What's new for Arabic in Microsoft® Office Systems 2003
	Microsoft Office 2003 Online features
	What's new for Arabic in Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint® Services
	Knowledge Base

This paper describes how Access 2003 supports the requirements for the Arabic region. It highlights the new features in Access 2003 and provides detailed information on how these new features handle the Arabic data.

Index

1. Introduction
2. Object Dependencies
   
   2.1  How to view Object Dependencies
   
   2.2  Object Dependencies scenario
   
   
3. Error Checking in Forms and Reports
   
   3.1  To enable or disable error checking
   
   3.2  Error Checking Scenario
   
   
4. Propagating Field Properties
   
   4.1  Field Properties Scenario
   
   
5. Arabic Smart Tags
   
   5.1  To get additional smart tags:
   
   5.2  To enable smart tags in Datasheet
   
   5.3  To enable smart tags in Forms
   
   5.4  Arabic name Smart Tag Scenario
   
   
6. AutoCorrect
   
   6.1  To set AutoCorrect options
   
   6.2  To set AutoCorrect options on Form controls
   
   6.3  To customize AutoCorrect entries
   
   6.4  AutoCorrect Scenario
   
   
7. Integration with Windows Share Point Services
   
   7.1  To Link WSS list to your Access database:
   
   7.2  To Import WSS list into Access 2003
   
   7.3  Linking WSS List Scenario
   
   
8. XML Enhancements
   
   8.1  Exporting Related Tables
   
   8.2  Supporting Data Transformation
   
   
9. Office Online
   
   9.1  To reach Office Online
   
   
10. Conclusion

Introduction

Access 2003 includes great enhancements for both; experienced and novice users. Access 2003 is one of the most common databases used in the Arabic market. Office development team has worked hard to provide Arabic support in the way users expect. This article highlights the areas that support Arabic in Access 2003.

Object Dependencies

You can quickly view tables, queries, forms, or reports that depend on particular database object. Moreover, you can view the other objects used by particular object. For example, you can check what are the forms and reports that use that view before you delete it. On the other hand, you can check which tables and views your report depends on.
Object Dependencies dialog box shows objects with Arabic names; this including tables, queries, forms and reports.

Object Dependencies task pane shows Arabic objects

How to view Object Dependencies

1. From the Tables tab, select the table you want to view its dependencies
2. Right click on the table and select "Object Dependencies"

Object Dependencies scenario

Making sure the default orientation is Right to Left.

1. Start Microsoft Access with Arabic UI
2. Create a new blank database
3. From the menu Tools, select Options
4. Select the tab International settings and choose the option Default Orientation to be Right to left

Create a new database using the Order Entry template

1. Start Microsoft Access with Arabic UI
2. From the File menu, select New
3. From the New File task pane, select Template on computer
4. From the Templates dialog, select the tab Databases
5. Click on the Order Entry template and click OK
6. Type a name for the new database and click OK
7. When the Database Wizard appears, click Finish
8. After the Wizard creates the database, you will be prompted to enter the company information.
9. After entering the company information, close the form. The switchboard form will appear.
10. Close the switchboard form and click on the tables tab to see the list of Arabic tables created
11. Right click on the Orders table and select Object Dependencies

Error Checking in Forms and Reports

You can enable automatic error checking in forms and reports to let Access check if there is an error while you design your form or report. For example, Access will check if there is duplicate keyboard shortcut on your form. Another common error in forms and reports is setting invalid control source for the report/form field. Access 2003 can trap these errors and suggest solutions to solve it. This can help reducing a lot of common design errors and save time in testing your application.

To enable or disable error checking:

• Click the Tools menu and choosing Options and then select Error Checking tab.
• Enable the Error Checking feature by selecting the option Enable Error Checking and selecting the color that will mark the errors.
• Disable the Error Checking feature by deselecting the option Enable Error Checking.

Error checking options

Error checking works well with Arabic field names and Arabic object names in forms and reports.

Note: Error checking does not consider the Arabic field name with kashida as a different one without kashida, for example, the filed name "رقم" is exactly the same field "رقـــم". Accordingly, it will not suggest changing the field name in all reports and forms as the two field names considered the same.

