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Designing in Arabic in InDesign on a mac

New Here ,
Apr 29, 2024 Apr 29, 2024

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I have several documents that I have designed in english and then redone in french and spanish. The client now needs arabic versions. I have changed my language preferences in the CC app as directed and have reinstalled indesign but still cannot change the default text direction. The help on here says to use the test direction setting in the character panel but that is not showing up on my version of indesign (which is bang uo to date as of 5 minutes ago). Is this a mac thing? Please help – its driving me mad!

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Community Expert ,
Apr 29, 2024 Apr 29, 2024

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@alanbingle 

 

I've moved your post from Creative Cloud Desktop to the InDesign forum for you.

 

See if this helps:

https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/arabic-hebrew.html

 

 

 


The help on here says to use the test direction setting in the character panel

 

Use the Character panel to change direction for a few words in the paragraph. Use the Paragraph panel to change the entire paragraph. Best practice is to use Paragraph (and Character) Styles.

 

Jane

 

 

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Community Expert ,
Apr 29, 2024 Apr 29, 2024

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@alanbingle 

 

Look at this help page to see how to install, then look at my previous link.

https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/access-install-hebrew-arabic-indesign-illustrator-CC.html

 

Jane

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New Here ,
May 04, 2024 May 04, 2024

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Just spent 2 days trying to get Arabic text reproduce on Indesign as characters from riight to left. The instructions referred to earlier do not do anything to change the character settings, only the paragraph ones. Getting desperate as I've used Adobe program for years and could do this in 2009 (when the book I am currently updating was prepared on Indesign. Now it doesn't work. There must be a solution as this is such a small issue that should be easily resolved. RB

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Community Expert ,
Apr 29, 2024 Apr 29, 2024

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Did you install the MEL (Middle Eastern Languages) version of InDesign? You need it for full RTL support, and better alphabetical and diacritics support in Arabic, Hebrew, Farsi etc.

 

I believe you can have two language versions installed at any one time (the third major version being CJK, for Asian languages).


┋┊ InDesign to Kindle (& EPUB): A Professional Guide, v3.1 ┊ (Amazon) ┊┋

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New Here ,
Apr 29, 2024 Apr 29, 2024

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This is probably a stupid question but how do I find that? I have changed my language preference in the CC app but it still just offers me indesign 19.4 which I already have and THAT does not allow me to change the text direction or arabic page setting

 

 

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Community Expert ,
Apr 29, 2024 Apr 29, 2024

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Well, here's what I see in the CC app. I have "English (اللغة العربية)" selected as my default language in the Apps section of the prefs for the CC app. If I go look at the InDesign app in the Apps section, there's a blue button that says "Open." If I then go back to the CC prefs and switch to "English (שפה עברית)" and click on Done, then go back to the Apps section, the "Open" button has changed to an "Install" button. 

 

This process, for those of us who have to switch languages on a regular basis, has been cumbersome and buggy for years. None of these bugs are showstoppers, but they're there. I know that some people, when they e.g. upgrade from InDesign 18 to InDesign 19, just click the "Update" button, and it updates to the latest RTL-supporting InDesign without any further user intervention. . If I do that, I get a plain-vanilla install of Engish InDesign. I need to go select the language every time. So you might not have the same experience as is described in the documentation.

 

If you don't have that experience, you might have to uninstall some apps. At least once in recent years, I've had to uninstall InDesign and Creative Cloud both, with the Cleaner Tool, in order to get the right version of InDesign.  

 

Alternately, if you're a WIndows user, there are ways to install multiple language versions of the same version of InDesign at the same time. This thread documents them; one method relies on making multiple installations and editing an .xml file, and the other, posted by Ken Lunde, relies on registry hacks. Both methods are perfectly functional, though. If there are comparable end-user hacks one could use on the Mac platform, I don't know about them. 

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Adobe Employee ,
May 03, 2024 May 03, 2024

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Hi @alanbingle,

Hope you're doing well!

We would like to follow up on the issue. Are you able to resolve the issue by following our expert advice? Please feel free to update the discussion if you need further assistance from us.

 

We would be happy to help.

 

Thanks,

Harshika

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