# Vim documentation: hebrew

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    *hebrew.txt*	For Vim version 9.2.  Last change: 2026 Feb 14

    		  VIM REFERENCE MANUAL	  by Ron Aaron and Avner Lottem

    Hebrew Language support (options & mapping) for Vim		*hebrew*

    The supporting 'rightleft' functionality was originally created by Avner
    Lottem. <alottem at gmail dot com>  Ron Aaron <ron at ronware dot org> is
    currently helping support these features.

    {only available when the |+rightleft| feature was enabled at compile time}

    Introduction
    Hebrew-specific options are 'hkmap', 'hkmapp' 'keymap'=hebrew and 'aleph'.
    Hebrew-useful options are 'delcombine', 'allowrevins', 'revins', 'rightleft'
    and 'rightleftcmd'.

    The 'rightleft' mode reverses the display order, so characters are displayed
    from right to left instead of the usual left to right.  This is useful
    primarily when editing Hebrew or other Middle-Eastern languages.
    See |rileft.txt| for further details.

    Details
    +  Options:
       +  'rightleft' ('rl') sets window orientation to right-to-left.  This means
          that the logical text 'ABC' will be displayed as 'CBA', and will start
          drawing at the right edge of the window, not the left edge.
       +  'hkmap' ('hk') sets keyboard mapping to Hebrew, in insert/replace modes.
       +  'aleph' ('al'), numeric, holds the decimal code of Aleph, for keyboard
          mapping.
       +  'hkmapp' ('hkp') sets keyboard mapping to 'phonetic hebrew'

       NOTE: these three ('hkmap', 'hkmapp' and 'aleph') are obsolete.  You should
    	 use ":set keymap=hebrewp" instead.

       +  'delcombine' ('deco'), boolean, if editing UTF-8 encoded Hebrew, allows
          one to remove the niqud or te`amim by pressing 'x' on a character (with
          associated niqud).

       +  'rightleftcmd' ('rlc') makes the command-prompt for searches show up on
          the right side.  It only takes effect if the window is 'rightleft'.

    +  Encoding:
       +  Under Unix, ISO 8859-8 encoding (Hebrew letters codes: 224-250).
       +  Under MS DOS, PC encoding (Hebrew letters codes: 128-154).
          These are defaults, that can be overridden using the 'aleph' option.
       +  You should prefer using UTF8, as it supports the combining-characters
          ('deco' does nothing if UTF8 encoding is not active).

    +  Vim arguments:
       +  'vim -H file' starts editing a Hebrew file, i.e. 'rightleft' and 'hkmap'
          are set.

    +  Keyboard:
       +  The 'allowrevins' option enables the CTRL-_ command in Insert mode and
          in Command-line mode.

       +  CTRL-_ in insert/replace modes toggles 'revins' and 'hkmap' as follows:

          When in rightleft window, 'revins' and 'nohkmap' are toggled, since
          English will likely be inserted in this case.

          When in norightleft window, 'revins' 'hkmap' are toggled, since Hebrew
          will likely be inserted in this case.

          CTRL-_ moves the cursor to the end of the typed text.

       +  CTRL-_ in command mode only toggles keyboard mapping (see Bugs below).
          This setting is independent of 'hkmap' option, which only applies to
          insert/replace mode.

          Note: On some keyboards, CTRL-_ is mapped to CTRL-?.

       +  Keyboard mapping while 'hkmap' is set (standard Israeli keyboard):

    	q w e r t y u i o p
    	/ '' ק ר א ט ו ן ם פ

    	 a s d f g h j k l ; ''
    	 ש ד ג כ ע י ח ל ך ף ,

    	  z x c v b n m , . /
    	  ז ס ב ה נ מ צ ת ץ .

          This is also the keymap when 'keymap=hebrew' is set.  The advantage of
          'keymap' is that it works properly when using UTF8, e.g. it inserts the
          correct characters; 'hkmap' does not.  The 'keymap' keyboard can also
          insert niqud and te`amim.  To see what those mappings are, look at the
          keymap file 'hebrew.vim' etc.

    Typing backwards

    If the 'revins' (reverse insert) option is set, inserting happens backwards.
    This can be used to type Hebrew.  When inserting characters the cursor is not
    moved and the text moves rightwards.  A <BS> deletes the character under the
    cursor.  CTRL-W and CTRL-U also work in the opposite direction.  <BS>, CTRL-W
    and CTRL-U do not stop at the start of insert or end of line, no matter how
    the 'backspace' option is set.

    There is no reverse replace mode (yet).

    If the 'showmode' option is set, "-- REVERSE INSERT --" will be shown in the
    status line when reverse Insert mode is active.

    When the 'allowrevins' option is set, reverse Insert mode can be also entered
    via CTRL-_, which has some extra functionality: First, keyboard mapping is
    changed according to the window orientation -- if in a left-to-right window,
    'revins' is used to enter Hebrew text, so the keyboard changes to Hebrew
    ('hkmap' is set); if in a right-to-left window, 'revins' is used to enter
    English text, so the keyboard changes to English ('hkmap' is reset).  Second,
    when exiting 'revins' via CTRL-_, the cursor moves to the end of the typed
    text (if possible).

    Pasting when in a rightleft window
    When cutting text with the mouse and pasting it in a rightleft window
    the text will be reversed, because the characters come from the cut buffer
    from the left to the right, while inserted in the file from the right to
    the left.   In order to avoid it, toggle 'revins' (by typing CTRL-? or CTRL-_)
    before pasting.

    Hebrew characters and the 'isprint' variable
    Sometimes Hebrew character codes are in the non-printable range defined by
    the 'isprint' variable.  For example in the Linux console, the Hebrew font
    encoding starts from 128, while the default 'isprint' variable is @,161-255.
    The result is that all Hebrew characters are displayed as ~x.  To solve this
    problem, set isprint=@,128-255.

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