Arabic translations from English FrameMaker files

[ric at ssds.com.sg]

We are currently doing both the Arabic & Persian languages in  
Framemaker due to our English source files origin.

The method that we are using is the "reverse-mirroring" process in  
which all the text insertion plus layouts have to be in a mirrored  
format. The other issues you need to take care of aside from the  
"mirror mode" are the fonts, illustrations, etc... they too have to be  
in the mirror format.

Though it takes great pain to create these two languages, we can say  
that the final delivery is still a good one.

If your source data can be in Indesign, you might want to consider  
getting the Adobe Indesign ME (Middle Eastern) version which can  
handle the Arabic language pretty well coz it can perform a reverse  
layout from the English with just a click of a  button. :)

Hope it helps.

Regards,
Ric


Quoting Tanya.Griffin at codan.com.au:

> FrameMaker V7.1 (English)
> Windows XP Pro SP2 Multi-lingual in Arabic language environment
>
> I am unable to access the archives to view any previous discussions on this
> matter.
>
> There are websites out there that suggest you can force FrameMaker to play
> the game with Arabic text. I am currently massaging English templates to
> use with Arabic text, and having to overcome many obstacles; so far I have
> discovered some workarounds to achieve the same end, so I have kept going.
> Our biggest obstacle is the random insertion of text (not at the cursor
> point), and application of character tags and conditional tags that change
> the selected text to something completely different. I am assuming that
> this is due to the lack of support for unicode characters. This appears to
> be a show-stopper. Has anyone had any success in this field? Are there any
> plug-ins available? Is it time to abandon commonsense and resort to Word?
>
> If it can work, does anyone know of an Arabic dictionary that can be
> slotted into the file system for use with FrameMaker? Currently I have
> assigned None as the language in all paragraph and character tags, but it
> would be most useful to assign an Arabic dictionary.
>
> Regards,
>
> Tanya Griffin
> Technical Documentation Manager
> Codan Limited
>
> 81 Graves Street
> NEWTON SA 5074
>
> Phone:      +61 8 8305 0457
> Fax:  +61 8 8305 0411
> Email:      tanya.griffin at codan.com.au
>
>
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