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Hello guys,
I have InDesign CC 2019 (Italian version) installed on my computer.
I tried to install the InDesign Arabic ME version, and I used the suggestion I found here:
Find and install Hebrew or Arabic editions of InDesign CC or Illustrator CC
I chose from Adobe CC: Preferences/English Arabic and I started the new Install.
I did it, but in the end, the version is always the same, there are no English menu, no Arabic features, and the paragraph palette is always the same. I can't manage the Arabic language at all. The only present feature is "Paragraph World ready", a feature I had in the previous version too.
It's quite annoying to pay for a feature I can't use.
Thank you for a suggestion,
Tom
Hello Tom,
Changing the language alone is not enough to add Arabic specific features in your copy of InDesign. You need to consider either options below.
Option 1: Uninstall your InDesign, then change Language from Preferences to make it "English يدعم العربية"
Now, you can reinstall InDesign. This method will give you only one InDesign that is English with full Right-to-Left support for Middle Eastern languages.
Option2: This more preferred option by many users including myself.
You don't need to rem
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Hello Tom,
Changing the language alone is not enough to add Arabic specific features in your copy of InDesign. You need to consider either options below.
Option 1: Uninstall your InDesign, then change Language from Preferences to make it "English يدعم العربية"
Now, you can reinstall InDesign. This method will give you only one InDesign that is English with full Right-to-Left support for Middle Eastern languages.
Option2: This more preferred option by many users including myself.
You don't need to remove existing InDesign copy, just add another copy that supports Arabic but it has to be different version. Here are the steps illustrated…
At the end, you will have one copy of InDesign CC2019 that supports Italian, and an older version that supports Arabic on the same machine.
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Hello Zaid,
Thank you for your prompt reply!
As I said, I didn't change the language only, I uninstalled the Italian version and re-installed the English-Arabic version, but this "Option 1" doesn't work.
I have always the Italian version installed.
The "Option 2" you suggested instead, works!
Now I have the Italian version CC 2019 and the English/Arabic version CC 2017 both installed on my computer.
Thanks for solving my problem!
Tom
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Most welcome Tom.
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Hello everybody,
I have just tried to download a second - older - version of InDesign, as suggested, in order to then switch to the Arabic version.
Unfortunately, I can't do that - as soon as I select an older version under "other version", I don't get a copy, but rather a downgrade -> I still only have one InDesign version available.
Where is my mistake?
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Hi,
I had the same issue. Adobe only offers the current version (2021) and the previous major version (2020) for install, and a) 2020 ME version has the bug, and b) if you try to install 2020 it downgrades your version (as you discovered). So even if you do that, the fixed layout epub export bug is still there.
See the bug report and and add your upvote at the below link. Adobe has said they will have this fixed in the next update for InDesign CC ME. It's essential to my business to get this fixed, so I hope they are true to their word, but I'm not holding my breath.
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Let's say you already have the International English 2021version of InDesign installed on your machine. The other older version shouldn't be International English also, you rather need to change the language in Preferences to French for example then download the French 2020 version of InDesign.
By following the above, you will end up with two copies of InDesign…
International English 2021
French 2020
I'm on Mac and above does work for me and seen it work for others
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Thanks Zaid. Sorry for posting misleading information! I didn't realize this was possible. I was able to install InDesign ME 2020 alongside my North American English InDesign 2021 per your instruction. The only problem with this approach is that when Adobe does finally fix the fixed-layout epub export issue with ME, the update will likely overwrite my English version, correct? Then I'll be back where I was before, with just the ME version installed.
I've been doing English-only work with the ME version for a little while now and it doesn't seem to have caused any problems so maybe having just ME installed will not be a problem for my workflow. Fingers crossed that is the case when the updated ME 2021 is available.
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Hello Zaid,
I'm using InDesign CC 2020 and need to do a couple of Arabic pieces. Searched and found this thread. If I use option 1 (uninstall and re-install English/Arabic language version) is it going to mess up my existing English language-only work when I open it?
Thanks, Steve
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Hi Steve.
This is the scenario from my experience.
A document created in English version of InDesign, open it in Middle Eastern version of InDesign, all left-to-right text will appear fine, punctuations will appear at the end of the paragraphs ie. on the right of the text. In this scenario, you may add your Arabic text without any issues.
It is the other way around that you need to watch out for any problems… When you have a documentthat was created or at least gone through and saved within Middle Eastern version of InDesign, open it in English version of InDesign, we notice misbehaviour in punctuation marks in left-to-right text wheras full stop, question mark, and the like will appear at the beginning of the last line ie. on the left of the scentence.
Although, above mentioned issue is fixable, however, some of these may slip under the radar and have your document published or printed with such issues in it.
In your case, I would recommend to go for Option2, so you have English version of InDesign for strictly Left-to-Right content, and another Middle Eastern InDesign for multilingual and mixed direction projects.
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Zaid, thank you so much for the information and wisdom on this. I will do as you suggest to avoid issues.
Best wishes.
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Zaid, I have one more question. I need to change my CC language setting before installing the older version, don't I? Otherwise will it not just install an English-only version? Grateful for your reply.
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Yes, you need to change the language to the one marked in red (English يدعم العربية) before installing an older InDesign copy.
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Thank you!