Arabic and Bidirectional Challenges for Translation and Software Development

Maxwell Hoffmann, ENLASO’s Manager of Applications Engineering, researched and authored this White Paper in response to increasing demand from North American companies to share content in Arabic markets. Arabic localization requires especially careful thought and resource planning when translating content or software to this language for the first time.

Simple understanding of Arabic conventions at the development stage can prevent many common challenges. This White Paper provides a wealth of information about the challenges specific to Arabic translation. Some of the topics discussed in this White Paper include:

• Reversed table column order and graphic layout
• Contextual analysis for alternate character display
• Rendering and shaping
• Alternate numeric display, Hijri dates
• “logical” vs. “output” order for content display and storage

About the author:
A pioneer in the field of multilingual tools and technology, Max Hoffmann is a 20-year veteran of high volume, scalable publishing, and localization solutions. Hoffmann frequently contributes articles and information to ENLASO's Multilingual Standard Newsletter service and has developed single-source solutions for print and electronic output (including PDF and XML).