Urdu wordprocessors?

[yojitani]

OK. This might be a way out there for most MR users: I need to input some urdu text into an html doc but the original file I get from Pakistan is always in bmp images rather than text. Apparently, whatever editing program he is using saves files as images. Does anyone know what program this might be and whether it has other save options like rtf?

Thanks!

Also, does anyone know of other wordprocessing programs that I can recommend for this person? Open office? AbiWord? What is most commonly used in Pakistan?

 

[idea_hamster]

[disclaimer]
I have no basis, but have decided to stick my half-baked theory into the mix.
[/disclaimer]

I find it hard to beleive that this person is using a word processor where the default output is a bitmap file. My (wild, stab-in-the-dark) guess would be that s/he has had enough experience sending files written in Urdu to know that few people outside the area have an Urdu font. Consequently, the best way to send text is as an image so that s/he doesn't get the "All I see are question marks" e-mail back.

Additionally -- and I'm sure you can tell from the bitmap image -- Urdu is a right-to-left script using the Arabic alphabet, which means that even if someone has an Arabic font, they probably can't edit in right-to-left mode.

So what to do? I recommend Mellel by Redlers. It has a 30-day free trial, only costs $49, and is a rather full-featured word processor that does a few things that most programs simply can't, like easily combine left-to-right and right-to-left text.

As I understand it, Mellel is produced by an Israeli company and was originally designed for scholarly articles that incorporate both left-to-right and right-to-left text.

Install Mellel, add an Arabic font (they have references on their website), and you should be able to (maybe) open, edit, and output to .rtf or .pdf for the web.

Good luck....

 

[yojitani]

yeah, that is more or less what I'm thinking. the problem is that communication goes from me through three other people before it reaches the writer! I'm just a mere webmaster...

I'll give it a go as a recommendation. Thanks!

Anybody know of OCR software that can read urdu? readiris does not seem to.

YT

 

[idea_hamster]

The best solution that I could think of would be for the writer to figure out a way to save in .pdf format. That way, everyone can open it and you can copy/paste into Mellel (I expect).

Additionally, you could just remind everyone that they don't need to be able to open and read the .rtf or .doc file -- just you. So the writer could just send both files, a bitmap for everyone else and a text file for you.

BTW, the right-to-left capability wasn't what first turned me on to Mellel -- it was its ability to maintain 2 or more concurrent streams of notes, e.g. numbered endnotes for references and symboled footnotes for insightful asides. I don't think that any other word processor can do this....

 

[daze]

Additionally -- and I'm sure you can tell from the bitmap image -- Urdu is a right-to-left script using the Arabic alphabet, which means that even if someone has an Arabic font, they probably can't edit in right-to-left mode.

Urdu is based on Arabic alphabets, but not entirely, as it has extended characters not present in Arabic, such as "P" etc.

 

[idea_hamster]

Urdu is based on Arabic alphabets, but not entirely, as it has extended characters not present in Arabic, such as "P" etc.

True, but those extended characters are also included in most full Arabic fonts for use in proper names, loan words, etc. There would be a difference in the keyboard layout though -- an Arabic typer would likely need to make some adjustments.