As Bob says, I do not have any idea either, even though Bob and I were in
the same room about a year ago, discussing this very subject with the
software architect whose job it would be to add that support to Mac Word.
Needless to say, that software architect didn't know either.
This subject comes up in the planning for EVERY new version of Office for
Mac. So far, every release the answer has been "No".
That's because it is a lot of work to make right-to-left support, and the
estimate from Microsoft's Middle East Office is that it would generate
comparatively few sales.
Two things have changed since we were discussing the issue: Apple has
improved support for RTL in OS X which makes it "less" work to add the
feature to an application. And Mac sales have gone through the roof, and
presumably would also do so in the Middle East if Microsoft Office had RTL.
To answer the obvious questions:
"If they have RTL in PC Office, why don't they have it in Mac Office"?
Because Windows does all the work: all of the rendering of text (in either
direction) on the PC is done by bits of Windows.
There are some RTL modules in the Office products to hook the product to the
Windows RTL engine, and those modules exist already in Mac Office. But
connecting the final dots has, so far, been too expensive.
"If Apple OS X has had RTL support for several versions, why isn't MS Office
using that?" Because using the old version meant re-writing your
application. As far as I know, no other vendor is using the old version RTL
either
The new RTL bits in OS X are much easier to use (read: much closer to what
the Independent Software Vendors are already using in Windows) so I expect
RTL support will begin to appear in Mac OS X products soon.
And Microsoft Office may be one of the first.
But as Bob says, we don't know. Those who do know are not allowed to tell
us. Those who tell us, don't know.
My guess is "not in the next (2010) version". I suspect that the global
financial melt-down has cut the funding for large, brave, expansion
projects.
I might also mention that this is one of several initiatives that are
blocked because there is no Software Licence Key Activation in Mac Office.
It's just not worth investing large amounts of development money on features
for high piracy countries: you only ever "sell" one copy in some countries:
the rest get ripped off and you lose your investment.
Software Activation stops that, but Microsoft hasn't added it to its Mac
software yet.
Cheers
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel
Hi,
I'm mac user. I was wondering whether Mac Word application will support
Right-to-left languages soon?
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John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:
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