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How do I type Arabic in my posts?

There are many good software programs that allow you to enter characters from the Unicode character set. I use BabelPad and have found its technical support to be responsive and helpful. Microsoft Word and Open Office both have foreign language support, though you may need to install plugins to get that support.

You will also need a font that has the Arabic characters drawn. I use a TrueType font called Scheherazade.

Reply to this post if you know of other good programs and fonts.

You can switch the keyboard from English to Arabic and vice versa on a Windows PC if you enable the language bar. To do that, go to the Control Panel and open the "Regional and Language Options" control panel. Then click on the "Details" button in the "Text Services and Input Languages" section,



The following window will appear. Select the "Language Bar" button in the "Preferences" section at the bottom,



Then configure its options as you prefer,



I like to have the language bar on the task bar, so I minimize it.

The following may be helpful to Unix users:

http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/arabic.html