Bidirectional Language Overview

If you use CDM in Arabic or Hebrew, the direction of most content appears on your screen from right to left automatically, as you would expect. Arabic or Hebrew are considered bidirectional languages because some content should appear in the opposite direction from the basic text.

The default text direction of a language does not allow the proper display of Arabic or Hebrew text in an English user interface, and Latin-based text in an Arabic or Hebrew user interface. Also, numbers and some other special types of content should normally appear from left to right, regardless of the language of the surrounding text. CDM uses a concept called base text direction to apply your preference for the direction in which certain types of bidirectional items appear in the user interface.

In addition, if you use CDM in Arabic, you can choose to view digits in the manner normally seen in English and many other languages, or in the digit shaping common in Arabic. CDM uses a concept called digit shaping to apply your preference for the appearance of digits in the user interface.

Base Text Direction for Arabic or Hebrew

If you use CDM in Arabic or Hebrew, you can ensure that special types of content appear in the correct direction in your user interface. To do this, you must specify your preference for base text direction.

CDM uses a concept called base text direction to apply your preference for the direction in which certain types of bidirectional items appear.

• For left-to-right sentences in English and other Latin-based languages, the proper base text direction is left-to-right, even if the sentence includes Arabic or Hebrew words.
• For right-to-left sentences in Arabic or Hebrew, the proper base text direction is right-toleft, even if the sentence includes English words or numbers.

This list displays some of the types of content that should appear left-to-right even if the main content is right-to-left:

• Text in English or another left-to-right language
• Numbers
• URLs
• Email addresses
• File paths
• Trademark symbols

Important: Your selection for base text direction is not applied in password fields, and just the content of the field is mirrored according to the selected language (locale).

To select the base text direction for Arabic or Hebrew:

1. Click File > Options.
2. In the Options window, select your preferred language in the Language field.
3. Click the Base text direction field, and select one of these options:
   • Default - To inherit the default natural direction of the language that is used in the user interface. If you want to use the default behavior of the language in your user interface, this is your best choice.
   • Left-to-right - To properly display text in left-to-right languages such as English and French. If you are sure that your content contains text from English or any Latin-based language only, this is your best choice.
   • Right-to-left - To properly display text in right-to-left languages such as Arabic and Hebrew. If you are sure that your content contains text from Arabic or Hebrew only, this is your best choice.
   • Contextual - To properly display text whose direction is not known in advance. CDM selects the direction based on the context of the most recent strongly directional character. If your content might contain both Latinbased text and also Arabic or Hebrew text or any special content elements, this is your best choice. For example, in a right-to-left context, a trademark sign is considered to be right-to-left, and it would be displayed in an incorrect order if the brand name is in English or a Latin-based language. In an Arabic or Hebrew report, to correctly display a trademark sign for an English name brand (left-to-right), you must select Contextual.
4. Click OK.
5. To ensure that all your selections are applied to your user interface, exit from CDM and log in again.

Special content appears in your user interface in the order that you specified. If you want, you can apply similar preferences to your Excel, Word, and PowerPoint objects. For more information, see Microsoft™ documentation or Microsoft™ online help.

Digit Shaping for Arabic

If you use CDM in Arabic, you can specify whether you want to view digits in Arabic style in your user interface. To do this, you must specify your preference for digit shaping.

In Arabic, digits often have an appearance that is different from the appearance of digits that are used in other languages. If you do not specify your preference, CDM applies digit shaping in your user interface based on your selection in the Digit Shaping field in the General tab of the Options window.

To select digit shaping for Arabic:

1. Click File > Options.
2. In the Options window, select Arabic in the Language field.
3. Click the Digit Shaping field, and select one of these options:
   • National - To specify digit shaping based on the language that you are using when you work in CDM.
   • Contextual - To specify digit shaping based on adjoining characters in the value. Latin-based digits follow Latin scripts, and Arabic digits follow Arabic text. When there is no preceding text, the value in the Base text direction field determines digit shaping.
   • None - To display the digits in their Latin-based form and shape. The digit shape appears in CDM as it appears in your regional settings form if you specify None in the Digit Shaping field.
4. Click OK.
5. To ensure that all your selections are applied to your user interface, exit from CDM and log in again.

Digit shaping appears in your user interface as you specified. If you want, you can apply similar preferences to your Excel, Word, and PowerPoint objects. For more information, see Microsoft™ documentation or Microsoft™ online help.

Note: If you use CDM in Arabic, and if you select Contextual for Digit Shaping in the Options window, some dates in report properties might appear with Latin-based number shaping. The dates that appear with Latin-based number shaping are those that are selected through a calendar field in CDM.