Microsoft® Office InfoPath™ 2003 Service Pack 1, With Arabic Support
White Paper
Index
Introduction
InfoPath 2003 can help teams and organizations efficiently gather the information they need through rich, dynamic forms. The information collected can then easily be reused throughout organizations and across business processes because InfoPath 2003 supports industry-standard Extensible Markup Language (XML) using any customer-defined schema.
InfoPath introduced additional support for viewing and editing Arabic language documents as part of Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 1. In this document we will introduce you to these enhancements.
Download and Install Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 1
Microsoft® Office InfoPath™ 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) provides bug fixes and feature enhancements for all InfoPath users, including Arabic users. This update is only available as part of the complete Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 1.
Arabic users can get more information and download from the following location:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=9C51D3A6-7CB1-4F61-837E-5F938254FC47
Installation requirements
Installation requires Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003 to be installed on the machine.
Arabic features are not enabled in any Office application unless Arabic support has been enabled for Office applications. This can be done through the Start menu, then Programs, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office Tools, and then by choosing “Microsoft Office 2003 Language Settings”.
Entering Arabic data will also require that Arabic is a supported language for your version of Windows.
For more information please refer to the following KB article:
"Set the Language for System default and User local for Windows XP and Windows 2000"
Updating InfoPath SP1 Preview with Office 2003 SP1
If InfoPath 2003 SP1 Preview is previously installed, users should uninstall the InfoPath 2003 SP1 Preview prior to installing Office 2003 SP1. For more information, please refer to the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article (873040): Information to consider before you apply Office 2003
Arabic support
What do we mean by Arabic Support?
InfoPath is now able to fill in forms using Arabic, create forms that are designed to allow for Arabic content, and configure forms and controls to allow for right-to-left or left-to-right data entry.
InfoPath does not contain support for the Arabic Multilingual User Interface. While designing and filling forms allows for right-to-left layouts, the application itself is not capable of showing menus and dialogs in Arabic.
Note: The Hijri calendar is not supported in InfoPath.
Prior to Office 2003 Service Pack 1, Arabic users had very limited ability to view Arabic data, and no ability to create forms that had true right-to-left layout.
Figure 1: Left-to-Right form with right alignment in InfoPath
Align the forms to the Right will not help Arabic users to create RTL documents.(Figure 1)
Right-to-Left Layout
Once you have enabled Arabic as a language for Microsoft Office 2003, you will have several options to create forms in InfoPath which have right-to-left text direction.
Figure 2: Right-to-Left toolbar buttons in InfoPath with Service Pack 1
Form, Paragraph and Control Direction
Users now have the option of changing paragraph or document text direction.
- Right-to-Left Form
- Left-to-Right Form
- Right-to-Left Paragraph and Control
- Left-to-Right Paragraph and Control
For users whose default editing language is Arabic, InfoPath will create forms with right-to-left direction by default.
Arabic users can create forms which have Controls that have either right-to-left or left-to-right direction. This allows forms that have mostly right-to-left text content to still contain fields where the data is expected to be left-to-right text.
Figure 3: A form with a right-to-left bulleted list, calendar and dropdown list box.
Arabic and Hindi numerals
Arabic users can use Arabic or Hindi numbers according to their settings in Windows system (Regional and Language Options in the Control Panel).
Hijri Calendar
InfoPath can not view dates that follow the Hijri calendar. It will display all dates using a Gregorian calendar. Changing Windows settings will not change the use of a Gregorian calendar in InfoPath.
Figure 4: Calendar Control in InfoPath with Service Pack 1
Arabic feature addition overview
Here is a comparison of what is available using InfoPath 2003 Service Pack 1
| Entering Arabic Data (XML) |
 |
|
| Arabic / Hindi numerals |
|
|
| Arabic Tooltips |
|
|
| Schemas with Arabic characters |
|
|
| Right-to-Left Text and Layout |
 |
|
| Right-to-Left Controls |
|
|
| Hijri Calendar |
|
|
| Localized menus |
|
|
| Localized Samples |
|
|
Table 1: Arabic features in InfoPath with SP1
Known Issues
The following issues are some known problems and the workaround in InfoPath with Service Pack 1:
Entering right-to-left text in a left-to-right field
Forms which contain a left-to-right field that is inside a table will crash if right-to-left text is entered. The crash will occur when the field is visually filled with text.
This problem can be avoided by making the field right-to-left, or by removing it from any tables.
Spelling Context Menu
When users right click on a spelling error contained in a right-to-left area, the context menu may appear in an unexpected location. Users can still select items from the menu, or access spelling options through Spelling on the Tools menu.
Horizontal Lines
There are several templates where the horizontal line does not get mirrored in preview mode. However, in design mode when you click the left and then right buttons the line is corrected.
Figure 5 - Horizontal Lines in RTL direction
Header Titles not getting flipped (Preview/Design Mode)
The header title may not get mirrored correctly when the user clicks on the right-to-left document button. The following templates are not being correctly mirrored after this button is switched:
- Absence Request
- Change Order
- Invoice Request (both)
- Issue Tracking (both)
- Sales Report
- Travel Request
- Vendor Information.
Text Boxes inside table cells (RTL InfoPath Builds)
There are several template where the text box which is embedded inside a table cell does not get right aligned when click on a solution to see the preview, or you are in design mode and click preview. This problem is fixed when you click the left-to-right document button (in design mode) and then click the right-to-left document button.
Figure 6 - Text Boxes inside table cells
Handling Date Issues within Templates
RTL Enabled Builds
In the current builds, there are a number of templates such as the Absence Request or Expense report where the date picker field is not appearing in preview mode. To fix this problem, please go into Design Mode and alternate between aligning the document to the Left and then the Right, the Date picker control appears.
Figure 7 - Handling Date Issues within Templates
Disclaimer
The information contained in this document represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication.
This White Paper is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS DOCUMENT.
Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user. Without limiting the rights under copyright, no part of this document may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), or for any purpose, without the express written permission of Microsoft Corporation.
Microsoft may have patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights covering subject matter in this document. Except as expressly provided in any written license agreement from Microsoft, the furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property.
The example companies, organizations, products, people and events depicted herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, person or event is intended or should be inferred.
© 2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Microsoft, BizTalk, Active Directory, Windows, and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
Other product or company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Microsoft Corporation • One Microsoft Way • Redmond, WA 98052-6399 • USA
|
