help with middle east version InDesign

[Maya O]

Hi, I can’t find anywhere the middle east InDesign version, I changed the prefrences but it still doesn’t work.. can someone please send me a link or something I'm really upset that it doesn’t work for me.. 

Thank U and have a nice day.

[Joel Cherney]

If you've changed your language setting to Arabic/English in the Creative Cloud app preferences, you should be able to uninstall and reinstall the InDesign app, at which point you should have the ME edition installed. You may be able to just install without uninstalling first, it's been quite some time since I had to do it myself.

Edit: fixing phone typos

[Maya O]

Thank u very much it's working now ❤️🙏

[Zaid Al Hilali]

It is not enough to change the language to say "English يدعم العربية" to get Arabic support in your InDesign. You will still need to download a fresh copy of InDesign after changing the language in the Preferences of the Adobe CC desktop application.

Just make sure you have removed existing InDesign first, otherwise, if you want to keep the existing version (the English version I presume) and have the second version installed with Arabic support, just download the fresh copy of InDesign in a slightly older version since you cannot have two InDesign copies of the same version 2021 on your machine.

[Maya O]

Thank u very much it's working now ❤️🙏

[saleemus]

Do you know how to install the CS6 ME version of Indesign? I don't have the CC version and i need to access the diacritical positioning feature.

[Zaid Al Hilali]

If you have a CS6 ME installer then simply install, and use your serial number to activate it. Otherwise, you have to get Adobe CC ME which by the way has the diacritic positioning available in Adobe InDesign.

[saleemus]

I do not have any physical media to install as i bought online as a download at the time. The only thing i have access to is a link in my account which as the following options to download. Should i download and install the 2nd option? 

[Zaid Al Hilali]

Well sure, you can download and install from the link you have there, however, non of the listed copies on the screenshot is a Middle Eastern!

[saleemus]

Ok, so the 2nd option that says Middle Eastern is not the Middle Eastern version?

[Zaid Al Hilali]

Obviously I missed it when I went through your screenshot. So, yes, you should get the RTL controls with this 2nd option. @Joel Cherney my bad 😒

[saleemus]

Thank you Zaid. And by RTL controls i should have access to the diacritical positioning features?

[Zaid Al Hilali]

The diacritic positioning was available as a palette in InDesign only back in CS6. While now in CC, InDesign has a dedicated panel. Photoshop and Illustrator has a good amount of diacritics controls in the Character panel.

[Joel Cherney]

Obviously I missed it when I went through your screenshot. So, yes, you should get the RTL controls with this 2nd option. @Joel Cherney my bad 😒

I don't think it actually is your bad, though, Zaid. I mean, it's good to take ownership of one's failures in reading comprehension, yeah, but there are some noteworthy issues with the text you were reading.

For instance, I scanned the document looking for the word "Arabic" quite a few times before I realized that they're showing us localizations of the app, not language support. The "North African Middle East English" has all the same words as "Middle East/North Africa," but it's not the same.

Also I'm curious as to why they grouped the languages the way they did, and why they alphabetized them. Why are English and Japanese off by themselves? Why isn't Japanese in with Chinese and Korean? Why group right-to-left languages with Eastern Europe? Why does French appear with both Western Europe and Eastern Europe? 

Okay, that's my real sticking point here, with taking this locale list seriously. Is France Western Europe, or Eastern Europe? I just can't. 

That's the real reason, Zaid, why I think it's not actually your bad; I feel like we can lay this one directly at the feet of the person(s) in charge of localization strategy at Adobe in 2012-2014, or the person(s) put in charge of archiving their work, when Adobe released the Creative Cloud.

[saleemus]

I wish it was a bit clearer also lol! Way back when i installed CS6 i installed the Engligh Japanese version because i thought the other versions were in those languages. I was told after CS5 the Arabic aspects of Indesign were integrated into CS6 and you no longer needed an ME version, so i didn't umderstand what the other versions available were.

I really wished i had figured that out back then because fast forward to today and it seems that i cannot get the 'North African Middle East English' version to install because of some missing file error, and Adobe support won't help me because CS6 is no longer supported.

Quite frustrating given that i spent £1200 on the suite at the time, i still use it to this day and really don't need anything that the current CC version offers to do my work, other than the diacritical positioning features, which i can get by without, but would be really handy to have.

[Joel Cherney]

I think that there's some history to be written about this, although most of it is already squirreled away in a variety of old Wikipedia articles, mailing list stuff, et cetera. What you were told:

I was told after CS5 the Arabic aspects of Indesign were integrated into CS6 and you no longer needed an ME version

was kinda true, kinda bunk.

After CS5, Adobe stopped letting WinSoft create the "InDesgin Middle East Edition." They moved that development in-house. They'd been getting ready to do so since CS4, which was the first version where you could get access to things like right-to-left character direction with scripting. But CS6 was, if I recall correctly, the first "Middle East/North Africa" edition that was produced by Adobe. Previously, you'd have had to pay something like $1100 to Winsoft for InDesign alone. (Prices in pounds a great deal higher, I recall.) After Adobe took over, the price fell, but you still needed to buy separate licenses for English CS6 and MENA CS6. So if you didn't buy that MENA-specific license then, you don't have it now, and the little caveat "download the language that matches your original purchase" applies to you.

