1 Controlling directionality with Unicode Characters Yoel Kortick Aleph Support manager

2 Introduction This presentation will show how the appearance of fields with both “right to left” and “left to right” characters may be manipulated. Primary examples are for records which have Arabic or Hebrew together with Latin characters. The manipulation is done by the addition of Unicode directionality characters. This is not a solution unique to Aleph, but rather is a accepted standard.

3 The directionality characters The directionality characters which we will use are: 200E is LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK 200F is RIGHT-TO-LEFT MARK 202C is POP DIRECTIONAL FORMATTING 202A is LEFT-TO-RIGHT EMBEDDING 202B is RIGHT-TO-LEFT EMBEDDING 202D is LEFT-TO-RIGHT OVERRIDE 202E is RIGHT-TO-LEFT OVERRIDE

4 First example We want to catalog a title which will appear as follows: מדריך ל C++. This is Hebrew for “Guide to C++”. When it displays in web OPAC the “C” and the “++” move to different parts of the heading.

5 First example Catalog this: See this in web In cataloging module the “C” automatically jumped to the right In web the “++” should be top the right of the “C”

6 First example See this in web 200E Now we will add the 200E Left-to-right mark No improvement

7 First example Now we will add the 202A Left to Right Embedding See this in web 202A The “C” moved by itself when the 202A was added Now we are just need to move the period to the left.

8 First example See this (perfect) in web 202A 202C Now we will leave the 202A Left to Right Embedding We will also add the 202C POP directional formatting

9 Second example We want to catalog a title which will appear as follows: לדרך ב 4X4: 50 מסלולי שטח This is Hebrew for “On the way with 4X4: 50 all- terrain paths” When cataloging in GUI it appears like this These numbers get reversed

10 Second example In web OPAC the numbers are also reversed: These numbers get reversed

11 Second example Now we will catalog like this 200F And it correctly appears in web like this:

12 Viewing the directionality characters The reason we can see the directionality characters in the GUI is because we have configured to them to show via...\AL500\Alephcom\tab\spacer.ini as follows: !! 200E is LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK E 200E !! 200F is RIGHT-TO-LEFT MARK F 200F !! 202C is POP DIRECTIONAL FORMATTING 25BC 202C 202C !! 202A is LEFT-TO-RIGHT EMBEDDING 250C 202A 202A !! 202B is RIGHT-TO-LEFT EMBEDDING B 202B !! 202D is LEFT-TO-RIGHT OVERRIDE 25BA 202D 202D !! 202E is RIGHT-TO-LEFT OVERRIDE 25C4 202E 202E See spacer.ini table header for more details

13 Viewing the directionality characters When the...\AL500\Alephcom\tab\alephcom.ini parameter CombinedCharSupported= is set to Y the directional characters will not be visible in the GUI regardless of what is in spacer.ini: Do not see directionality characters

14 Viewing the directionality characters Beginning with rep_change 3470 in version 20 there is a new menu to show the directionality characters when the CombinedCharSupported= is set to Y rep_change # Description: GUI Cataloging Record Editor - When the CombinedCharSupported flag is set to Y, Unicode directionality characters are not displayed. Solution: This has been corrected by adding a new option to the Edit Text menu - "Show Hidden Characters". When selecting this option, a small tooltip window is displayed, showing the record line with directionality characters but without combined characters. Note that only the Alt hot key can be used in the accel.dat file to create a shortcut to the "Show Hidden Characters" command.

15 Viewing the directionality characters

16 Entering the directionality characters Each directionality character may be entered via the menu option “Edit text > Enter Unicode Values” The directionality Unicode values can also be added to the floating keyboard.

17 Entering the directionality characters You can add this to..\AL500\Alephcom\Tab\Keyboard.txt !!!!! Control characters: ! PDF Pop Directional Format. \202C ! LRM Left to Right Mark \200E ! RLM Right to Left Mark \200F ! LRE Left to Right Embedding \202A ! RLE Right to Left Embedding \202B ! LRO Left to Right Override \202D ! RLO Right to Left Override \202E

18 Entering the directionality characters And then the directionality characters will appear on the floating keyboard

19 THANK YOU!