The format that this author has found to be the most effective and helpful present Biblical texts that:

• Begin each verse on a new line;
  
  
• Put adequate space between each line to allow for visual isolation and helpful notes from the tutor;
  
  
• Visually separate ta'am phrases from each other to give the reader a sense of phrasing;
  
  
• Do not break a ta'am phrase across a line boundary;
  
  
• Do not break a verse across a page boundary;
  
  
• Give reasonable space between words;
  
  
• Make a distinction between sheva na' ( ְ ), which is bolded, and sheva nach; ( ְ ), which is not;
  
  
• Make a distinction between kamatz-katan ( ׇ ), which has a long stem, and kamatz-gadol ( ָ ), which has a short stem;
  
  
• When needed, separate each word into its constituent audible syllables;
  
  
• Number each verse with Hindu-Arabic numbers;
  
  
• Use a visually helpful font;
  
  
• Can be modified by the tutor as needed according to any special visual processing needs of the student.

There are extant texts, such as are found in Trope Trainer, that have some of these features, but there are none that express all of them. For several years, this author modified each new student's assigned texts in the DavkaWriter Hebrew/English word processor by hand and soon discovered that the same keystrokes were needed each time. These key strokes could be bundled in a series of macros, small computer programs that could be stored on her computer. The macros could then be run on any text to produce the modifications within seconds, instead of minutes thereby standardizing the modifications and cutting down on inadvertent errors when making the modifications.

Figure 15 above shows a sample of original text as cut & pasted from the DavkaWriter built-in text library. It is set in the default DavkaWriter font, Davka David. There is only one space between each word. The Hebrew verse numbers are set in the same point size as the verse text making it difficult for novice Hebrew readers to discriminate between the verse numbers and the actual text.

This author has often seen novice readers try to mistakenly read a verse number as though it were part of the verse text, showing that it is important to set the Hebrew verse number in a smaller point size. There is no distinction between kamatz katan and kamatz gadol or sheva na' and sheva nach.

Figure 16 and Figure 17 above shows the result of running a battery of DavkaWriter macros, which took only seconds to complete.

Figure 18 and Figure 19 above show the result of running an extra DavkaWriter macro on the text to produce a text that separates each word into its constituent audible syllables. By syllabifying the text, this author has found that it aids students to visually process and vocalize accurate sound-symbol combinations.

Students are assisted further when each ta'am phrase is highlighted with a different color, such as blue for siluk phrases, yellow for etnachta phrases and green for zakef-katon phrases. Some students have visual processing needs that require a vertical line drawn between each audible syllable, even on a text that already has had a space placed between each syllable.

Many students aren't able to consolidate the musical motifs for each ta'am family as quickly as others. For these students, this author draws a series of dots over each word to indicate how many musical pitches are applied to each syllable. Dots that are placed higher indicate higher pitches; dots that are lower indicate lower pitches. This author has experienced that when students combine the visual picture of the "music" along with repeated listening to the recording, they are able to learn more quickly to chant the words for themselves. Figure 20 below shows an example of text with these modifications.