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 presents an overview of the new Arabic features in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services. It highlights and includes examples of the ways the new features support Arabic languages.

Index

1. Introduction
2. Regional settings for sites
3. Document workspace sites
   
   3.1  Creating a document workspace site from word 2003
   
   3.2  Setting document workspace site options
   
   3.3  Tasks lists
   
   3.4  Links lists
   
   
4. Lists
   
   4.1  Filtering data
   
   4.2  Sorting characters
   
   4.3  Calculated columns
   
   4.4  Datasheet view
   
   4.5  Events lists
   
   4.6  Surveys
   
   
5. Web part connections
6. Access and excel integration with windows sharepoint services
7. Conclusion

Introduction

Using Windows® SharePoint® Services makes it easy for teams and individuals to create Web sites for sharing information sharing and collaborating on documents. Windows SharePoint Services sites allow you and your coworkers to work together on documents, tasks, contacts, events, and other information. This white paper presents detailed information about the Arabic support in Windows SharePoint Services. This white paper also covers information about using Windows SharePoint Services with Microsoft Office 2003.

Regional Settings for Sites

• Language You can set your site language to match your regional settings. Windows SharePoint Services supports many Arabic languages for different countries such as Arabic (Egypt) and Arabic (Saudi Arabia). When you choose the region. the date format will be set according to the selected region. For example, if you choose Arabic (Egypt), the date will appear in Gregorian calendar, while the calendar will be set to Hijri when you select Arabic (Saudi Arabia). You can create as many subsites with different language settings as you want.
• Calendar Type You can control the calendar used to display dates on the site. Date fields displayed on the site include Creation Date, Modified Date and any user-defined field of type date/time. Calendar Type supports using Hijri calendar with any field of type date/time.
• Hijri Date Setting You can use this option to adjust the Hijri date value used within your site by a number of days that ranges from (-2) to (+2).
• Sort order You can control the sort order used for text fields such as the names and descriptions of items in lists. The sort order setting supports using Arabic sort order that consider kashida and diacritics. This setting also applies to custom views that sort a list view based on text field.
• Time zone Setting the time zone affects the value of date and time fields such as start time and end time in an events list. For example, if you select Kazablanka (GMT) and create an event that starts at 04:00 PM, the start time of this event will appear as 06:00 PM when the time zone is changed to be Cairo (GMT +02:00).
• Time format You can specify whether to display time in 12-hour or 24-hour format.

  
  
  Fig 1: Regional settings in the Arabic edition of Microsoft Window SharePoint Services

To adjust the regional settings of your site:

1. On the site that you want to change settings for, click Site Settings.
2. On the Site Settings page, click Go to Site Administration.
3. On the Site Management page, in the Management and Statistics section, click Change regional settings.
4. On the Regional Settings page, select the settings you want for your site. For example, in the Locale box, click Arabic (Saudi Arabia).
5. Click OK to apply the changes.

Note: You can choose Arabic language on any version of Windows SharePoint Services, even an English version.

Document Workspace Sites

A Document Workspace site is a Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services site that is centered on one or more documents. Arabic users can easily work together on the document— either by working directly on the Document Workspace site's copy or by working on their own copy, which they can synchronize periodically with the copy in the Document Workspace site. Document Workspace sites also include some basic lists by default. If you use Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003, you can create a Document Workspace site with an Arabic name that may include Kashida or diacritics when you use e-mail to send a document as a shared attachment. As the sender of the shared attachment, you become the owner of the Document Workspace site, and all the recipients become members of the Document Workspace site, where they automatically have permissions to view and change the document.
You can also create a Document Workspace site from Microsoft Office Word 2003, or from your browser in Windows SharePoint Services.
You can use word to interact with two of the lists on a Document Workspace site – the Tasks list and the Links list.

Creating a Document Workspace Site from Word 2003

1. Open Microsoft Office Word 2003.
2. On the Tools menu, click Shared Workspace.
3. In the Shared Workspace task pane, click or type the URL of a Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Web site (which you have permission to create Document Workspace site at this Web site) where the Document Workspace site will be located.
4. Click Create.
5. On the Members tab of the Shared Workspace task pane, click Add new members.
6. Type user names or e-mail addresses for the members you want to invite to the Document Workspace site, separated by semicolons.

Fig 2: Creating a Document Workspace site from Word 2003

Setting Document Workspace Site Options

When working with a Document Workspace site, you have full control over what Word should do when opening a document from a Document Workspace site. You can choose how often to save changes made to that document and how often to update the document with changes made through the Document Workspace site.

To set Document Workspace site options:

1. Open Microsoft Office Word 2003.
2. On the Tools menu, click Shared Workspace.
3. Click Options.
4. The Service Options dialog box will appear, allowing you to set the desired options.

