This thread is to explain how to set up a standard American keyboard to type in Hebrew with the standard Israeli keyboard layout. This is just for Windows XP, so if it's different for Macs or Vista, please feel free to post a tutorial for those operating systems.
If you don't have Hebrew support on your computer, pop in the XP installation disk and install it, then go to Control Panel> Regional and Language settings and click on the 'Languages' tab. Make sure "Install files for Complex and Right to Left languages" is checked, then click the 'Details' button. Next to the box at the bottom where you see EN (English) Keyboard . US, click 'Add'. Select Hebrew from the list and hit OK and Hebrew should now be under English. Select it and click the 'Key Settings' button at the bottom. In this window, you can set a key combination to use to switch between the languages (I have mine set on SHIFT+ALT.) Now, you can type in Hebrew! Below is a link to an image that shows the Israeli layout. To add nikudot (Vowel points) to letters, make sure Caps Lock is on, then type a letter normally, hit Shift and a number key, and it will add the accent under the letter (these are also on the image below). For a more detailed explanation of typing nikudot, see This page.
If you don't have Hebrew support on your computer, pop in the XP installation disk and install it, then go to Control Panel> Regional and Language settings and click on the 'Languages' tab. Make sure "Install files for Complex and Right to Left languages" is checked, then click the 'Details' button. Next to the box at the bottom where you see EN (English) Keyboard . US, click 'Add'. Select Hebrew from the list and hit OK and Hebrew should now be under English. Select it and click the 'Key Settings' button at the bottom. In this window, you can set a key combination to use to switch between the languages (I have mine set on SHIFT+ALT.) Now, you can type in Hebrew! Below is a link to an image that shows the Israeli layout. To add nikudot (Vowel points) to letters, make sure Caps Lock is on, then type a letter normally, hit Shift and a number key, and it will add the accent under the letter (these are also on the image below). For a more detailed explanation of typing nikudot, see This page.