Projects in Hebrew

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mbgg
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Projects in Hebrew

Unread post by mbgg »

We are now creating a help project in Hebrew and have encountered several problems:

1. Initial attempts at compiling resulted in an "Internal error" message. Because of the above problem we started changing the Topic ID texts to English; We discovered that the compliation was suddenly successful after several IDs were revised; no other changes were made.

2. Hyperlink to topic with "Topic ID" in Hebrew:
Any jump to a topic fails if the text of the target "Topic ID" is written in Hebrew. However, the jump to the same topic is successful if it is defined as a graphic "hotspot"!

3. The (.) period at the end of every Hebrew sentence is displayed at the beginning of the sentence when viewing any topic in the compiled file. Note that the period already appears at the start of the sentence in the "XML Source Code" display in the HMX file!

The HMX file (zipped) is about 190K, > 128. How can we send it to you?
Michael

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Tim Green
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Re: Projects in Hebrew

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hallo "mbgg" (how do you pronounce that???),

To begin with, note that support for right-to-left languages like Arabic, Farsi and Hebrew is very limited in Help & Manual. Only HTML Help is fully supported as an output format. There is limited support for Browser-based Help but you will probably have problems with the TOC in this format.
mbgg wrote:Because of the above problem we started changing the Topic ID texts to English;
Yes, this is normal because this is Microsoft Windows we are using here. Both Microsoft Windows and the ancient Microsoft help compilers will not handle IDs that use anything except standard ASCII characters. I.e. to avoid problems you must not use anything except 0..9, a..z, A..Z and _.
2. Hyperlink to topic with "Topic ID" in Hebrew:
Any jump to a topic fails if the text of the target "Topic ID" is written in Hebrew.
You should expect this. It is physically impossible for topic IDs to work if they use anything except regular ASCII characters. This is a limitation of Microsoft Windows and the Microsoft help compiler. Using ASCII characters for your IDs will not restrict your help in any way -- the user never sees the IDs, they are just internal addresses, and you can use any language you like for your visible titles and captions.
However, the jump to the same topic is successful if it is defined as a graphic "hotspot"!
This is probably a fluke or an error. Use regular ASCII characters for your IDs and it will work properly.
3. The (.) period at the end of every Hebrew sentence is displayed at the beginning of the sentence when viewing any topic in the compiled file.
You probably need to set up your HTML template for right-to-left. In addition to the settings in the Language Settings you also need to add the RTL property to the <html> tag:

Go to Project - Properties - HTML Help/Browser-based Help (same templates in both places) - Topic Pages. Switch the editor to "Edit HTML Code directly" and change the <html> tag in the "Main" template as follows:

Code: Select all

 <%DOCTYPE%>
<html dir="RTL">
<head>
If you are using Browser-based Help the same change must be made to all the HTML templates in the Browser-based Help section of Project Properties.
The HMX file (zipped) is about 190K, > 128. How can we send it to you?
This is probably not necessary -- but if you continue to have problems you can always send files to support AT ec-software.com (replace the AT with @).
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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mbgg
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Unread post by mbgg »

Thank you for the assistance.
Regarding item (3), we edited the HTML code directly as you suggested and it solved the problem for the HTML help on the screen. However, the 'period' is still positioned at the start of the sentence in the generated PDF file. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Michael
Michael

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Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Michael,
However, the 'period' is still positioned at the start of the sentence in the generated PDF file.
As I said in my post, right-to-left languages are only fully supported in HTML Help and partially in Browser-based Help. They are not supported in PDF.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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mbgg
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Unread post by mbgg »

Thanks for the assistance.

The Acrobat 'Properties' option shows that the PDF files generated by H&M are in PDF format 1.2 (Acrobat 3). I have searched local web sites and it seems that this version did not support Hebrew: "If we want to create a proper PDF file in Hebrew, we must instruct the program that we use to save the file in PDF version 1.3 format or higher".

Can H&M be revised to create the files in PDF format 1.3+ ?
Michael

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Tim Green
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Unread post by Tim Green »

mbgg wrote:Can H&M be revised to create the files in PDF format 1.3+ ?
Sorry, even if this were possible it would not help you. I can only repeat that Help & Manual does not support right-to-left languages in PDF, only in HTML Help (chm files) and to a certain extent in Browser-based Help (regular HTML).
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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HelpWizard
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Hebrew support

Unread post by HelpWizard »

I understand that CHM help is fully supported by Help and Manual, but what about web-based help? I have read that Hebrew is not supported in this kind of help, as there might be problems with TOC. I wonder if there are any workarounds to sort out these issues in web-based help.
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Re: Hebrew support

Unread post by Tim Green »

HelpWizard wrote:I understand that CHM help is fully supported by Help and Manual, but what about web-based help? I have read that Hebrew is not supported in this kind of help, as there might be problems with TOC. I wonder if there are any workarounds to sort out these issues in web-based help.
Webhelp should work fine in Hebrew provided you set it up correctly in your project (language settings, bidirectional mode settings) and support is installed in Windows. However, the Premium Pack skins are currently not compatible with right-to-left languages.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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