The recommended approach endorsed today by the Academy of the Hebrew Language and other Israeli educational institutions is to use plēnē spelling (matres lectionis) when not adding vowel dots (which is the usual case), and place a vocalization sign on a letter only when ambiguity cannot be resolved otherwise.
A vocalized plene spelling system is common in children's books, when it is better to accustom the children to the more popular plene spelling, while still letting them benefit from the vowel dots as a reading aid in early learning stages.
A third system that was endorsed in the past by the Academy of the Hebrew Language as an optimal system, but abandoned due to low popularity, calls for the use of ḥolám (וֹ), šurúq (וּ), dagéš in Bet, Kaf and Pe (בּ, כּ, פּ vs. ב, כ, פ), Šin Smalít (שׂ) and mappíq (הּ), while abandoning all other vowel dots (in everyday writing).
This system also makes clear distinction between final He used as a vowel marker (e.g. ילדה /jalˈda/ "a girl" ) and as a consonant (e.g. ילדהּ /jalˈdah/ "her child").
This system was never extensively used, and the Academy of the Hebrew Language finally abandoned it in 1992, when new rules were published not assuming any use of vowel dots.
An example of this is shown in the adjacent picture, where for the word kosher (כָּשֵׁר (with niqqud), כשר (full spelling), /kaˈʃer/) may be written as כּשר (a mixture of the two systems) to be unambiguous that it is the letter כּ [k] and not כ [χ].
Also, some words are almost always written in the "missing" form (ktiv haser) in everyday life: לא (/lo/, no), אמא (/ima/, mother), אם (/im/, if), and כנרת (/kiˈneret/, Kinneret); however, the Academy of the Hebrew Language favors אימא and כינרת, as well as צוהריים and מוחרתיים.