Translate a Word document into Hebrew

What Hebrew changes in a Word document

Hebrew is written right to left and, in everyday use, without written vowels (niqqud is kept for children's books, poetry and religious texts). Business and official documents are translated without vowel points.

• Bidirectional text: numbers, email addresses, references such as REF-2024-118 and product names stay left to right in the middle of a Hebrew sentence. Word handles this ordering, provided the paragraph is set to right-to-left.
• Compact words: the article and several prepositions attach to the word (ה "the", ב "in", ל "to", ו "and"). Hebrew text often comes out shorter than English or French, which frees space in table cells and text boxes.
• Plurals: Hebrew distinguishes one, two and many. Some nouns have their own dual form: "2 days" becomes יומיים and "2 weeks" שבועיים, with no digit at all.
• Grammatical gender: verbs and adjectives agree with the gender of the person addressed. An instruction like "click here" forces a choice; many Israeli documents use the masculine form or a split form such as לחץ/י.
• Abbreviations are marked with a gershayim, as in בע״מ (limited company), not with full stops.

What Manuce delivers, and what it does not do

Manuce translates paragraphs, tables, headers and footers, and text boxes. A merged cell is translated and charged only once. The .docx is rebuilt run by run: fonts, sizes, colours, bold and italics, styles, numbering and table widths stay as in the original. An automatic check then compares the layout of the translated document with the original and flags any difference.

You receive the file in its original format, with the text replaced in place, plus a Word version, a PDF and the plain text. The plain text is handy for reading the Hebrew without layout distractions.

Points that matter for Hebrew:

• The formatting kept is the original's. Manuce does not mirror the layout: table column order and image positions remain as in the source document.
• Automatic fields (table of contents, cross-references) keep working but are not recalculated: updating fields in Word refreshes the page numbers.
• Manuce does not produce sworn or certified translations. For a file going to an Israeli authority (aliyah, civil records, diplomas) that requires a certified or notarised translation, use an accredited translator.

Fonts and paragraph direction: the two traps

Fonts. Word applies a separate font to so-called complex scripts, Hebrew included. If your original font has no Hebrew characters, Word substitutes another one on screen, and the result can vary from one computer to the next. Common fonts such as Arial or Times New Roman include Hebrew; a Latin-only brand font usually does not.

Paragraph direction. This is the most visible issue: in a paragraph still set to left-to-right, the full stop of a Hebrew sentence shows up at the start of the line, and brackets can appear reversed. For example, המחיר כולל מע״מ (17%). should visually end on the left. If the punctuation jumps to the right, switch the paragraph or its style to right-to-left.

Changing the style rather than each paragraph is faster, since Manuce keeps the original styles: one change to the Normal style applies to all the text that uses it.

Preparing the file and checking the translation

• Real text: a table pasted as a picture or a logo containing words will not be translated. Replace them with Word text before uploading if their content matters.
• Terms to keep unchanged: brand names, product codes, standard titles. Check on the free sample, then on the delivered file, that they stayed in Latin script and in the right place within the sentence.
• Dates and amounts: Israel writes dates day/month/year, and the shekel sign ₪ sits next to the number. For any pound, dollar or euro amounts you keep, make sure the figure is not split from its symbol by a line break.
• Numbering stays as in the original (1, 2, 3 or a, b, c). If your reader expects Hebrew letters א, ב, ג, change the list in Word.
• Table of contents: update the fields to recalculate page numbers, then check the headings appear in Hebrew.

Hebrew carries a language supplement (×1.6 on the per-word rate), already included in the quote shown on upload.

In practice

1. Make sure the important content of the .docx is Word text, not images.
2. Upload the file: the quote reflects the exact word count and the Hebrew supplement.
3. Read the free one-paragraph sample at your chosen level, especially terms that must stay in Latin script.
4. Open the delivered .docx, set paragraphs or styles to right-to-left if needed and check the font.
5. Update fields to refresh the table of contents, then review the PDF or plain text.