Arabic Text in DW?

Report · Oct 16, 2024

Hi everybody, I was wondering if anybody on here was familiar with writing in Arabic in DW? I’m having some weird results with Arabic text in DW. Although it displays correctly in DW when you put the file into a browser one paragraph of text has certain words moved, while another paragraph doesn’t!, and punctuation at the end of a line of text has moved to the start of the line but punctuation in the middle of a line as stayed in it’s correct place!

I will upload the exact details of the errors later. Thanks for your help!

Report · Oct 16, 2024

Can we see the page online? It could be an error in the code that is preventing the characters from rendering properly. Is there UTF-8 encoding? Are you specifying a lang="ar" for the copy? Without seeing the page we can only provide speculation like this.

Report · Oct 16, 2024

1. Are you using RTL or Bidirectional text for Hebrew/Arabic?

2. Are you specifying text direction(s) in your CSS (stylesheet) or the Document's Properties?

See help article below for details:

https://helpx.adobe.com/in/dreamweaver/using/arabic-hebrew-text.html

Also validate code & fix reported errors.

Window > Results > Validation > Check document.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User, Community Expert & Moderator

Report · Oct 16, 2024

Thanks Nancy & Ben, I’m not sure about all the answers yet. I do know that the page has UTF-8 encoding. Is there an encoding option just for RTL text? I don’t think I am specifying the text direction anywhere. I just pasted it in from a text file. All 3 cells with the offending punctuation say “Format” is “None” in the properties panel. I’ll investigate!

http://www.maximum-robot.co.uk/promotion/ARA1024.html

I know the attached video is not Arabic!

Report · Oct 16, 2024

I can’t find the Div properties or table properties panels. I also can’t find the CSS Rule definition dialog box. These settings might be worth experimenting with. Thanks again!

Report · Oct 16, 2024

HTML: Go to File > Page Properties.

https://helpx.adobe.com/dreamweaver/using/set-page-properties.html

CSS: Open your stylesheet.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User, Community Expert & Moderator

Report · Oct 17, 2024

Hi Nancy, I opened page properties before. I couldn’t find anything relating to text direction. Where will I find the CSS style sheet? I couldn’t see it mentioned on the page you linked. Though I might have missed it! Thanks again.

Report · Oct 17, 2024

What version of DW are you using? Based on your code and functionality it appears you are using old DW functions and a table based layout. I am not sure if this will be the best way to present your site and whether it's interfering with some of the modern resolutions we are providing.

Can you try adding the following to your html tag at the top of your page:

dir="rtl" lang="ar"

Report · Oct 17, 2024

Thanks Ben, I could try that. Where should it (dir="rtl" lang="ar") go in this code? This is the first 6 lines of code.

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<LINK REL="SHORTCUT ICON" HREF=".\favicon.ico">
<title>MAXIMUM ROBOT</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">

I would like to know where that stuff Nancy is talking about is. The stuff in this link » https://helpx.adobe.com/in/dreamweaver/using/arabic-hebrew-text.html That all sounds ideal. Div properties panel, table properties panel, CSS styles panel, Tag editor panel. All pictured in the link above. I can’t find any of it!

Report · Oct 17, 2024

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
By @Gareth_Williams

==========

Your DOCTYPE is woefully outdated. Nobody's used HTML4 since the mid-1990s.

Switch to HTML5 already.

https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_doctype.ASP

DIR attribute explained:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Global_attributes/dir

Nancy O'Shea— Product User, Community Expert & Moderator

Report · Oct 19, 2024

I think that Mozilla page has the answer! I will try it out later. Thanks!

Report · Oct 17, 2024

You can update line 2 from your code like this:

<html dir="rtl" lang="ar">

Report · Oct 18, 2024

Wow, that’s almost perfect! It’s just where I have Roman letters and Arabic text in the same cell it’s moved the order about when I was correct before! Is there a code for direction LTR (left to right), the usual direction, that you can just put in certain cells? or even an entire table? In the meantime I will try to find a work around. Thanks again!

Report · Oct 18, 2024

I’ve uploaded the page with the <html dir="rtl" lang="ar"> corrections with the problem part in a red cell. It has switched the form to the right which I much prefer. I wanted to do that myself but thought it wasn’t worth the hassle! http://www.maximum-robot.co.uk/promotion/ARA1024.html

It’s just where we are writing our band name in English, which we will be. It needs to be on the left of the Arabic word for “we are, or we are called” and with the punctuation to the left of it!

Also, ideally, the word for “MP3 download” should have the Roman text after the Arabic text, so it reads “download MP3” or “tahmil MP3” not “MP3 tahmil”. This is probably not a big deal so I can live without correcting this. You can’t put text direction code in that cell, even if such a thing exists, because the rest of the form is correct! That would mess everything right up! Anyway, you have got us very close to the solution! Thanks again!

Report · Oct 19, 2024

Can anybody tell me how to find the the Tag editor, Table properties, and Div properties shown in this document? Thanks!

https://helpx.adobe.com/in/dreamweaver/using/arabic-hebrew-text.html

Report · Oct 19, 2024

I take it you don't have the correct version of Dreameaver installed. The Tag Editor is in the Middle East and North African edition.

The Middle Eastern version of Dreamweaver allows users to type Arabic, Persian, Urdu, or Hebrew text in the code view. The text can be displayed properly whether it is fully Middle Eastern or includes both English and Middle Eastern text.

Open the Creative Cloud desktop app.
Select your Avatar from the upper right, and then select Preferences.
Select Apps in the left sidebar of the Preferences dialog box.
Select a language from the Default install language list.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User, Community Expert & Moderator

Report · Oct 20, 2024

Thanks Nancy. I’ll definitely install that if I need to. However, the <html code for the whole page with <p code for any bits of English appears to do the job perfectly well so far.

However, I was wondering if the Middle Eastern and North African version will help the issue of applying bold to the Arabic text? If I don’t figure it out soon I’ll make a new thread for this issue, but when you have right to left text inside a dir="rtl" tag you can’t apply bold to it! I don’t know if this is any different in the Middle Eastern and North African version. I’ll investigate! Thanks again!

Report · Oct 20, 2024

1) I don't have much need for RTL text in my day-to-day work.

2) I work directly with code, It's faster and more precise than clumsy panels.

If you work with HTML in Code View, you should be able to add <strong> tags to your text, regardless if it's RTL or LTR.

<p>This is normal text. <strong>This is bold.</strong> This is normal. </p>

This is normal text. This is bold. This is normal.

Test in actual browsers.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User, Community Expert & Moderator

Report · Oct 20, 2024

OMG Nancy. That has worked a treat! Thanks again!

Arabic Text in DW?

2 Correct answers