Arabic website with XARA WD

**denjean** · 10 February 2013, 06:36 PM

Hello.
I would like to make a website in Arabic Language, but I am having a problem with text, because when I type in Arabic text I get an unrecognizable characters.
Does XARA WD support Unicode text (in particular Arabic Text)???
and if so, how can I configure the page to recognize Arabic text??
Thanks in advance...

**gwpriester** · 10 February 2013, 09:31 PM

Welcome to TalkGraphics

I am not sure. Someone will have the answer.

**jon404** · 11 February 2013, 04:13 AM

Hi Denjean -- I'll try answering this.

First. You can get an Arabic character font. But your keyboard won't 'map' correctly ... you'll need to get an Arabic keyboard. After that, you should be able to type and enter Arabic text. Now, IF the Arabic font is NOT copy-protected, Xara WD will generate a web page with a little file that has your font... and you'll publish the page and its supporting files... and be able to see the text displayed in Arabic in the browser.

Second. Unicode. In Xara, you can select Arial Unicode, or Times Roman Unicode, but it won't do you any good, because Xara does not have an 'insert>symbol' command. So all you will see are the English characters. But! If you have Word, or PowerPoint, you can do Insert > Symbol to see ALL the thousands of characters in, say, the Arial Unicode font. And you'll find the Arabic section, and can then copy the characters you need to PowerPoint -- one by one -- and re-arrange them to properly spell out a headline, or a short sentence.

Then, you can copy-paste the Unicode characters into Xara WD. When you publish your web page, the Arial Unicode font will go along with the page, and display perfectly in all the major browsers. You can also export the page as a PDF, and Xara WD automatically embeds the Unicode characters in the PDF so others can always view them as you designed. The Microsoft Unicode fonts work fine; they are NOT copy-protected.

Obviously, the above process is only workable for adding small bits of Arabic. But for a real all-Arabic or mostly-Arabic website, I'd find an Arabic-speaker in your community who has an 'Arabic' PC all set up and running... maybe with an Arabic version of MS Word... and then you could type up the page-content text on that PC, transfer the Word file as a .doc or as a .pdf into Xara WD, and use Xara's graphic capabilities to make it really look good. I would DEFINITELY use some of the beautiful Arabic calligraphy as a background design motif.

Hope this helps!