Error Checking Scenario

Make sure the default orientation is Right to Left

1. Create a new blank database
2. Create a new table that has the following fields:
   
   

   "رقم مسلسل"	Number –Long	Primary Key
   "الإسم الأول"	Text
   "الإسم الأخير"	Text
   "الرصيد الإئتمانى"	Number - Double

   
   
3. Save the table with the name "العملاء"
4. On the tables tab, click to select the table and then click on the AutoForm button on the toolbar to create AutoForm based on that table
5. When the form opens, switch to the design view and click on the label "الإسم الأول"
6. Change the label text to be "الإس&م الأول", this will place a keyboard short cut key on the letter "م".
7. Save the form and open it in view mode
8. Go back to the form design view and click on the label "الإسم الأخير" then display its properties.
9. Change the label text to be "الإس&م الأخير"
10. When trying to click out of the text box, Access 2003 will discover that there is a duplicate shortcut keys in the form and will show a smart tag in the labels
11. If you opened the smart tag, you can click to choose another shortcut name for the label. The smart tag will even display a list of alternate shortcut keys.

Error checking for duplicate shortcut keys and suggesting other shortcuts

Propagating Field Properties

You can change the field name and other properties in tables and updating the reports and forms that use that table. Access 2003 is aware of the objects that use your table. When changing field properties, other than field name, Access 2003 will show you smart tag to allow you updating all other objects that use that field. This is applicable to fields with Arabic name as well. Access will look into your reports and forms to change the Arabic field name to match the modified table design. When you change Arabic field name by adding diacritics, Access 2003 will consider the new name as a property change that should be propagated and automatically update all other objects when you save the table design.

Field Properties Scenario

Make sure the default orientation is Right to Left

1. Create a new blank database
2. Create a new table that has the following fields:
   
   

   "رقم مسلسل"	Number –Long	Primary Key
   "الإسم الأول"	Text
   "الإسم الأخير"	Text
   "الرصيد الإئتمانى"	Number - Double

   
   
3. Save the table with the name "العملاء"
4. On the tables tab, click to select the table and then click on the AutoForm button on the toolbar to create AutoForm based on that table
5. Save the form and close it
6. While on the Tables tab, click to modify the design of the "العملاء" table
7. Click on the details pane of the field "الرصيد الإئتمانى" to modify its properties
8. Modify the number of decimal places to be 2 instead of "Auto"
9. Click on another property to lose the focus from the decimal places
10. A smart tag will appear on the decimal places properties, click to display the smart tag options.
11. Select the option "تحديث المنازل العشرية حيث يتم استخدام الرصيد الإئتمانى".
12. Open the form created in step 4 to find the properties of the control displays the "الرصيد الإئتمانى" value changed as well.

Smart tags to update the forms/reports with the changed field properties

Note: When changing the field name to include kashida, Access will consider the names with and without kashida identical.

Arabic Smart Tags

With Access 2003, you have more control over where to enable smart tags. Smart tags allow you to take actions related to the data currently you view. For example, you can select to send email directly to the person name displayed in your Access table. Each smart tag defines a set of actions the user can take when this tag enabled. Additional actions and smart tags can be developed to support wider functionality. You can specify in table design the fields you want to use smart tags. Arabic specific smart tags exist for Person name Date.

Field Properties Scenario

1. Open the table design view and scroll to reach Smart Tags property
2. Select the ellipse button to get the smart tags dialog
3. From the smart tags dialog, click on the button More Smart Tags to get additional smart tags from eServices on the web.

Arabic smart tags recognize Arabic names and Arabic dates

To enable smart tags in Datasheet

1. From the Tools menu, select Options
2. Select the Datasheet tab
3. Select the option Display smart tags in datasheet

To enable smart tags in Forms

1. From the Tools menu, select Options
2. Select the Forms/Reports tab
3. Select the option Display smart tags in Forms

Arabic name Smart Tag Scenario

Make sure the default orientation is Right to Left

1. Create a new blank database
2. Create a new table that has the following fields:
   
   

   "رقم مسلسل"	Number –Long	Primary Key
   "الإسم الأول"	Text
   "الإسم الأخير"	Text
   "الرصيد الإئتمانى"	Number - Double

