19. Are there Arabic word processors? p5
Description
This article is from the Lebanon FAQ, by Alaa Dakroub dakroub@leb.net with numerous contributions by others.
19. Are there Arabic word processors? p5
MuEdit
MuEdit appears to be designed for Arabic, thus it has a menu option for
"Orient left to right" and "Orient right to left". Generally, it has
capabilities similar to Tex-Edit: Multiple fonts and styles in a document;
multiple windows, text styles include extended and condensed; find &
replace. It has "find previous", but only options for whole word and case
sensitive searches. It allows changing case, has a word count, and can
strip/add linefeed and carriage returns, but not as Tex-Edit, all control
characters. Like T., it has color, but not "smart quotes". Print margins
are set in the Page Setup dialog box.
It works under System 7 only. Interestingly, cut and paste between
these two editors work better than between standard word processors:
Script, font and size information is remembered from one to the other. Both
read each other's files; Tex-Edit can read font and style (but not
justification) of a MuEdit document; MuEdit can only read the text of the
Tex-Edit.
Handling of Arabic:
Typing and editing Arabic text is unproblematic. Selection, cutting and
pasting work as they should. Justification does not automatically follow
script, but both are saved with the document.
It has a couple of bugs, though:
-- When you open Mu-Edit by double-clicking on a file, the line
breaks do not appear properly. However, if you open MuEdit first and then
the document, they appear as they should. There is an option for "word
wrap", what happens is probably that it is improperly set "off" when you
open document and program together.
-- Find-replace does not work properly: It finds the Arabic, but the
"replace" string is inserted in Roman, i.e. as garbage characters; breaking
the line in two and reversing their order, in spite of the Right-Left
general orientation. Instead, you have to copy the correct text, and then
use Find-Paste instead.
-- Another peculiar bug when I use MuEdit with other text editors: If
right-left orientation is chosen in the MuEdit window; and I switch
directly to another editor, the text window there appears (incorrectly)
right-adjusted. Only by switching through the Finder is this corrected, and
the editor's window redrawn. This happens when I switch both to Tex-Edit
and to Eudora, but not to Word. Either it is problem in MuEdit, or in the
Arabic resources themselves.
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