I am using a software keyboard: https://www.sbl-site.org/Fonts/Bibli...wSILManual.pdf
I am using the SBL-Hebrew Hebrew font.


I am modifying a document that was created by someone else years ago. The SIL keyboard has several characters that are basically round circles with various Hebrew vowel points. I have successfully updated several table cells to present the vowel point, often with the circle. However, I have hit a weird problem.
I tried to put a specific Hebrew letter in the table cell, a waw. That is basically a vertical line with a dot at the top. That is one way to represent the Hebrew vowel Holem. There is another way to represent this vowel, which is a circle with a dot outside of it at about 11 o'clock (just to the left of the top of the circle).

Now, here is my specific problem with Word. I tried to delete the first character and the dot above it and then type in the correct character, the circle with a dot. No matter what I do, delete, cut, replace, etc., when I type in the correct character, the dot from the previous character appears as well. I cannot seem to get rid of it. I even tried typing the correct symbol on a blank document and pasting it where it ought to go. That did not work.
The dot to the right, which is seemingly left over from the first character I erroneously put it, cannot be touched. That is, with or without the waw, the dot that was above it cannot be selected, deleted, replaced or anything. I can't even move the cursor to the right spot to use a backspace.

I know that Hebrew is typed right to left, not left to right,a nd I have put SBL-Hebrew without the keyboard into several documents. I have never seen a table behave this way. I tried closing without saving but it remembered my first step, which was two characters, the waw plus dot and the circle plus dot when I start Word again. I've never seen a table cell behave like this. It's driving me crazy.

All I can see in the table properties is that the cells use center alignment and have a preferred size of 1.28'. While the table is to go from left to right, what I am typing is one-two characters that go right to left, which is working fine for letters around it.

Any suggestions please? Thanks.

Without actually seeing the problem content, it can be difficult for anyone to diagnose the issue. Can you attach a document (not just a screen-dump) to a post with some representative content (delete anything sensitive)? You do this via the paperclip symbol on the 'Go Advanced' tab at the bottom of this screen.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Thanks for the response. I am attaching a document that contains the table I am working on modifying. There are two rows that illustrate my problem. The second one of them is highlighted. It has a circle and dots to the right and left above it. The row above that, which I can't seem to highlight is just a dot ".". When I am using the software SIL Hebrew keyboard that I installed, and the SBL Hebrew font (the link for the keyboard is in the document), and I press the "o" (lower-case) key, I should get the circle with the dot to the left at about 11 o-clock. Instead what happens is that I first get the dot by itself and when I press the key again, I get the circle with the dot that I want. I cannot select and delete the dot to the right of the circle without also deleted the circle and dot to the left. It almost seems like something has gone wrong with the key mapping. I did get this to work correctly the very first time I tried it but then I decided to go back and add something else with a dot at the top of it. That broke what I was trying to do.

Why can't I select the dot by itself when the circle and dot to the left are present? It is almost as though the "spare" dot to the right is in a table cell of its own that I cannot touch or highlight. I have typed both Hebrew and Greek into documents that are mostly English. Usually this is a copy and paste with SBL Hebrew or SBL Greek. What I need to do here is slightly different.

The attachment is somewhat large because I embedded the font into it.

Please see the attached. I wonder if I have messed up the table structure somehow. Thanks for any suggestions. I've never tried to do precisely what I am trying to do here. It worked fine with other Hebrew characters using the same method. Thanks.

Attached Files

Hebrew-table-error.docx (48.6 KB, 7 views)

I'm not sure what you mean by 'I should get the circle with the dot to the left at about 11 o-clock. Instead what happens is that I first get the dot by itself and when I press the key again, I get the circle with the dot that I want'. All I see in both cases is the Hebrew character followed by the end-of-cell marker. I don't have the SBL font installed, so some characters display as ? in a box. I changed to Times New Roman to resolve that. Even so, there are no circles. If some interaction is occurring between the holem and the end-of-cell marker, you could obviate that by inserting a space before the the end-of-cell marker - before inserting the Hebrew characters.

FWIW, I've never needed the SBL font for Hebrew. See attached.

Attached Files

Hebrew.docx (48.9 KB, 6 views)

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]