Why don't the Arabic words join up?

salamzaidi,

If you're using MS Word for Mac, Tom is correct. It won't accept Arabic input.

If you want a Mac compatible word processor that will allow Arabic text input with connecting letters, you're better off to use Pages, but be careful of which version of Pages you use, and which font. Some versions of Pages are not as cooperative with Arabic script as other versions.

For example, the first version of Pages worked very nicely with Arabic script. But a few version between then and the current version were very strange and that the only way you could get Arabic letters to 'join' is by using specific font settings. For example, arabic script would join if your font setting was 'helvetica,' but the letters wouldn't join if your font setting was maybe Times New Roman.

However, the newest version of Pages (5.2.2) seems to work nicely with Arabic regardless of what font setting Pages is set to.

I wouldn't really recommend using Text Edit for anything serious though. Such as academic, professional, use. For those, you really need a better word processor. I much prefer Pages over MS Word.

There is a way to join the arabic characters in MS word for mac

Open a file which already have characters joined and save as that file with different name then edit that file as you want it is working with me like this other than that there is no way if you are using MS Word and if you want to try some other app to write arabic you can use different alternatives like NeoOffice.org or you can google it.

Hope this will help you.

Regards

Haroon

If the letters do not join up, it sounds like you may be using MS Word for Mac, which simply can't do Arabic. Try TextEdit or any other app, and set the font to Geeza Pro.

MS Word for Mac 2016 does finally join up Arabic characters. It still lacks direction and cursor controls that most people need for proper Arabic input however.

It is a good news for Arabic writers but I am still using 2011.

Thanks Tom for the information.