arabic script messed up

[larsake]

Originally Posted by Zaid Al Hilali

It would be hard for us to troubleshoot your computer problems be it software or hardware if you don't supply enough information, right?!

Well let's start with the International settings:
From Apple menu > System Preferences > International; click on the Language tab on top, click the Edit list button, then tick Arabic down the list, you may wish to remove unnecessary language to you in this list.
Second: Click on the Input Menu tab on top, scroll down the list and tick Arabic (Green Crescent), make sure that the option "Allow a different input source for each document" is selected at the bottom of this window.
Third: Log-out, then log-in, launch Text Edit and try typing Arabic after choosing Arabic from top of your screen (near the clock).

Nisus is another topic, although I can tell you it is the best you can get for multi lingual Word Processing on Mac.

Thanks again,

well, it seems my problem now is only in textedit. I will try to be very specific, I deleted the times fonts, and the international settings are set proper (as U describe zaid) - but still it doesn't work. Strange, I think.

[Zaid Al Hilali]

As if your OS is not reading the Arabic fonts.

Check in Text Edit… Format > Font > Show fonts. Search in the list if any of following are there: Geeza Pro, Nadeem, Baghdad.

Perhaps you cleaned up your fonts without knowing. If they are missing, I may post them to you by e-mail.

[DXB Law]

Originally Posted by larsake

OK, thanks, seems it sorted some problems. My problems are not safari, but on esp textedit the letters don't connect unless i cut and paste arabic text. also in nisus I have to format for arabic and choose an arabic font, I thought it should be possible to type both?


L.

Text Edit should handle Arabic text correctly without any need to cut and paste. Pages and Keynote have difficulties handling Arabic text, but Text Edit does not. Take a look at Tom Gewecke's excellent discussion of Arabic (and other languages) on Macs in his article Unleash Your Multilingual Mac.

I use Nisus often for bilingual documents. Nisus allows you to type both English and Arabic in the same document (indeed, within the same paragraph or line). You don't need to choose an Arabic font so much as you need to choose an Arabic input method (from the flag menu at the top of your screen, you need to choose one of the two green crescents - either the normal Arabic keyboard or the QWERTY Arabic keyboard). As long as that is selected, you will be able to enter Arabic text. As long as a US or UK flag is selected, you can enter English text.

Each paragraph will, however, have a "dominant" language. For example, if your paragraph is set as English, the rulers, tabs, indents and similar items will be organized on a left-to-right basis and the spell-checker will work for English. You can still type in Arabic words (you will need to change the input method using the flag menu discussed above). However, Arabic words/phrases inserted in an English paragraph might not wrap correctly across line breaks. Similarly, if you insert English words into a paragraph formatted as Arabic, the English words may wrap strangely across lines.

Arabic numerals and punctuation characters also have their quirks, although once you understand how Nisus treats them you can get them to do what you want fairly easily. Suppose you want to type in today's date as 26/8/2006. Each component will display as normal, but the slash marks will disrupt the sequence so that your date will be reversed 2006/8/26. You need to enter the date as year-month-day in order to get it to display correctly as "day-month-year" in Arabic.

[larsake]

Originally Posted by Zaid Al Hilali

As if your OS is not reading the Arabic fonts.

Check in Text Edit… Format > Font > Show fonts. Search in the list if any of following are there: Geeza Pro, Nadeem, Baghdad.

Perhaps you cleaned up your fonts without knowing. If they are missing, I may post them to you by e-mail.

Nope, they are there. Which means probably there is a problem in the OS, no? Anyway, I get Nisus to work sort of, but there also I need first to set up for arabic for it to work. So it seems there is a bug somewhere.

[crystal]

Originally Posted by larsake

Nope, they are there. Which means probably there is a problem in the OS, no? Anyway, I get Nisus to work sort of, but there also I need first to set up for arabic for it to work. So it seems there is a bug somewhere.

Larsake, there are a lot of people here that can help you, but I would say why not bring your MacBook to MacNight on Monday night or to EMUG on Sept. 5th. This way you will have more heads (Mac Heads) to help you.

[Sarie]

I read the postings regarding the Times Roman and Ariel fonts that need to be taken off and will be replaced by OSx, but was a bit confused as the attachments will show, could not find Ariel and a clearly stated Times Roman in the designatd place as mentioned in the postings.

Just for surety can you advise if I am on the right track or is it something else. If on the right track can you specify from the attachments which files need to be taken out.

Regards,
Sarie

[Zaid Al Hilali]

Salam Sarie,

You didn't tell us about the problem to prescribe the cure. My guessing that you have scrambled Arabic script showing on Safari, if so just remove Times New Roman and Arial ONLY from your "user account" > Library > Fonts, NOT from the "root" > Library > Fonts folder.

[Sarie]

Thank you Zaid, followed your mail and worked like a charm. I was able to immediately read arabic script. Initially I was confused because I read somewhere that I need to go to Macintosh HD System\Library\Fonts, that's where I got the attachments in my earlier post. Your post was much clearer and the working solution.

Thank you for the iAlertU directions, works like a charm.

Regards,
Sarie

[artist]

Just wanted to say hello to everyone! I am new in the community but not a new mac user, I mostly work on Illustrator, Photoshop little bit of photography therefore decided to switch to mac about a year ago... I love it.

[Appleholic]

i am thrilled to hear that ur loving the mac... dude, this is just the biggining like Steve Jobs said this coming year will make the Mac even better and better