Instructions
Instructions

The following is provided as a reference; most people can best learn to use the site by experimentation.

A citation, i.e. Deut 26:5-9, can be viewed either by clicking the desired book, chapter, verse, and last verse in a succession of pages from the initial ("Home") page or by entering the citation in the "Citation" text field and pushing return. The details of the citation syntax can be viewed by clicking the "Citation" link to the left of the text field.

A correct citation brings up a Book page with the Hebrew text. Further citations can be entered in the Book page's text field; however, pushing the "Home" button or entering a blank citation returns to the Home page.

Additional results for a given citation can be obtained in XML, Text, HTML, and ODT formats by clicking the corresponding button on the lower, right side of the Book page. PDF files are available only for full books.

The meaning of a transcription note can be seen by hovering the pointer over the note; clicking on the note brings up a detailed note specific to the text.

Modifying the text format.
Viewing details of selected Hebrew text.
Viewing an image of the Leningrad Codex corresponding to the selected text.
Advanced features.

Detailed capabilities of the site are described on the Technical page.

Modifying the text format:

In the upper, right corner of each Book page are three to five pull down lists which control the formatting of the text. The "DH" link on the Home page provides more information on the "DH" pull down.

Layout: controls the presentation of the text. The layouts Full -> Note-free -> Text-only -> Qere-only represent a reduction in text detail for continuous text. The Verses layout has equivalent content to the Full layout, however verses are presented separately.
Full (default) Continuous text with:
  • Qere markings in blue, ketib markings in red.
  • Chapter:Verse markings and traditional pe, samekh, and reversed nun markers.
  • Transcription notes.
Subsequent layouts progressively remove these features, starting at the bottom of this list.
Note-free Text is displayed as in the "Full" layout, but without transcription notes. This is the easiest layout to copy and paste into other documents.
Text-only Text is displayed as in the "Note-free" layout, but without the Chapter:Verse labels or samekh/pe markings.
Qere-only Text is displayed as in the "Text-only" layout, but without the ketiv variants. The qere variants are not colorized.
Toggle view Chapter view displays contiguous text and is the default view. Verses view displays the text as individually-labeled verses in individual table cells. Each verse appears in the previously-specified Layout. Clicking this menu item changes the display to the other view.
Content: controls what markings are shown on the text consonants.
Accents (default) Vowels and accents are displayed on consonants.

בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃

Vowels The vowels plus the maqaf and sof pasuq are displayed on the consonants.

בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ׃

Consonants Only the consonants are displayed.

בראשית ברא אלהים את השמים ואת הארץ

Font family: This pulldown shows the font family for Hebrew text displayed at the site and allows changing and testing a font family.
Font name Gives the name of the font family of the displayed Hebrew text. The name "UNKNOWN" indicates that the default system font has been used. Normally, this is not a satisfactory font.
Change font Brings up the Change the Hebrew font page which allows changing the Hebrew font throughout the site. The entered font family must already be installed on your computer or be the default font, Taamey D Web.
Test font Brings up the Font test.. page providing examples of the current font's performance relative to the SBL Hebrew font.
Font size: This pulldown provides a reasonable range of font sizes from 12 to 72 points. The default font size is 24 points.
DH: This only appears on books from the Torah having DH markings.
Off (default) DH markings are not shown.
Titles DH markings appear as temporary pop-up titles when cursor is held over the text for a while. Hold the cursor over this sentence to see an example title. This is a way to see source markings without distraction.
All DH markings are shown with the font properties coding shown in the legend. The coding scheme depends on the particular book.
The settings of these pull down lists are remembered from session to session in web cookies.

The Leningrad Codex facsimile or selected translations of the text can be accessed by setting the pulldown list and pressing the "Go" at the bottom left corner of the page. See the LC images and Links pages for more information on these features.

Copies of text can be obtained by clicking on one of the four buttons (XML, Text, HTML, ODT) at the bottom right of the page.

The HTML button also provides an uncluttered view of the Hebrew text in its current format. The URL of the HTML page can be bookmarked to return to the same text and format without accessing the site.
A text-only display will appear in a separate window (or tab) that can be printed or saved. Saved ODT files can be converted to PDF via the "File:Export as:Export as PDF..." command in LibreOffice Writer.

The text contains transcription notes to describe particular features of the text. Notes are indicated by red superscript characters, i.e. x where x is the type of note. Hovering the cursor over the note brings up a short description of the note (i.e. "Example note."). For selected notes, clicking on the note brings up a popup window giving a detailed note specific to the noted text. The t note in Jeremiah 44:19 gives an example. The transcription notes page in the Supplements directory gives a list of note types and short descriptions. Clicking on a note in the table produces up a display of all verses containing notes of that type. In the display of verse results, clicking on a note brings up the detailed note for that verse.

Viewing details of selected Hebrew text

The site displays a view of underlying Unicode text. Sometimes, it's desirable to know what the Unicode character is being displayed and what the hexadecimal value is for that character. For example, what's the strange accent on the first word of Genesis 19:16?

Go to Gen19:16 and check that the content is "Accents" so that the accents are displayed. Select the Hebrew text in the usual manner of selecting text on the browser, leaving a highlighted selection of text. Hold down the SHIFT key and click on the selected text. A popup window titled "Unicode representations of the selected text" will appear. Because of browser differences, some experimentation in selecting the text and SHIFT-clicking the selection may be necessary. Best results are obtained if the last character in the selection is a blank and the cursor is held over the blank during the SHIFT-click.

Users should always verify that the selected text is what was intended.

The second row of the window gives the standard Unicode names for the selected text. The name "shalshelet" appears in the expected position among familiar names.

The third row shows the Unicode coding of the selected text.

Only Unicode characters that are in the coding table are converted to constants. Blanks are left as blanks, however. All others are ignored. Book names, chapter and verse numbers, and transcription note numbers are ignored. Thus, selected of text containing any of these features will not have them in the Unicode representations. Be aware, however, that if both qere and ketib variants are present in the selection, then they both will be present in the Unicode representations.

Advanced features:

The site offers a lot more than casual viewing.

Links to other sites.
Fast and flexible text from the servers.
XML files for machine processing from the Server.xml server.
Text files for machine processing from the Server.txt server.
Fast and flexible HTML text from the Server.html server.
Text in OpenDocument Text (ODT) format from the Server.odt server.
PDF files of entire Tanach books.

They're worth examining.

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