Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 and Arabic: Word, PowerPoint, Outlook and Excel

Update on April 28th: I got the chance to try Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 beta 2. I discovered the following: Arabic letters do not render properly in Microsoft Word for Mac 2011 (first picture). However it works find in Microsoft Outlook, PowerPoint and Excel (next 3 screen-shots).

Update: According to Apple-wd Word does support Arabic.

Remember that this is not the final product.

Update: The direction button isn’t for switching to RTL. Arabic letters are disconnected. No Arabic support until now.

Boy Genius Report has posted a hands on with Microsoft Office for Mac 2011, Microsoft’s upcoming Mac version of their office suite. No word about Arabic support in the suite.

However it appears that there is a “Direction” button in Word for Mac 2011.The Direction button is for writing up to down text. We’re hoping that we will see Arabic and Right to Left (RTL/BiDi) support in Office for Mac 2011. Microsoft has avoided supporting RTL languages such as Arabic and Hebrew.

Thanks Yousuf Omar for noticing that button.

Arabic version of this post on SaudiMac.net.

Looks like Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 beta 2 has been leaked. We do not recommend installing unofficial software.

Related posts:

1. Demand Arabic in Microsoft Office for Mac 2011
2. Bad Arabic support in Microsoft Office for Mac 2011
3. Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 doesn’t supports Arabic
4. Arabic Still Missing in Office 2011 for Mac SP1 Update
5. Microsoft Middle East’s press release regarding Office for Mac 2011
6. MS Office 2008 for Mac SP2, still no Arabic
7. Neo Office, an alternative for Microsoft Office for Mac
8. Office 2008 For mac
9. Microsoft dawdles over supporting Arab Mac users