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Come Inside... => The Computer Room => Topic started by: Pastis on October 08, 2009, 02:49:08 PM

Title: A puzzle
Post by: Pastis on October 08, 2009, 02:49:08 PM
I'm trying to puzzle something out  rubschin:

A customer of mine (A) has a visit this morning from one of his customers (B). He needs some information to appear on some work I'll put together. So, B hands over a memory stick to A's secretary and she puts it a laptop and prints it out; it's in Arabic. She then emails me the document in the hope that I can use it.
All I get is a sequence of:

☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐
☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐
☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

I figure that's because I don't have the font or at least Word doesn't know which font to display the information in.
The puzzle is how do I get hold of the Arabic text  rubschin:
Title: Re: A puzzle
Post by: Barman on October 08, 2009, 02:59:17 PM
Normally it asks you if you want to download the appropriate font.  rubschin:

Unless you clicked 'never download fonts in future' the last time it asked!   point:
Title: Re: A puzzle
Post by: Pastis on October 08, 2009, 03:20:18 PM
 rubschin:    I'll check.
Title: Re: A puzzle
Post by: Grumpmeister on October 08, 2009, 03:22:57 PM
Possibly a daft question but are you sure this is formatted as a word document. I seen similar displays when the program you use treats the formatting code as text.
Title: Re: A puzzle
Post by: tel on October 08, 2009, 03:29:03 PM
I second that. It looks like it is a non Word doc or a very different version.

Try using Notepad and see what results you get.
Title: Re: A puzzle
Post by: Pastis on October 08, 2009, 03:44:22 PM
I know what it should actually be; it's a general warning statement, i.e. Don't spray this deodorant up yer nose  lol:, but it's in Arabic. I suspect the secretary has brought it into a word document because the titling is typical. In which case I guess GM and tel are probably right.
Font substitution on Word tells me the original was Colibri which I think is the latest general purpose font; that would seem to confirm that it's wrong because the original should have been an Arabic font.  rubschin:

In days of yore I'd send the English text to an Arabic typesetters and receive it back in a format I could use.   ::)
Title: Re: A puzzle
Post by: Grumpmeister on October 08, 2009, 03:47:27 PM
Just a thought but try and import it into a powerpoint slide. Its designed for different formatting styles so you may be able to cut and paste it into a new word doc from there.
Title: Re: A puzzle
Post by: Pastis on October 08, 2009, 03:50:21 PM
Will try ... BRB

Well, blimey guvnor!  Who's a clever boy then?  lol:


[ I've pulled the picture ~ can't be too careful these days  whistle:  ]

Well done GM  happy088. Now I just need to figure out how to get it across to Freehand MX or Illustrator  whistle:
Title: Re: A puzzle
Post by: Snoopy on October 08, 2009, 05:26:21 PM
'spect it says something like "Remove top then push up bottom and may Allah be Merciful"
Title: Re: A puzzle
Post by: Miss Demeanour on October 08, 2009, 05:33:57 PM
I'm sure Pastis's Google searches on decoding Arabic text won't have been picked up by anyone at all  whistle:
Title: Re: A puzzle
Post by: Pastis on October 08, 2009, 05:39:14 PM
 scared2: scared2:

The middle sentence says: "And for Allah's sake don't use this in the O2 Arena; you'll get 150 years!"
Title: Re: A puzzle
Post by: Bar Wench on October 17, 2009, 01:56:36 PM
Could also be a problem between the printer and the computer. Sometimes with non western language they refuse to print it.