Office 2016 for mac Does Not Support Arabic or (RTL)

Anonymous

Hello all,

I have been waiting so long for the next version of office for mac, and once again Microsoft is dropping the support for RTL languages. I could not find a reason for that as it can edit any arabic file without any issue. I have contacted Microsoft support and I have been told to use onedrive to create any Arabic document. I am just looking for an answer, why Microsoft is ditching the RTL languages support, I do not know any valid reason for that.

I wish that we raise this to get support for the (RTL) Arabic and Hebrew languages because I am really unhappy. Please add your input to this discussion.

Thank you all :)

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Jim G 134K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2015-07-24T15:12:35+00:00

When will Office 2016 for Mac be available in Arabic, Hebrew and other right-to-left languages?

From this blog: “We’ve heard your feedback and questions about right-to-left (RTL) language support. We are committed to doing RTL languages for Office for Mac. We are currently working through timing and will communicate our plans when we have a clearer sense of the timeline.

Note, we already announced support for RTL documents in Word, Excel and PowerPoint for iPad and iPhone coming this summer, and we are on track to deliver it. And we will release additional updates for RTL languages shortly after the iOS 9 release.”
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Anonymous

2015-08-16T12:50:51+00:00

Thanks a lot. This is a great news.
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Anonymous

2015-08-09T18:08:04+00:00

According to this blog by a Microsoft VP, they definitely plan to put R2L on Office 2016 for Mac. Meanwhile, you could use something like Nisus.

I find that Hebrew looks quite good in MS Word 2016 if you use Times New Roman font. Of course, you have to be very careful about it, because words or letters will be backwards if you just type it in. You can cut and paste from something like Apple Notes, but again, be careful and proofread.

If you have an Office doc in which the Hebrew was put in using Word 2013 for Windows, it will be correct when you open the file in Word for Mac 2016.

Here is yet another workaround. If you have the iOS version of Word, you can actually input Hebrew on an iPhone or iPad, and it will show up properly in Word 2016. The limitation here is that the Hebrew keyboard is fairly limited on iOS.

I don't know about Arabic, but I assume it is similar with regard to all of the above.

Meanwhile, it will all be a lot easier once MS releases an update that enables R2L in Word 2016. But I am confident that it will happen.
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Jim G 134K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2015-08-09T17:49:38+00:00

is ipad and iphone more importent than mac laptops !!!

and is there any solution for now?

Obviously Apple and Microsoft think mobile computing (ipad, phone, Android) is far more important than desktop computing. Desktops are ancient history and these companies are doing their best to wean us off the concept of personal computing as something we ought to have.

The solution for now is to either wait until Microsoft is ready to support RTL or use something else.
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Anonymous

2015-08-09T16:59:37+00:00

" Note, we already announced support for RTL documents in Word, Excel and PowerPoint for iPad and iPhone coming this summer, and we are on track to deliver it. And we will release additional updates for RTL languages shortly after the iOS 9 release."

is ipad and iphone more importent than mac laptops !!!

and is there any solution for now?
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Office 2016 for mac Does Not Support Arabic or (RTL)

17 answers