Table of contents

1. Introduction



2. System Requirements for Office Project 2007
   
   
3. What is the Arabic language support?
   
   
4. Adding Arabic support to the Windows
   
   4.1  Adding Arabic language support to Vista
   
   4.2  Setting the format for a specific Arabic region
   
   
   
5. New features and Arabic Support
   
   5.1  The main page and menus
   
   5.2  Using Hindi numbers
   
   5.3  Calendar Format
   
     5.3.1  Currency format
   
   5.4  Text direction
   
   5.5  Highlight specific data with cell shading
   
   5.6  Assign cost resources across multiple tasks and projects
   
   5.7  Show the impact of your changes
   
   
   
6. For more information:

Introduction:

Microsoft Office Project 2007 gives you powerful project management tools with the blend of usability, power, and flexibility, so you can manage projects more efficiently and effectively. You can stay informed and control project work, schedules, and finances, keep project teams aligned, and are more productive through integration with familiar Microsoft Office system programs, powerful reporting, guided planning, and flexible tools.

This article is a guideline to help Arabic users to work on Microsoft Project 2007 and use Arabic Data.

System Requirements for Office Project 2007

What is the Arabic language support?

We mean by Arabic language support the support added to the product to enable handling of Arabic data and to ensure that Arabic data can be saved and recovered successfully in Arabic Project 2007 environment. In this document we will try to cover how to work with Arabic environment and the level of Arabic support in Project 2007.

Adding Arabic support to the Windows

Adding Arabic language support to Vista

To add the Arabic language support in English version of Windows, you need to follow these instructions:

• Click on "Start" button and then select "Control Panel".
• Beneath "Clock, Language, and Region" area select "Change keyboards or other input methods" link. Note: If you are in the Control Panel "Classic View" then double-click on "Regional and Language Options" icon and click on the tab "keyboard and languages".
• Click on the "Change keyboards..." button then click on "Add..." button.
• Expand "Arabic (your Country)" tree then Expand "Keyboard" tree from the list.
• Make a check mark beside the required keyboard(s).
  Note:You can preview any keyboard before adding it by highlighting its name then click on "Preview..." button.
• Click "OK" to add the selected keyboards to the "Installed Services".
• Click "OK" to confirm and apply your new language settings.

Setting the format for a specific Arabic region

Users can set the format of their numbers and currency through following steps:

• Click on "Start" button and select "Control Panel".
• Beneath "Clock, Language, and Region" select "Change keyboards or other input methods".
  Note: If you are in the Control Panel "Classic View" then double-click on "Regional and Language Options".
• Select the "Formats" tab and from the drop down list select the language and country as you want.

New features and Arabic Support

The Arabic version of Microsoft Office Project 2007 is fully Arabic localized including the interface, Menus, portals, and help. And in the following pages you will see a quick overview of this Arabic support in the Project Standard.

The main page and menus

The Arabic version of Microsoft Office Project 2007 is fully localized not as Microsoft Office 2003 or Office 2002. The main page displays all menus and tools about the tasks and all appear localized properly.

Using Hindi numbers

To force Microsoft Project 2007 to use Hindi numbers, we must to set the default numbers in Control Panel - Regional Options to use HINDI and National Arabic Settings.

Calendar Format

Microsoft Project 2007 is using its own calendar systems (Hijri or Gregorian) and doesn't use the Windows systems Format.
Microsoft Project 2007 uses three types of calendar Gregorian, Hijri and Thai Buddhist and it uses the system Calendar only to get the current date and set its calendar.
Note: Microsoft Office Project 2007 does not support Um Al-Qura format even if you use Vista operating system because Microsoft Project 2007 is using its own calendar systems and doesn't follow the Windows systems Format.

Users can set the calendar through following steps:

1. Select the Tools menu
2. Select Options
3. Select the View Tab
4. In Calendar type dropdown menu, select the type of calendar that you want to display.

Currency format

Microsoft Office Project 2007 supported the Arabic currency format; the unit of currency doesn't follow the Windows System format, so you must to set the currency as you want.

Users can set the currency through following steps:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the View tab.
2. In the Symbol box, type the symbol of the currency that you want to use.
3. In the Placement box, select the position that you want the currency symbol to occupy.
4. In the Decimal digits box, select the number of digits after the decimal that you want to display.

Text direction

One of the important steps to get more directed to the localization is changing the direction to be Right to Left (RTL).

The way to do this is through the main menu:

1. Select the Tools menu.
2. Select Options.
3. Select the Edit Tab.
4. In the select the text Direction Options select the Right to Left radio button.

Highlight specific data with cell shading

In Microsoft Office Project 2007, you can highlight cells in a sheet view to display a different background color. The Arabic language appears readable and effective with this feature.

Steps for highlight cells:

1. In a sheet, click the cells that you want to highlight, to select multiple cells hold CTRL and click each cell that you want to highlight, you cannot select more than 10 cells at one time..
2. Drop down list the Format menu, click font.
3. From Background Color list select the color that you want to highlight it.

Assign cost resources across multiple tasks and projects

All units of resources are fully localized, but the unit of currency doesn't follow the currency system format, cost resources allow you to more accurately monitor project financials and synchronize your project with data in your accounting systems. For each task, you can assign multiple arbitrary costs (not based on work time) and use custom fields to specify cost type or financial code.

1. Select the View menu.
2. Select the Recourse Sheet.
3. In Type column, dropdown the menu in any cell and select any type as you want to set.

Show the impact of your changes

Turn on change highlighting to help identify the impact of each change you make in your project plan and the user will notice how this feature reflect in Arabic version of Microsoft Office 2007when see that those arrows appear Right To Left (RTL) properly.

For more information:

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, this document 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. The information represents the product at the time this document was printed and should be used for planning purposes only. Information is subject to change at any time without prior notice.

This document is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS DOCUMENT.

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