Figure 3: Document Workspace site options

Note: Changing Document Workspace site options affect all Microsoft Office applications that use Document Workspace sites, such as Microsoft Office Excel 2003 and Microsoft Office PowerPoint® 2003.

Tasks Lists

To make it easier for users who coauthor a document together, you can use Microsoft Word 2003 to add Arabic tasks for Document Workspace site members.
A Tasks list is a To-Do lists for the team members. You can follow the progress of tasks and see what has been done.

To add an Arabic task to the Shared Document Workspace site:

1. In the Tasks tab From the Shared Workspace task pane, click Add new task.
2. In the Title box, enter an Arabic name.
3. Click OK.
4. To view this task, click Open site in browser from the Shared Workspace task pane.

Figure 4: Creating an Arabic task.

Links Lists

A Links list is a list of hyperlinks to Web pages of interest to team members. By using the task pane in Microsoft Word, you can easily add links in Windows SharePoint Services to useful resources and make them available to your team members.

To create a link from Word:

1. In the Tasks tab on the Shared Workspace task pane, click Add new link.
2. In the URL box, type an Arabic URL.
3. In the Description box, type an Arabic description.
4. In the Note box, type an Arabic note.
5. Click OK.
6. To view this URL, click Open site in browser, from the Shared Workspace task pane.

Figure 5: Arabic URLs and Arabic tasks created from Office Word 2003.

Lists

A list is a collection of information that users of a site can share. For example, you can create a sign-up sheet for an event, and site users can fill in his or here information.
SharePoint sites include a set of predefined lists that you can use to quickly start working. Users can immediately fill in items pertinent to the team.
Some of the new features in SharePoint lists are: filtering data, sorting data, creating calculated fields, and using Datasheet view.
Specific kinds of lists that have new features for Arabic languages are events lists and surveys.

Filtering Data

You can focus only on the items you want to deal with by limiting the number of items displayed in a list. For example, you can filter the list of announcements to see only those created on certain date. In another example, you can filter the list of URLs added by your team members to see only those added by certain person. Data filtering supports filtering Arabic content that includes diacritics.
To filter data in announcements list

1. In the announcements list, click on Filter.
2. A box appears above the names of all columns. This box lists all of the distinct values in that column.
3. Select one of the values in any column's box to filter the items displayed.

Data filtering considers Arabic words with Kashida or diacritics as different items. For example when having the same Arabic value with different diacritics such as "مُنال" and "منال", the two values will appear as distinct in the filtering box.

Figure 6: Filtering Arabic values with different diacritics in the filter box.

Sorting Characters

User can sort items by storing the criteria for the sort .Sorting items orders them alphabetically or numerically. Microsoft Window SharePoint Services not only supports sorting Arabic text alphabetically, but also it supports sorting these Arabic text with diacritics and Kashida. Users can sort the list items in ascending or descending order.
To sort alphabetically in a descending order:

1. In the announcements list, create two announcements with Arabic names.
2. Click Modify settings and columns.
3. In the Views section, click a view to change it.
4. On the Edit View page, in the Sort section, in the First sort by the column drop-down list, click Title.



Figure 7: Filtering in descending order by using alphabetical characters.

5. Click Show items in descending order.
6. Click the column you want to sort by next in the Then sort by the column list.



Figure 8: Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services supports sorting the first column alphabetically in descending order.

Calculated Columns

Windows SharePoint Services supports creating a calculated column based on Arabic column names.
In addition, it supports creating this calculated column by using an Arabic formula.
To create a calculate column based upon another column:

1. In the announcements list, click Modify settings and columns.
2. In the Column section, click Add a new column.
3. In the Column name box, enter any Arabic name such as "الاسم الأول".
4. In the Default value box, enter any Arabic name.
5. Click OK.
6. Repeat the previous four steps to add a new column name such as "الاسم الأخير" and in the Default value box add new Arabic text.
7. Click Add a new column.
8. In the Column name box, enter "الاسم بالكامل".
9. In the The type of information in this column is, click Calculated.
10. In the Formula box, add the following formula in Arabic: [الاسم الأخير] & ", " & [الاسم الأول].



Figure 9: Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services supports Arabic formulas for calculated columns.

11. Go back to the announcements list.
12. Add a new item and click Save and Close.

Figure 10: Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services accepts Arabic formulas.

Datasheet View

Datasheet view provides an spreadsheet-like environment for viewing and editing data. It displays the contents of a list or a document library in a grid of rows and columns. Items and columns in the list appear as rows and columns in Datasheet view. Users can add and edit rows and columns, apply filters and sort orders, display calculated values and totals, and more. To use Datasheet view, you must have a client program compatible with Windows SharePoint Services, such as Microsoft Office Excel 2003, installed on your computer.
By using Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services you can apply a filter based on Arabic charters, diacritics and Hijri dates.
The following figures illustrate filtering lists in Datasheet view based on Arabic characters.

