Hebrew and other right to left languages

Aug 12, 2011

So I've heard all of the "right to left languages are not supported" talk. Or read them actually. I work at a global company and we're getting ready to launch a campaign in 18 different languages including Hebrew and Arabic.

I may have found a workaround to getting all of the template buttons and captions in Articulate and Quizmaker to appear in Hebrew. You may already know that you can manipulate these and other non-western languages so they appear in the course and quiz content (images!). You can manipulate the quiz questions to be right justified by using the slide view to edit everything. But you can't put Hebrew text in an image format into the area where you edit the text/button labels. When you publish, everything is backwards. Well, on a whim, I wondered if I put it in backwards at the start, would the program then invert it into the proper order? The answer is yes. I've had a linguist check my work and so far all the buttons and captions are properly labeled in Hebrew in the published version. I call it bending the software to my will! It's a lot of cutting and pasting (because I can't actually type the words in Hebrew) and left is right and right is left and home is end and end is home, but in the end I think I've got what I need changed to Hebrew. I've saved my Hebrew labels and templates so the next time we need a Hebrew version, I'm all set and I won't have to start over. Of course, if anyone has found a simpler way of doing this, I'd be thrilled to know what it is.

12 Replies

Efrat Maor

over 12 years ago08/14/11 at 1:11 pm (UTC)

יכולת פשוט לשאול :-)

You could have just asked :-)

This is the way Flash developers are working with Hebrew for years! There are dedicated software to preform this flip (free of course).

We are an international company, with a large branch(es) in Israel. We rarely develop anything in Hebrew, but here and there there are HR region-related contents that are published in Hebrew.
Since we use a custom skin, we do not bother to customize the skin in those rare cases (the employees probably used it before in English, and are expected to have at least a minimum English fluency to work at our firm anyway).

If you encounter any other right-to-left presentation issues, feel free to contact me.

Sandra Lowe
Author

over 12 years ago08/15/11 at 6:09 am (UTC)

I had no idea. Usually I just hear, "right to left languages are not supported". It's really only recently that we've been trying to put the effort into forcing the software to do something. Thanks. I'll see if I can find one of these free language flippers! Unless, of course, you know the name of one off the bat!

Efrat Maor

over 12 years ago08/15/11 at 6:35 am (UTC)

Of course I do!

In the past, most Hebrew wesites were built using these tools :-(

There are online tools like this one:

http://www.pixiesoft.com/flip/

Or this one:

http://corky.net/hebflip.php

Here you have a ling list of sites for flipping and software for flipping:

http://www.edu-negev.gov.il/tapuz/motytp/atar/hipuch.htm

And this is the best one, it is integrated on the desktop, and easy to use:

http://www.langover.com/

It was one of the first, and in Hebrew had a catchy name and was very popular. Now it was renamed and is offered with English support and interface as well, which sounds like a great match to your needs.

Efrat Maor

over 12 years ago08/15/11 at 6:42 am (UTC)

You are not an Hebrew speaker or developer, nor surrounded by such.

Otherwise you would have heard.

And I geuss the linguist you used is not too much into web or Flash development, nor was an early adopter :-P

Cause inthe early days if you wished to copy something off a website, and the txt was flipped, you needed a flipping app to flip it straight again

eeswar rg

over 12 years ago08/18/11 at 12:14 am (UTC)

Thanks Efrat, quite interesting tools for R to L languages

Amber Wade

over 12 years ago10/03/11 at 10:22 am (UTC)

Hi all!

I'm currently working on a Hebrew presentation and have found this thread to be quite helpful! Thanks Sandra and Efrat for sharing your experiences! So far I've been having good luck working on the presentation, but I wonder if either of you have any experience with including quizzes? It seems the program will allow no way to flip the radial button to the right side on a quiz - I can't even trick it into letting me do a 360 degree rotation on the text field so that I can then use one of Efrat's text flipping suggestions. Have either of you experienced this? Currently, I am right aligning all of my text (the question and the answers) and just have the radial check buttons "after" the text (answer) on the left side.

Thought I would throw this out there and see if anyone had any brilliant ideas I wasn't aware of.

Sandra Lowe
Author

over 12 years ago10/04/11 at 8:54 am (UTC)

Yes! In Quizmaker you need to use the slide view. From the slide view, you can alter the size of the boxes/object on the screen. In this case, the radial buttons. Once you've reduced the size of the shapes that the buttons reside in, you can drag them over to the right side of the screen. Then you can arrange the question images to the left of the buttons. I find in Quizmaker, the easiest way to guarantee that the rtl languages stay intact and in the correct order, is to convert them to images and place them in the slide view. In the form view I just leave a period in each of the settings for question and correct number of options.

Amber Wade

over 12 years ago10/04/11 at 9:11 am (UTC)

Oh perfect!! I hadn't thought of using an image for the question and answers! I love your "out-of-the-box" thinking! The only thing this wouldn't allow for is shuffling answers, but there's always a give/take, right!?! Sandra, thanks so much for your thoughts on this! That is a GREAT solution!! I'm glad you also mentioned the period....that probably would have taken me a few times of trial and error to figure that one out! You rock!!

Efrat Maor

over 12 years ago10/05/11 at 12:57 am (UTC)

Hi Amber,

I started answering and did not finish yet...

But diddn't even think to mention the slide view - since I always use it and take it for granted

My slides are always designed to match the course theme.

And I would also advise using images for the Hebrew answers.

Good luck!

Amber Wade

over 12 years ago10/05/11 at 7:39 am (UTC)

Hi Efrat!

I always use the slide view to adjust things, but I absolutely had not thought about building the answers into the actual background image that I use! That is brilliant!! Thanks to you and Sandra for sharing your experience and GREAT ideas!