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Right To Left (Hebrew) in Word??

H

Hoven

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 19, 2003
122
0
Columbus, OH (USA)
Hi all,
I have a question that I'm pretty sure I know the answer to, but just to check....

I'm running an eMac with OS X 10.4.9 and the Teacher/Student edition of Word (all it says is Word X for Mac Service Release 1).

I know, I know.... it's an old version. Does the newest version of Word handle right-to-left languages like Hebrew?

From my searching around, I see that Nisus Writer Express and Mellel are supposed to handle this well. Does Apple's iWork Pages do this well too?

The problem is... I've been on Word for ages (obviously! :rolleyes: ) and I'd hate to start something new that isn't compatable with the docs I've already got (and I'd need to maybe put into word for sharing with other non-Mac folks).

I'd appreciate any insight or ideas.
Thanks!
 
nadyne said:
Word:Mac 2004 does not support bidirectional languages such as Hebrew and Arabic.

There's some great information about which languages Word:Mac does support at the Word:Mac MVP website:
http://word.mvps.org/Mac/Languages.html

Regards,
Nadyne.
Click to expand...

Thanks Nadyne... interesting website. So... what if I wanted to type the Hebrew in backwords? So, even if it doesn't allow right-to-left entry, I still should be able to pick a Hebrew font and have it display and print correctly.. no?
The Hebrew fonts don't even show up in the font list on my version of Word X.

Thanks again!
 
Hoven said:
Thanks Nadyne... interesting website. So... what if I wanted to type the Hebrew in backwords? So, even if it doesn't allow right-to-left entry, I still should be able to pick a Hebrew font and have it display and print correctly.. no?
The Hebrew fonts don't even show up in the font list on my version of Word X.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but you're in way over my head. I'd suggest checking out the Word:Mac public newsgroup to see if someone there can help you out. It's:
news://microsoft.public.mac.office.word

Someone there is going to know more about bidi languages than I do, and hopefully be able to answer your question.

Good luck!
Nadyne.
 
Apple's Pages (part of the iWork mini-suite) supports right-to-left, Hebrew writing. I'm not sure how fonts work with it, but I know, from experience, that typing in Hebrew is supported via the International settings in System Preferences.

Mellel also supports it, as you mentioned.

EDIT Pages is compatible with .doc format; hope that helps!
 
asherman13 said:
Apple's Pages (part of the iWork mini-suite) supports right-to-left, Hebrew writing.
[...]
EDIT Pages is compatible with .doc format; hope that helps!
Click to expand...

Maybe I'm slow (it's 11am and I haven't had my coffee yet), but....

What's "EDIT Pages"? Is that another word processor?

Thanks!
 
Hoven said:
Maybe I'm slow (it's 11am and I haven't had my coffee yet), but....

What's "EDIT Pages"? Is that another word processor?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

The "Edit" is because the poster wanted to change their post and make it obvious they had done so. They are referring to Pages.
 
xUKHCx said:
The "Edit" is because the poster wanted to change their post and make it obvious they had done so. They are referring to Pages.
Click to expand...

D'OH! Time for coffee. :eek:

So, it doesn't look like I can get a demo version of Pages2 from Apple.
I'd like to try it. It looks pretty good, and I like that you can drag images around... Mellel and Nisus treat graphics as characters and not floating frames.

Thanks!
 
Strange because apple distributes a trial version of iWork with new macs, would've thought that they would allow you to download one.

You could give NeoOffice a try, i do not have any experience with trying to write from right to left or in Hebrew so it may or may not work, but it is free.

NeoOffice said:
NeoOffice 2.1 also offers localized user interfaces in nearly sixty languages and supports text entry in Roman and non-Roman scripts, including South Asian, East Asian, right-to-left and complex text layout scripts. This has allowed individuals and organizations across the globe—from schools to non-profits to corporations—to adopt NeoOffice as their primary office suite.
Click to expand...
 
Hebrew WP on the Mac.

Hoven

Is there any specific reason compelling you to use Office:mac? I've done some light-weight Hebrew wordprocessing using NeoOffice and it worked fine for me. It even manages to read (with some styling problems, e.g. tables) Hebrew Word2003 .doc files.
 
xUKHCx said:
Strange because apple distributes a trial version of iWork with new macs, would've thought that they would allow you to download one. You could give NeoOffice a try, i do not have any experience with trying to write from right to left or in Hebrew so it may or may not work, but it is free.
Click to expand...
Am3822 said:
Hoven, Is there any specific reason compelling you to use Office:mac? I've done some light-weight Hebrew wordprocessing using NeoOffice and it worked fine for me. It even manages to read (with some styling problems, e.g. tables) Hebrew Word2003 .doc files
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll take a look at NeoOffice.

I read on the Apple site that a demo of Pages is included in new machines, but I didn't see a demo download. It looks pretty nice, but for my wife's business we really need to be able to exchange docs with Windoze/Word users... I'd be concerned about hoping that Pages or any other word processor would convert docs, content, and format/style correctly (and this is besides the Hebrew issue). That's why it feels safer to stay with Word... maybe isn't, but... :rolleyes:

Really, I guess, there's 2 things. One is the Hebrew. My wife needs to use the word processor to lay out Hebrew text (for spacing) so she can use it as a guide to hand-calligraph Hebrew text.
The Second is what, if anything, should I replace my old Word X with.

Maybe we should stick with Word for the Word stuff and we can use one of the others for laying out Hebrew text. Ahh... decisions, decisions...

Thanks all!
 
Bi-Directional paragraphing for Mac

When will bi-directional paragraphing for Arabic and Arabic Typesetting on Times New Roman font for Word for Mac be available? I really don't want to go back to Windows. If it can be engineered on TextEdit for Mac, why can't it be engineered for Word for Mac? I realize that Mac and Windows are two almost completely different computer languages, but yet there still seems to be some common engineering logic involved here. Wouldn't you think? Please advise on this frustration. Thank you.
 
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