Re: Arabic and other languages

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From: John McGhie (john_at_mcghie.name)
Date: 10/25/04 

Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2004 19:38:00 +1000

Hi Nu:

I agree with you.

There are a LOT of people in the world who require right-to-left support.
Microsoft is very keenly aware of this.

I think it is certain that as soon as Apple announces support for RTL in the
operating system, Microsoft will start working on a version of Office that
supports it.

It's not as though they have to "do" very much, all the code is already
there in the PC version. Of course, it's ridiculous to suggest that they
would only have to "re-compile" it to enable the currently-omitted code: the
job is a fair bit more complicated than that.

But they don't have to redesign Word to fit it in, or work out how to do it:
they already have running RTL support on the other side of the divide.

So I think we're all waiting on Apple, and surely it can't be far away?

Cheers

On 25/10/04 5:29 AM, in article
0001HW.BDA17A19006AFC4EF02845B0@news.verizon.net, "nu" <dont_n@g.org> wrote:

> 1) The explanation comes from experimenting with Word. The more technical
> comments were picked up from searching the internet and may be wrong.
>
> 2) My guess is that users who actually try the demo before buying the program
> are the ones likely to have detailed knowledge about the program already.
> Most users probably don't get the demo and just go ahead and buy the new
> version because it's a new version. There's nothing reckless about this.
> Microsoft isn't an obscure shareware company, Word is the foremost word
> processor, they're already using Word and want to keep up with improvements,
> and so on.
>
> 3) It's not as if the decision to buy Word is: Get it if it does Arabic,
> don't get it if it doesn't. I 'm using Word 2004 even though I tried the demo
> and knew beforehand it can't handle Arabic. It does many other things
> effectively and in some ways it's a necessity despite its short-comings. The
> fact that I use it regularly anyway makes it even more annoying that it can't
> do Arabic and it's more reason to complain about this problem. Come to think
> of it, I may have wasted my time compared to the people who just went ahead
> and bought it.
>
> nu
>
>
> On Fri, 22 Oct 2004 02:06:38 -0400, Daiya Mitchell wrote
> (in article <BD9DF17E.4527%daiyaNOSPAM@mvps.org.INVALID>):
>
>> Hi nu,
>>
>> Much appreciation for the detailed explanation of Word and Arabic, and I'm
>> sure anybody searching the newsgroups for information on this issue in the
>> future will appreciate it as well.
>>
>> It's certainly true that even using a program for a 30-day demo isn't
>> necessarily going to tell you everything about whether it will support your
>> needs in every little detail. One of the nice things about most software,
>> though, is that trial versions allow one to check quite a bit more than can
>> purchasers of say, furniture. The amount of consumer information available
>> on the internet has certainly changed buying habits for cars, at least in
>> the States--it's a shame those types of attempts to be an informed consumer
>> don't always carry over into other arenas, to avoid at least the big
>> disappointments.
>>
>> DM
>
>
>
> ==============================================================
> Posted with Hogwasher. Mac first, Mac only:
> http://www.asar.com/cgi-bin/product.pl?58/hogwasher.html
> ==============================================================
> 

-- 
Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread.  Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.
John McGhie <john@mcghie.name>
Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

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