Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Microsoft Maren

Ever wanted to write in "عربي" as fast as you write in "3arabi" ? Confusing, no? I'll explain...

Simply write in arabic with roman letters and Microsoft Maren will convert the word to arabic text. I haven't tried it because it's a Windows plugin but I think it's promising.

Lack of access to an Arabic keyboard or lack of familiarity with one are two of the most common problems preventing Arabic users from communicating in their own language.

Microsoft Maren is a Windows extension that comes to the rescue, allowing you to type Arabic in Roman characters (Romanized Arabic, Arabizi, Arabish or Franco-Arabic) and have it converted on the fly to Arabic script.

Maren integrates seamlessly with Windows and works in most Windows applications and websites.

I'm still not sure but I think there's one serious downside to it too. Looks like it translates to Egyptian only. Maybe there will be more versions soon.

4 comments:

Ms Loala said...

I've been seeing it all over the internet but never thought of seeing what it is.

It is an effective tool to an extent but the language has multiple dialects, how will it be able to distinguish between Moroccan and Kuwaiti for example?

I think I'm still comfortable with Roman Arabic.

Ruby Woo said...

Everyone types in a different way ya3ni it's not set. Not to mention the accents differ so how will they distinguish among the way people type.

It's too complicated to pull off.

bumo said...

I heard about this a weeks back... gonna be cool screwing with its head xD

Its not too complicated to pull off... it would be as difficult to produce as the T9 dictionary(which is available in dozens of languages), or automatic spellchecking was around 20 years ago?!
Its just a dictionary that runs slightly differently...

And there is already a website that does this...

Thnx H ;)

MacaholiQ8 said...

Loala:
I'm not used to typing in Arabic, that's why I'm hoping this would resolve my problem. We need Fo97a version of Maren :P


Ruby:
Good point. Complicated? True, but it's not impossible.



bumo:
T9 Exactly! Good luck killing it! :D