Does webhelp support right-to-left languages like Arabic?

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Erik Lange
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Does webhelp support right-to-left languages like Arabic?

Unread post by Erik Lange »

In the H&M Help it says for the Bi-directional language mode: "Right-to-left support is only available in HTML Help (CHM). It is not supported in any other output format." Is that still true or is it supported for the webhelp format as well?
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Tim Green
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Re: Does webhelp support right-to-left languages like Arabic

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Erik,

There is limited support for RTL languages in WebHelp, but it is very basic. The TOC pane will still be on the left and you can only use the standard integrated templates. There is no dedicated support in any add-on skins. I'm afraid this is a conscious decision on our part because we just don't have the resources to do the huge amount of additional work to support this for the relatively very small number of customers who need it. It would mean maintaining what would effectively be separate versions of all skins just for RTL, doubling the work load and making a lot of other development impossible. :?
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Erik Lange
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Re: Does webhelp support right-to-left languages like Arabic

Unread post by Erik Lange »

Thanks, Tim. I assume that by 'standard integrated templates' you mean selecting no skin when publishing to webhelp?
When I try this for an existing project containg English texts, after having set the Language settings to Arabic, Right-to-left and ARABIC_CHARSET, the published result still aligns all text, headers and images to the left, except for bulleted lists (which are now aligned to the right).
Must the Arabic translator correct the alignment himself?
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Tim Green
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Re: Does webhelp support right-to-left languages like Arabic

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Erik,

Everything is fine. The RTL settings will automatically identify English text if it is mixed in with Arabic and align it correctly. You'll only see the correct alignment for genuine Arabic text (or Farsi or Hebrew or whatever...)
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Kris Heath
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Re: Does webhelp support right-to-left languages like Arabic

Unread post by Kris Heath »

Hi All

I would like some help with the Arabic export aspects of H&M v6.5.6 (build 3027) please.

As per the report earlier on in this thread by another user, I cannot get even the most simple H&M project to export Web Help that displays Right to Left correctly. As with the above, specifically all text in the body of the page is justified Left not Right. Bullet list are the exception. For some reason they do display Right-justified.

Here's my project:
1SimpleProject.png
I have set the Project Language to Arabic (Qatar), the character set to ARABIC_CHARSET.
2LandS.png
I am also testing out the produced HTML files on an Arabic version of Windows 7 with IE11 but the issues remains.
4ArabicIE.png
Lastly, I have a question regarding the best way to manage multiple translations of the same help project. We have an established h&m project in English. We have recently had all the raw text translated into Arabic which has simply been returned in copies of the html files with Arabic text now replacing the English.

What is the best option for managing these independent but intrinsically linked versions of the help? Should we simply have 2 versions of the project (1 entirely in English and 1 entirely in Arabic) and then just manually manage and perform updates to both versions?
Is there a way in H&M where we can maintain a single version of the help that somehow contains both the English and Arabic text and then through some export option a specific language version of web help is produced?

It feels like with either option we have a big tedious job of copying and pasting the translated Arabic text into some version of the H&M file but I would prefer to do this once and know that the resulting files allow us to work efficiently and smart in future.

Desperately seeking your assistance please!

Regards,
Kris.
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Tim Green
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Re: Does webhelp support right-to-left languages like Arabic

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Kris,

Please mail a small demo Arabic project to support AT ec-software.com (replace the AT with @) and we'll check it for you.

On translations: You should always have a copy of the project for translations, don't try to manage multiple languages in a single project. That would be an unmanageable nightmare. Basically, there are only two practical ways to do translations: Either you use Help+Manual itself as the translation editor and the integrated Project Synchronizer for managing the translations, or you have the original uncompressed (HMXP) XML projects processed by a professional translator using Trados or other XML-capable translation memory tools. With translation memory synchronizing the updates isn't necessary: You just give the translator the complete original updated project. All the text that hasn't changed is translated automatically from the memory database and the translator then processes the new and changed text. Since they are working on the original XML files there are no import/export issues.

See this chapter in the help for full information on translation processes:

https://helpandmanual.com/help/index.ht ... lating.htm

See this chapter for information on the project synchronizer tool:

https://helpandmanual.com/help/index.ht ... jsynch.htm
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Kris Heath
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Re: Does webhelp support right-to-left languages like Arabic

Unread post by Kris Heath »

Hi Tim,

Thanks for the information and the email address. I have sent an email to the address you quoted with the project files to accept your offer of checking out the files.

Regards,
Kris.
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