   
   
3. Click on the "الإسم الأول" field to view the details pane
4. In the details pane area, click the button of the property Smart Tags
5. The dialog box appears allowing you to select the smart tags you want to enable for this field. Select the Person Name smart tag and click OK
6. Save the table with the name "العملاء"
7. Open the table in data sheet view
8. Enter the value for the "رقم مسلسل" field and Arabic names for "الإسم الأول" and "الإسم الأخير"
9. The Smart tag icon will appear on the "الإسم الأول" filed value.
10. Click to see the smart tag actions for the name entered in the table.

AutoCorrect

With Access 2003, you can use the AutoCorrect feature to let Access automatically correct the common mistakes when typing Arabic text. The AutoCorrect feature works with text entered in table data sheets and text boxes in forms. You can customize the feature by adding your own words and its replacements. Moreover, you can define a set of words to be excluded from the automatic correction.

To set AutoCorrect options

1. Make sure your current keyboard language is Arabic
2. From the Tools menu, select AutoCorrect options
3. From the AutoCorrect dialog box, you can control the behavior of AutoCorrect feature. You can let Access 2003 replace the misspelled words with the correct ones without giving you the button to revert the action.

To set AutoCorrect options on Form controls

1. Open the form in design view
2. Click on the text box of the field you want to adjust its AutoCorrect options
3. Click on the properties button on the toolbar to display the text box properties
4. Adjust the property AllowAutoCorrect to be No

To customize AutoCorrect entries

1. Make sure your current keyboard language is Arabic
2. From the Tools menu, select AutoCorrect options
3. On the AutoCorrect dialog box, type the word you wanted to be replace in the text box Replace
4. Type the replacement in the text box With
5. Click on the button Add to add this entry to the list of AutoCorrect words

AutoCorrect Scenario

Make sure the default orientation is Right to Left

1. Create a new blank database
2. Create a new table that has the following fields:
   
   

   "رقم مسلسل"	Number –Long	Primary Key
   "الإسم الأول"	Text
   "الإسم الأخير"	Text
   "الرصيد الإئتمانى"	Number - Double

   
   
3. 3. Save the table with the name "العملاء"
4. 4. Open the table in datasheet view and enter the following values
   
   

   Field	Value
   "رقم مسلسل"	1
   "الإسم الأول"	Your name
   "الإسم الأخير"	خذف

   
   
5. 5. After typing the value "حذف" in the second field, Access 2003 will automatically correct the value to be "حذف" and display the option to undo the changes or change the AutoCorrect options.

Note: AutoCorrect feature does not handle text in data pages.

Integration with Windows Share Point Services

Windows SharePoint Services is highly integrated with all Office 2003 products. Access 2003 supports working with Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) through importing, exporting and linking tables as WSS List. By linking WSS lists in Access 2003, you can share the data between your applications developed in Access while using the same data from WSS pages. This allows both desktop applications as well as intranet applications to use the same data source. Access 2003 works well with WSS Arabic lists and data; it supports working with Arabic list names, Arabic fields including Hijri dates and locale currency fields.

To Link WSS list to your Access database:

1. Open the File menu, choose Get External Data, and then select Link Tables
2. From the Link dialog box, select File type to be Windows SharePoint Services.
3. The linking wizard will appear, type the URL of the WSS site in the Location box
4. The wizard will display the lists and document libraries available on the WSS site, select the list you want to link in Access 2003
5. You can select to link one or more list, or link the same list with one or more view and click Next
6. The selected list(s) or view(s) will be linked in Access 2003 as tables where you can modify the data and let other users see the changes through WSS site. Click Finish to let Access 2003 create the linked tables to the WSS lists

To Import WSS list into Access 2003

1. Open the File menu, choose Get External Data, and then select Import
2. From the Import dialog box, select File type to be Windows Share Point Services.
3. The importing wizard will appear, type the URL of the WSS site in the Location box
4. The wizard will display the lists and document libraries available on the WSS site, select the list you want to import in Access 2003
5. You can select to import one or more list, or import the same list with one or more view and click Next
6. The selected list(s) or view(s) will be imported in Access 2003 as tables. Modifications done on these tables will not reflect WSS site. Click Finish to let Access 2003 import the tables to your database.

