions there for configuring your system for Yiddish Unicode UTF-8.

The downloads on this page will only be available temporarily, until the Yiddish Keyboard Layouts Installer is available on a CD form, for those who wish to avoid large downloads.  The majority of keyboard layouts illustrated on this page are  included in the Yiddish Keyboard Layout Installer for Windows.

If you came to this page directly, click here for an overview of Configuration Instructions. The configuration instructions are not needed if you have the Yiddish Keyboards Installer.

Following are some keyboard layouts which have been designed by various UYIP members. You can use one of these, or design your own. These layouts were created using a commercial program called Keyboard Layout Manager (KLM). Instructions for usage of these files with KLM, how to get the program, and how to design your a new keyboard layout are on the previous page.   Instructions for how to install these keyboards without purchasing KLM are included below.

Currently, we have the following keyboard proposals available for perusal, downloading, and testing:

 

Anyone is welcome to send the web author additional Yiddish keyboard layouts for sharing here.

 

PHONETIC KEYBOARD LAYOUT FOR YIDDISH

The following keyboard layout was created by  Shoshke-Rayzl Yuni, based on the Phonetic Yiddish Keyboard used for QText, as coordinated by Yankl Halpern, but adding Yiddish punctuation marks which were not available in QText, and some additional changes which were needed to work with Windows Office programs.  Most Yiddish letters are arranged in a phonetic scheme, with final keys (e.g., shlos-mem)   in the Shift position.   Yiddish quotation marks are at Shift + the 3 keys to the right of P (in place of the curly brackets, etc.). Garesh and gershayim are at the apostrophe key (adjacent to the Enter key), normal and Shift, respectively.  [Click here to see what garesh, gershayim, and Yiddish quotation marks are.] A makef (Yiddish hyphen) is found to the left of the number 1 on the top row. An alternative English hyphen is found on either the numeric keypad (the minus sign) or to the right of the top row zero key. [Click here to see the difference between a makef (Yiddish hyphen) and an English hyphen.] An underline symbol (e.g., for making forms) is on shift+the key to the left of the number 1 in the top row. If you have a laptop, you might not have any key to the left of the number 1 on the top row; therefore the makef and the underline symbol are also located in shift + P and O, respectively. A long dash (en dash) is on the shift+hyphen key, to the right of the number 0 on the top row.  Note that an American quote and apostrophe have been added to AltGr-C and AltGr-X, respectively, to aid in text searching in Yiddish documents where these characters have been used.

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PHONETIC NON-SHIFT KEYBOARD LAYOUT FOR YIDDISH

The following keyboard layout was created by Noyekh Miller with Shoshke-Rayzl Yuni.  It was designed to take advantage of the top row of keys. In brief, all 40 characters are now available without shifting and yet are arranged in a mostly phonetic scheme. Final keys have also been added as AltGr (i.e., right Alt)  keys for those who prefer keeping their keys together. Note that an American quote and apostrophe have been added to Shift-C and Shift-X, respectively, to aid in text searching in Yiddish documents where these characters have been used. Yiddish quotation marks are at Shift + Q,W,and E. Garesh and gershayim are at the apostrophe key (adjacent to the Enter key), normal and Shift (or AltGr), respectively.  [Click here to see what garesh, gershayim, and Yiddish quotation marks are.] A makef (Yiddish hyphen) is found on either the numeric keypad (the minus sign) or at AltGr+hyphen (to the right of the top row zero key). An English hyphen is at AltGr+P. [Click here to see the difference between a makef (Yiddish hyphen) and an English hyphen.] A long dash (en dash) is on the shift+hyphen/makef key.

