PT8 project using an Arabic script RTL font for a Roman script project

Question

We just recently migrated a set of parallel Roman/Arabic script projects. Note that the parallel is “manual”, not a PT8 transliteration using Encoding Converter, so in a sense they are two independent projects, but with the same language code (shu). For one team member who only has the RS project, everything appears fine. For the two machines that have both the RS and AS projects, there is a weird use of the AS font (Scheherazade) for some of the functions in the RS project. The text itself appears fine in the main project window (using Times New Roman font), but if you Insert > Note…, all of a sudden it starts using Scheherazade font, and thinks that it is RTL:

image.png875×375 51 KB

Note the period at the left, but it was typed last. There are similar problems with texts that are displayed in the Biblical terms and Parallel passages tools. All of the language settings appear to be correct in Paratext (specifically not RTL).

In poking around, I found the shu.ldml file, which seems to contain language settings. It ends like this:

sil:external-resources<sil:font name=“Scheherazade” /><sil:font name=“Times New Roman” /></sil:external-resources>

Is that where it is getting Scheherazade to use in those tools? But why would it be using it, and why are things RTL? Can I just delete that element from the ldml file? Seems kind of dangerous to me, and doesn’t seem like it would address the RTL problem anyway. I’d appreciate any help you can give me.

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Answer 1

In Paratext 8.0+, the language code identifies the language, not the name. I think the problem is that the languages for both projects are using the same language code. If one is a transliteration of a RTL language in LTR, then you should add some script information to the code for the LTR version (e.g. shu-Latn).

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Answer 2

Thank you. That was the correct diagnosis, and your suggestion resolved the problem. In the Paratext registry for the projects online (you can’t make changes to language settings from within Paratext), I clicked on the Advanced checkbox next to Language and it showed me options such as Script. So I selected Latin (so the code became shu-Latn) for the RS version and Arabic (shu-Arab) for the AS version.

When I had done the project configuration before, I hadn’t noticed the Advanced checkbox. I think I was thrown off by the Dialect field which appears below the Language field. I was expecting to have to select Arabic script for the AS projects, but the Dialect drop-down menu didn’t show me anything that seemed to apply. So I just skipped over it at the time, not even noticing the Advanced checkbox to the right of the Language field. Maybe that page could be redesigned so that the Advanced checkbox appears below the Language field rather than to the right of it, so it’s more noticeable? And maybe some additional help can be provided next to it as well, something like:

[ ] Advanced (check this box to specify script, region or variant options)

But the problem has been resolved. Thanks.

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Answer 3

Hi jeffh,

I don’t think I can be of much help here. Iska, any ideas? My one thought is that maybe it’s a keyboard issue. What keyboards do you have each project set for?

Sorry,

Ron

P.S. I didn’t see a 2nd image for the ldml file

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Comments

This was resolved by setting the script in each project, shu-Latn and shu-Arab.

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