But the thing they said about "Arabic aspects of InDesign were integrated into CS6" was technically true, for what lies under the, er, bonnet. (Sorry, do you have that "under the hood" turn of phrase across the pond, to indicate engineering internals not typically exposed to end users?) Your English CS6 has all the same internals as a Hebrew or Arabic edition would, but the UK or US EN versions didn't have the buttons for choosing paragraph direction, the panels for working with numerals or character direction, and so on. But the latter half "and you no longer needed an ME version" was not really true. You no longer need the ME version to successfully display and edit a RTL document... so long as you didn't need to change the direction, or language, or diacritical positioning, or kashidas, or cantillation marks, or et cetera.

Of course, the next version was the initial release of CC, and if I recall correctly, that was the first version where one could simply download the Arabic edition, or the Hebrew edition, et cetera, by picking a different locale in the Creative Cloud app. 

It has been a long time since I needed to script anything for CS6 but it looks like the Diacritic Options are exposed, so we should be able to put together a script that accesses those options, if that was really the One Thing that you needed the ME edition to change. 

[saleemus]

Thanks for taking the time to share Joel, i appreciate it. Yes we do understand what 'under the hood' means here in the UK, i'm in Scotland. But you're right technically it's a bonnet here 😉

So, it would seem that my entitlement to the ME version is unfounded it if i would have had to buy that specific version at the time. Which i would have done if i'd known, hey ho.

To be honest, the version that i have has served me well over the years, i don't get a huge amount of Arabic work and if you choose a well put together font like Adobe Naksh you don't really have any diacritical issues. I only discovered i was missing out when i trialled the CC version last week in order to open a document and whilst using it discovered rogue diacritic elements in the font and was trying to figure out how to tame them.

The script idea sounds really cool, the Diacritic Options is the only thing i would need from the ME edition. I do have another old mac that i can try to install the NAME version on, so i'll let you know how that goes. If it works great, if not i'll let you know here and maybe we could explore the script idea, thank you so much for all your help, best wishes.

[saleemus]

It has been a long time since I needed to script anything for CS6 but it looks like the Diacritic Options are exposed, so we should be able to put together a script that accesses those options, if that was really the One Thing that you needed the ME edition to change. 

By @Joel Cherney

Hi Joel. Brief update. So i managed to install the 2nd option on my non work laptop and it is indeed the ME version with the diacritical controls, and if memory serves me right when i initially installed it on my imac i installed that version, so i think my serial is good.

The only problem is, i can't get the serial authenticated! Online or Offline authentication isn't working. I've been given 7 days to authenticate it on this laptop. I've searched online and it seem that it is murky territory. Adobe are claiming that the servers to authenticate CS6 are no longer active, yet some people have been getting their licenses revoked at the same time. I haven't tried their support yet as i'm a bit vexed by the fact i paid top whack for software that works absolutely fine for me, but Adobe have stopped the means for me to use that software.

Anyway, so i had a few questions, if you don't mind?

1. If i install the ME version over my current install will it need to be re-authenticated or will the current serial stick? If i need to re-authenticate it and this isn't possible because of this server issue then there is a good chance that i will lose my current setup forever if i pursue this option.

2. Does a Time Machine back up need to be re-authenticated? If my efforts to get the ME version on my work laptop

fail can i re-instate it using Time Machine or will will that need to be re-authenticated as well?

3. If nothing can be done and i'm totally snookered, can i take you up on your kind offer of a script?

Thanks and best wishes, Andy.

[Zaid Al Hilali]

Saleem, in our region (The Middle East), we some times ask users to contact the toll-free Adobe support number for such activation process. Check the page for the number in your region, explain to the support person what you need.

Note. Call during UK working hours. Insha' Allah you will get it sorted.

[saleemus]

Shukran Ali. If this works out it will be amazing! Jazak Allah Khayr. 

[saleemus]

Saleem, in our region (The Middle East), we some times ask users to contact the toll-free Adobe support number for such activation process. Check the page for the number in your region, explain to the support person what you need.

Note. Call during UK working hours. Insha' Allah you will get it sorted.

By @Zaid Al Hilali

Salaam Zaid. Unfortunately when i called the UK number it said that the number wasn't recognised, sigh...

[Zaid Al Hilali]

Both numbers not operational, even the toll one?

[saleemus]

Both numbers not operational, even the toll one?

By @Zaid Al Hilali

Yeah, i tried both numbers, they both said "this number is not recognised"

[Zaid Al Hilali]

I just dialed the toll free number for the UAE. It is disconnected. It appears that Adobe removed this phone activation service recently.

[saleemus]

This is disheartening. If i can't get authorisation, perhaps Joel can still. help with the script. Not unless you have any other ideas to get authorised?