Do All Roads Lead to Rome?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Westborough, Massachusetts, United States of America (Free-Press-Release.com) January 24, 2012 -- Bidirectional support is one of the toughest issues that face software publishers, localizers and translation service providers.

The ability to enter letters, numbers and symbols consistently from left to right as we do with most languages may not be very demanding. But the ability to enter Arabic, Farsi or Hebrew letters from right to left, while also allowing inserting Latin letters, Indian or Arabic numerals and symbols from left to right within the same line, can be a challenging undertaking while correctly developing, localizing and using authoring systems and software applications.

Also, while many consider mirroring to be the correct method for handling localization into bi-directional languages, they forget to keep in mind that mirroring does not apply to the entire content. Numbers and, based on context, directional signals should not be changed regardless of the bidirectional language or medium that the language is rendered in.

A case in point is an actual road sign, displayed in the picture above, that is used on the road in Lebanon. You can see how Arabic readers are directed to go into one direction, while non-Arabic readers are instructed to proceed into the opposite direction. Not intentional I assure you, despite residual local biases against foreigners!

Since from or into Arabic translation services can be tricky to implement, don’t be penny wise and pound foolish. A simple mistake can be severe enough to defeat all your actions. So when in doubt, hire a professional. All roads may lead to Rome, but unnecessary detours can be quite costly and time consuming !

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