[Tips] Writing in RTL

Question

Level 1

8 points

[Tips] Writing in RTL

Dear all,

I just started working on a book; this is my 1st time using iBooks Author. Everything is alright except for the Writing Direction.

I find it really annoying from Apple that they do not include the Writing Direction in most of their apps. Which is frustrating!

Anyways, as a temporary solution for writing RTL (for Arabic or Hebrew) writers.

You can use the "Notes" app, Start the Notes app (Right click) and choose "Paragraph Direction"

Write the paragraphs you need; then copy-and-paste them in their appropriate place in iBooks Author.

Hopefully iBooks Author will support changing writing direction soon.

Cheers!

Mohd.

iBooks Author-OTHER, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.1)

Posted on Aug 31, 2012 8:43 AM

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Answer 1

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,848 points

Aug 31, 2012 10:21 AM in response to Hollow.eng

Unfortunately iBooks Author is based on the same code as Pages, which has failed to do RTL properly for 7 years now despite countless requests from users. Still it would not hurt to ask at

http://www.apple.com/feedback/ibooks-author.html

I think that the iBooks app itself does not support RTL page turning, while the iBookstore Publisher User Guide says that RTL scripts are not yet supported by the store.

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Answer 2

Hollow.eng Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 31, 2012 10:28 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

You're right, this is frustrating.

But I found it somehow handy to copy-paste from Notes app.

I just need to Preview it on my iPad to make sure things are fine, but I cannot preview.

See this problem:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4256261

Anyways, I submitted my feedback thanks for sharing.

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Answer 3

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,848 points

Aug 31, 2012 10:32 AM in response to Hollow.eng

Hollow.eng wrote:

I cannot preview.

You could try exporting to .ibooks format and emailing it to yourself.

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Answer 4

tk0us

Level 2

265 points

Aug 31, 2012 11:31 AM in response to Hollow.eng

haven't had a need to try this myself but it works on web pages.

if you build your own html widget and include text as follows

<html>

<body>

<bdo dir="rtl">Here is some Hebrew text that should be written from right-to-left!</bdo>

</body>

</html>

your text should be right to left

hope this helps...

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Answer 5

Hollow.eng Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 31, 2012 9:04 PM in response to tk0us

Can you explain more, please? As I just got my macbook pro 4 days ago, and Im still noob.

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Answer 6

Hollow.eng Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 31, 2012 9:04 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

Will try that, I didn't know that I can do it.

Cheers! 🙂

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Answer 7

Hollow.eng Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 2, 2012 3:16 AM in response to Hollow.eng

New approach:

Use "Paste and Retain Style" to preserve the Righting Direction. I tested it with my iPad everything looks brilliant.

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Answer 8

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,848 points

Sep 2, 2012 6:12 AM in response to Hollow.eng

I gather you are not in practice bothered that much by the buggy cursor behavior in IBA which makes editing of RTL text kind of impossible?

In case you find the Notes app limiting, you can also use TextEdit, which has Format > Text > Writing Direction.

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Answer 9

Hollow.eng Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 2, 2012 10:35 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Well my friend I know that editing + writing is almost impossible + annoying in IBA. But when I want to edit something I copy+paste it back to Notes.app, then I copy+paste to IBA again.

It is a pain in the A** but I need to deal with it, I want to finish my book that I worked on from March!

Thanks btw for suggesting TextEdit I will try it now.

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Answer 10

wow707

Level 1

0 points

Sep 4, 2012 4:59 AM in response to Hollow.eng

I think ibook Author supports RTL by clicking on align text to the right on the toolbar, however the thing is not supported is when you want the Arabic text to be align to the right and left.

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Answer 11

Hollow.eng Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 4, 2012 5:11 AM in response to wow707

Of course they provide the alignment to be either (Left, middle, Right). But what Im trying to do is to help you to write in the FULL Direction of (Right to Left) for Arabic + Hebrew.

I just finished first chapter of my book and it will be released soon after Im done with Graphics, images and videos.

Everything is Right to Left, even the Bullets List.

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Answer 12

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,848 points

Sep 4, 2012 5:28 AM in response to wow707

wow707 wrote:

I think ibook Author supports RTL by clicking on align text

The standard align text options are not enough for correct RTL. Apps that support it properly, like TextEdit, Mail, Notes, OpenOffice have an additional setting for Writing Direction.

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