Linking Arabic WSS lists to Access 2003 as tables

Arabic data from WSS list displayed in datasheet view

Linking WSS List Scenario

The purpose of this scenario is to have an Access database that uses a linked table from WSS without changing any line of code. We will use the Order Entry template database and a WSS custom list with the same fields.

Preparations

• Make sure that you have Arabic WSS installed with Hijri site settings and your current regional setting is Arabic (Saudi Arabia).
• Create a sample database using the Order Entry template
• Remove the relation between the table "المنتجات" and table "تفاصيل الطلبيات" and then remove the table "المنتجات"

1. Create a WSS custom list named "المنتجات" that contains the following fields
   
   

   Field Name	Data Type
   "معرف_المنتج"	Number
   "اسم_المنتج"	Text (50 char)
   "سعر الوحدة"	Currency

   
   
2. Enter sample items in the WSS list
3. Switch to Microsoft Access and open the sample database
4. From the File menu, select Get External Data then select Link Tables
5. From the Link dialog box, select File type to be Windows Share Point Services.
6. The linking wizard will appear, type the URL of the WSS site in the Location box
7. The wizard will display the lists and document libraries available on the WSS site; select the list "المنتجات".
8. Select to link one or more lists and deselect the check box "retrieve lookup column" and click .
9. The WSS list now is a linked table in your database. Rename that table to be "المنتجات"
10. Open the form "المنتجات", the form will display the records entered in STS
11. Modify one of the records and save the changes.
12. Add new record from the same form and save it
13. Switch to the WSS list and show the audience that the changes applied

XML Enhancements

Exporting Related Tables

With Access 2003, you can export tables, queries and reports that contain Arabic data to XML format. During the export process, you can select other related tables to export it as well. For example, you can export the customers’ data along with their orders. You can choose to export related tables on further nested levels. For example, you can export customers, orders and order details tables. The exported data from all selected tables is stored in one XML file. Access 2003 supports exporting tables with Arabic names, fields and data.

Exporting related tables to XML format

As XML standards specifies tree structure for tags and data, Access 2003 exports related tables as a tree with nested nodes; each node represent a single record that may have related records represented as sub-nodes.

To export related tables in XML format:

1. Select the table you want to export
2. From the File menu, select Export
3. In the Export Table dialog box, select XML as the file type. Access 2003 will automatically suggest the table name as a default name for the XML file.
4. Click on Export, the Export XML dialog box will appear
5. From the dialog box, click the button More Options
6. Access 2003 will display the selected table along with all related tables in a tree view. You can select the tables you want to export in the same XML file

Supporting Data Transformation

Access 2003 generates several files when exporting table, query or report to XML format. The exported files include the following:

• HTML file that contains the script to build the data for HTML browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer.
• XML file that contains the data in XML format.
• XSL file (optionally) that contains transformation and layout properties for the exported data.
• XSD file (optionally) that contains data types information for the exported data fields.

Additionally, you can specify user-defined transformation file (XSL, XSLT) by clicking the button Transformations on the XML export dialog box. The Export Transformations dialog box allows you to select the transformation you want to apply on the exported data.

Specifying the transformation file (XSLT) for exported data

Office Online

Now with Office Systems 2003, you have online-localized Arabic site that has all the information you need. The site contains helpful information on how to do daily tasks, tips and workarounds, technical articles, clips, training content and Arabic localized templates. The site is updated regularly with new content, keep checking the site for getting the most out of Office Systems.

To reach Office Online

Make sure your regional settings is Arabic

1. Launch MS Access 2003 with Arabic UI
2. Press F1 to bring the Help on task pane
3. Click on Connect to Microsoft Office Online
4. When the site page opens, demo the training sessions and tips exist on the site
5. Download one of the templates on the site to show the audience how useful to use these templates to faster their daily work

Conclusion

Most of the new features in Access 2003 support Arabic. Existing features already enhanced to have better Arabic support. Now you can develop your application with everything with Arabic look and feel. Arabic data handled without affecting other applications or older versions of Access