Arabic-L:GEN:Mellel Word Processor for Mac OS X

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Thu 18 Sep 2003
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject:Mellel Word Processor for Mac OS X
2) Subject:Mellel Word Processor for Mac OS X

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1)
Date: 18 Sep 2003
From: Albrecht Hofheinz <Albrecht_Hofheinz at web.de>
Subject:Mellel Word Processor for Mac OS X

Mellel is not only the only fully left-to-right script capable Mac OS X
application so far, but has also received very high praise as a word
processor in itself, to compete with MS Word. Users who have nothing to
do with left-to-right script give it high marks. Have a look for
yourself at

http://versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/13254

 From the Product Description:
Mellel is an advanced, multi-lingual word processor built for Mac OS X.
Designed for scholars and writers it offers innovative implementation
of such powerful options as page, paragraph and character styles,
tables, headers and footers, the most advanced footnotes/endnotes tool,
innovative tabs, and much more.

I would also be interested in more in-depth reviews specifically taking
into account how it handles Arabic (not least, importing of Arabic
documents). Haven't had time to do this myself yet. Mellel does not
directly open MS Word files, you have to go through RTF (where
apparently there still are some glitches). One thing I have tried: I
have been able to open Windows MS Word Arabic files by first opening
them in MS Word for OS X, then selecting all and selecting an Arabic
font for all the text, then copying this and pasting it into Mellel.
Also works if pasted into TextEdit and similar applications, but with
Mellel you get the left-to-right orientation.

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2)
Date: 18 Sep 2003
From: Frederic Lagrange <fredlag at noos.fr>
Subject:Mellel Word Processor for Mac OS X

I have been working with Mellel for two months and find it to be an
outstanding software. I highly recommend it. Some technical points :

- Mellel being based on Unicode, it now allows us Mac users to read
files in Arabic produced with MS Word for Windows, provided they're
saved in the .rtf format. Inversely, we can export files to the .rtf
format that will be perfectly read by Windows users. This is a huge
step forward in the field of communication between the two platforms.

- Some advice concerning Mellel -> Nisus and Nisus -> Mellel exchanges
of documents.
a) Nisus -> Mellel : simple copy and paste perfectly works. You will
get squares, then select the whole text and choose Arabic as a script
for
the secondary font, and an Arabic font. You can also choose an Arabic
font as main font. If you want to transfer a whole Nisus text with
footnotes, "copy and paste" won't do the trick, though. The way to do it
is : export your Nisus text as rtf (in the "save as" menu), then import
it in Mellel as rtf and choose in the import  window "Arabic(Mac)" as
encoding (automatic detection won't work). The soft will choose Lucida
grande as the default font, but your document and its footnotes are
there.
b) Mellel -> Nisus : copy and paste doesn't work, you can't paste
Unicode in Nisus. So :
- in Mellel, export your file as ordinary text (.txt) using Arabic(Mac)
as encoding instead of default. Open with Nisus thru the Open menu. You
will get strange letters and signs. Then force Nisus to read it with an
Arabic font : select all, and choose an Arabic font while pressing
option (alt) + cap. It works!
c) presenting poetry in two 3amud-s : Mellel doesn't have a
"justification tab" like Nisus, but you'll get the same result by
making a table, with invisible lines and justification in the cells.The
solution was suggested by the developper of Mellel, and it is quite
satisfactory, though not as elegant as the Nisus 'tab justification"
because Mellel doesn't handle kashidas yet, so it stretches the spaces
between Arabic words instead of stretching the words themselves. This
should be solved in a later version when Mellel handles Kashidas,
according to Ori Reddler.

Mellel support answers mails within 48 hours and is extremely helpful
and dedicated to its software. So in conclusion, once again, I very
highly recommend it.

Frederic Lagrange
Universite de Paris IV Sorbonne
Departement d'Etudes Arabes et Hebraiques

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End of Arabic-L:  18 Sep 2003