Figure 11: Filtering the "First name" column based on the Arabic characters.

Figure 12: The results of the filtering process.

By using Datasheet view, users can filter on Hijri dates and sort in descending and ascending order based on the date and Arabic characters.

Events Lists

The event list is used to post information about dates that are important for your team. By default, creating a SharePoint site creates an events list called Events, a view of which appears on the home page of your site. User can create and access additional views of this list from the Customize Events page. Past events disappear from the home page but are still available on the All Items view of the Events list. You can set the direction of the text to be left-to-right or right-to-left.

Choosing the "Hijri" calendar as a default language regional setting will force users to use Hijri calendar in all SharePoint lists. In events lists, users can set an event recur daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly. Window SharePoint Services supports reoccurrence in a Hijri calendar.

Figure 13: show Windows SharePoint Services supports different reoccurrence options in a Hijri calendar.

Figure 14: How weekly reoccurrence appears in a Hijri calendar.

Surveys

Surveys provide a way of polling team members. User can set up site survey by clicking Documents and Lists in the top link bar and then clicking the survey in the Surveys section. If the survey is set up so that respondents' names are visible, the All Responses view enables you to see how each team member responded. The Graphical Summary view displays a compilation of responses

Surveys provide different built-in questions. Money questions in the surveys list support Arabic region currency such as Rayal for Saudi Arabia, Pound for Egypt, and Dirham for United Arab Emirates.

Figure 15: Money questions in surveys support most Arabic region currency.

Users can create date and time surveys. With the Arabic version of Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services, users can choose different date options.
Users can choose to set the calendar of the survey date to the Current site or to use the Hijri or Gregorian calendars.

Figure 16: Different date options are available in surveys.

Web Part Connections

Users can connect Web Parts together by passing data. For example, you can use a row from one Web Part to change the display of the other Web Part's data. By connecting Web Parts, users can synchronize the behavior of Web Parts and manage data in dynamic and interesting ways. With Web Parts, making data connections is as simple as using menu commands. By connecting Web Parts, users can, for example, present data from two Web Parts in alternate views or filter a Web Part using values from another Web Part.

Windows SharePoint Services supports filtering the contents of some Web Parts based on the content of the other Web Part with diacritics in Arabic words.
To filter using diacritics:

1. In the Contacts list add an item with an Arabic name with diacritics in the Name field. For example: "مُحمد".
2. In the Announcements list add an item with the same Arabic name and with diacritics in the Title field.
3. Add the same name without diacritics in both the Announcements and the Contacts lists. For example: "محمد".
4. Create a connection between the two Web Parts, connecting the Name field in the Contacts list to the Title field in the Announcements list.

Figure 17: The two lists before making the connection.

When you click the Arabic word "مُحمد" in the Contacts list, the Announcements list will display the same word with the same diacritics.

Figure 18: Choosing the word "مُحمد" with diacritics in the contact list causes the Announcements list to display the same word with the same diacritics.

Access and Excel Integration with Windows SharePoint Services

Users can export Windows SharePoint Services lists to Microsoft Office Excel 2003 or Microsoft Office Access 2003. With Access, users can export the list to a table in a new database or to an existing database. Users can also choose to export to a static table, or export to and create a linked table in Access. With Excel, user can export the Datasheet view to an existing worksheet, a new worksheet, or a new workbook. This also creates a link between the Datasheet view and the worksheet and data changes in one can be synchronized with the other.

Figure 19: The task pane in Datasheet view.

By using the task pane in the Datasheet view, users can export the list to the linked table in Office Access 2003

When users create a linked table in Access from Windows SharePoint Services, they create a new table in Access with Arabic data from the Datasheet view. A link is created between the view and the table. Users can change the data in Datasheet view and the changes are automatically reflected in the table. Similarly, users can change the Arabic data in the table and the changes are automatically reflected in Datasheet view.

Figure 20: Exporting a list from Windows SharePoint Services to a linked table in Access with an Arabic field name.

Conclusion

Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services is designed to create Arabic sites and workspaces .In this white paper you learned about some new features in Windows SharePoint Services, including information about Web Ppart connections, lists, Document Workspace sites, and regional settings, and how these new features meet the Arabic language standards such as Hijri date, diacritics, and alphabetical order.

For more information:
For more information, visit the following links
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/techinfo/sharepoint/overview.mspx http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/sharepoint/sysreq.asp http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/techinfo/sharepoint/features.mspx

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