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    Arabic in Mac word processors: A comparison

     

    Below is a survey of the presence of some key features of Arabic support in a number of programs that basically deal with text, and which have some form of support for Arabic. It basically sums up the discussion in the Arabic programs page, see that for an explanation of what the various elements refer to.

    Many of the text editing tools not mentioned here share the features of TextEdit, thus EndNote, Bean, Jedit X, Swift Publisher, etc, for them cf. the TextEdit column.

     
    TextEdit
    Nisus
    Mellel
    OpenOffice
    NeoOffice
    AbiWord
    InDesign
    Nashir
    iText '08
    Horuf
    Text display OK
    X
    X
    X
    X
    X
     
    X
    X
    X
    X
    Right-to-Left:
    - text
    X
    X
    X
    X
    X
    X
    X
    X
    X
    X
    - paragraph
    X4
    X4
    X
    X
    X
    X
    X
    X
    X
     
    - page
     
    X
    X
    X
    X
    X
    X
    X
     
     
    - first line indent
    X4
    X4
    X
    X
    X
    X
    X
    X
    X
    X
    - tabs
    X4
    X4
    X
    X
    X
    X
    X
    (X)
    X
     
    Footnotes
    - right-to-left
    -
    X
    X
    X
    X
    X
    X
    -
    X
    -
    - RtL line
    -
    X
    X
    X
    X
     
    X
    -
     
    -
    - Arabic numbers
    -
    X
    X
    X
    X
     
    X
    -
     
    -
    >Typography
    - lam-mim ligature
    X
    X
     
    X
    X
     
    (X)
    (X)
    X
     
    - keshida control
     
     
    X
     
     
     
    X
    X
     
     
    - tools access
    X
    X4
     
     
     
     
     
     
    X
     
    Fonts useable
    - Apple standard
    X
    X
    X
    X
    X
    X
    X
    (X)
    X
    X
    - WinSoft OS9 *
    P4
    P4
    X
    -
     
    X
    X
    X
    P
    X
    - X Series
    X
    X
    X
    X
    X
    X
    X
     
    X
    X
    - SIL fonts *
    AO5
    AO5
    O
    A
    A
    AO
    O
     
    AO5
    O
    - OpenType fonts
    X5
    X5
    X
     
     
    X
    X
     
    X5
    X
    Other issues
    - Font switch *
    10
    2*
    2*
    2
    2
    1
    1
    1
    1
    0
    - Logical parentheses *
    (X)
    X*
    X*
    X*
    X*
    X*
    X
    R
    (X)
     
    - Sorts harakat vowels
    -'
    X
    X
    X
    X
    -
    -
    -
    -
    -
    - Persian sorting
    -'
     
     
    X
    X
    -
    -
    -
    -
    -
    Import of OS 9 Arabic files *
    as .txt
    X'
    X*
    X
    (X)
    (X)
     
    X
    X
    X
    X
    as .rtf
     
     
    X
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

    - = Not applicable.
    4 = Only in OS 10.4 and higher; 5 = Only in OS 10.5 and higher. (Horuf only tested under OS 10.3)
    * Winsoft fonts: P = On PowerPC machines only, not Intel.
    * SIL fonts: A = AAT version, O=OpenType version.
    * Font switch: 2 = Retains both Arabic and Latin font after keyboard switch, * to user preference. 1= Retains the last selected font irrespective of script. 0 = Reverts to default font on keyboard switch. (0 = behaviour in OS 10.3)
    * Logical parentheses: (X) = Some problems in LTR paragraphs. X* = RTL direction override available. R = RTL only, parentheses OK.
    * Sorting: ' = Jedit has sorting but sorts harakat and Persian incorrectly.
    * Import: X' = Bean does not allow mixed Latin/Arabic files. X* = Formatting retained in Nisus Classic files. (X) = OK only in mixed Latin/Arabic, not Arabic-only files.

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    Last updated Thursday, 04-Nov-2010 09:55:20 CET