Saudi friend wants to buy MacBook here and use for both Arabic and English

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Level 1

8 points

Saudi friend wants to buy MacBook here and use for both Arabic and English

I have a Saudi friend that is converting from Windows to a Mac, but he wants to be able to type and read Arabic as well as English. He said if he buys Mac in Saudi Arabia, it will come with both languages as well as Arabic keyboard. The problem is that I (long time Mac user) am here and in Saudia Arabia he won't have anyone to teach him how to get the most out of OS X, iLife, etc. I know that there are arabic fonts available through System Preferences > International, but is this enough?

What should he do?

1.33 G4 12" Powerbooks, Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Sep 14, 2007 11:18 AM

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Answer 1

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,526 points

Sep 14, 2007 1:14 PM in response to bookwiz

If he wants arabic letters on the keyboard, he should buy it in SA. You can't get it in the US that way.

OS X does not yet have Arabic localization anywhere, so if he wants all the menus in Arabic, he is out of luck.

Every OS X includes fonts and keyboard layouts for Arabic, so no matter where he buys the machine, he will be able to read and write Arabic without problems (at least in apps which support this -- MS Office *does not*). If you have a Roman keyboard, you can buy stickers or skins for Arabic if you need that.

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Answer 2

bookwiz Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 14, 2007 1:57 PM in response to bookwiz

I found your thread with Sword Man and it seems that your fonts solved his problem and have already downloaded them.

So bottom line, should he go ahead and get the MacBook, use WinVArabic101.keylayout, or just install Parallels and everything from his current PC into Parallels. I see that there are still problems with Arabic in Safari and a secure browser is one reason that he wants to switch to Mac.

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Answer 3

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,526 points

Sep 14, 2007 2:11 PM in response to bookwiz

should he go ahead and get the MacBook, use WinVArabic101.keylayout, or just install Parallels and everything from his current PC into Parallels.

I think the main advantage of using Parallels would be that he could then do Arabic in MS Win Office (MS Mac Office does not support it). Also if he has Windows in Arabic he could presumably have his menus in that language. I do not know if there have been any problems with Arabic input into Windows apps on a Mac with Bootcamp or Parallels. You might want to check the forums for those products.

I see that there are still problems with Arabic in Safari

There are problems with Safari for Windows, but not with Safari for Mac, as far as I know.

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Answer 4

bookwiz Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 14, 2007 2:27 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

I think this answers all my questions, thank you. I would guess that he could use a USB Arabic Keyboard for the Mac or Parallels, right?

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Answer 5

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,526 points

Sep 14, 2007 2:36 PM in response to bookwiz

I would guess that he could use a USB Arabic Keyboard for the Mac or Parallels, right?

Surely yes for OS X. I just don't know anything about Parallels in that regard. They have a forum

http://forum.parallels.com/

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