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ZIGGY'S "YIDDISH PASEKH" SMART TRANSLITERATION KEYBOARD

This layout is perfect for people who are accustomed to typing Yiddish using YIVO style transliteration and/or those who wish to have computerized help with Yiddish spelling. (For explanations of "YIVO style transliteration," click here and here.) For example, you type shin with an "sh" key sequence or pasekh tsvey yudn with "ay." This keyboard automatically puts khof, mem, nun, fey, and tsadek in their final forms at the ends of words and their regular forms otherwise. Shtumer-alef is automatically inserted before ay, ey, i, oy, or u at the beginning of words. There are easy-to-remember ways to insert non-phonetic spellings of loshn-koydesh words and other requirements. This keyboard was designed by Gyula "Ziggy" Zsigri. 

 

 

 

UYIP KEYBOARD DESIGN

The following layout, useful for both Yiddish and Hebrew,  is based on a design created by Mark David for UYIP which was based on the standard Hebrew keyboard used in Israel (which itself was created from earlier Yiddish typewriter keyboard layouts). A retrofited design which is of particular ease of use for those who are already proficient with a standard Israeli keyboard. You can download and install a similar keyboard by clicking here for instructions. Instead, if you wish, you can download the following version, mapped with KLM by Noyekh Miller with Shoshke-Rayzl Yuni.  (Installation is a bit simpler for this version.)  This version has been slightly modified so that all key positions will work with MS Word in Windows 2000 and Hebrew Enabled NT.

Makef (Yiddish hyphen) is in the shift+V position; a long dash (en dash) is on the shift+B key. The English hyphen remains as on an American keyboard. Garesh and gershayim are at AltGr (that's the Right-hand Alt key) + the two keys to the right of M, respectively.  [Click here to see what garesh, gershayim, and Yiddish quotation marks are.]

Click here to see a pictorial diagram of the UYIP keyboard layout.
Note for Hebrew users: The only significant difference between this keyboard layout and the above linked diagram is that the separate nikud characters, needed only for Hebrew, are located on the numeric keypad + AltGr (instead of AltGr + top row numeric keys) as shown:
uyipaltnumnikud.gif (1022 bytes)

Instructions on how to import the above keyboard(s) into your system for use after downloading:

 

Windows 2000:

  1. Log in as Administrator.

  2. During this procedure you MUST NOT have the Windows 2000 installation disk in
    your drive.

  3. Open My Computer
    Click on Tools (top menu)
    Go to Folder Options
    Click on the View tab
    Be sure that there are no hidden files. Uncheck anything that hides files (& check anything that shows files of certain types)

  4. Copy your file KBDHEB.DLL over the original ones. The file is placed in two
    directories and you must copy your file over both of them in the following
    order. (Right-click on your new file, and left-click on copy. Then right-click on each destination folder, below, and left-click on Paste, Yes to Replace):
    C:\Winnt\System32\dllcache\KBDHEB.DLL first, and then
    C:\Winnt\System32\KBDHEB.DLL.

  5. You will see the message box informing you that you are using system files
    which don't have a proper signature. It will ask you to put the Windows 2000
    installation CD in your drive. Click on the Cancel button.

  6. After that there will be another message box with two buttons. Click on the Yes button.

  7. If this is the only or the Default keyboard, you must restart the
    computer. Otherwise, it is sufficient to log off and log on again.

 

Windows NT 4.0 - Hebrew Enabled:

  1. Log in as Administrator.

  2. Copy your file KBDHEB.DLL over the original one. The file is in the
    C:\Winnt\System32 directory. (If this doesn't work, rename the file KBDHE.DLL.)

  3. If this is the only or the Default keyboard, you must restart the
    computer. Otherwise, it is sufficient to log off and log on again.

If you cannot log on as Adminstrator:

If you do not have Administrator rights on your computer, you can still install the above keyboards, but you'll probably need to buy a program to facilitate the installation. You can go to the KLM (Keyboard Layout Manager) website and purchase the "Medium" version for about $25. The "Medium" version is the least expensive version of KLM which is capable of importing the above keyboard layouts for Yiddish. Click here for instructions on how to use KLM to import (install) a Yiddish keyboard. Note that the Medium version is not recommended to create new Yiddish keyboards because it does not allow you to assign multiple codes to one key (e.g., komets-alef to "O"), yet you can use it to import keyboards which have already been created.

 

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