eiktub™ - The Arabic Transliteration Pad
	Download and Installation | Screen shots | Documentation

Table of Contents

1. Graphical User Interface	5. xaddat' ( شدة )
2. Consonants	6. tanwiin ( تنوين )
3. Diacritization ( شكل كما تسمع )	7. hamzat' (همزة)
4. Vowelization	8. Special Characters

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1. Graphical User Inteface

eiktub™ has most of the functionality usually encountered in Microsoft Notepad and some more. The following menus are available:

• File with buttons NEW, OPEN, SAVE, PRINT, and EXIT.
• Edit with buttons UNDO, CUT, COPY, PASTE, SELECT ALL.
• Format with buttons
  • FONT: eiktub™ allows use of any font that is already installed on the Windows operating system. Selection of a font that does not support Arabic Unicode will result in erroneous screen output. Note that most standard fonts that are bundled with Windows support Arabic Unicode and therefore could be used with eiktub™ (e.g. Times New Roman, Ariel, etc).
  • ALIGNMENT: Allows the user to switch between RIGHT, LEFT and CENTER justification.
  • READING DIRECTION: Allows the user to switch between LEFT-TO-RIGHT (as in English) and RIGHT-TO-LEFT (as in Arabic) reading directions.
  • INPUT SCRIPT with three possibilities.
    • AR (BATR) is the transliteration mode (default setting): pressing m on the English QWERTY keyboard produces the Arabic letter م
    • EN is the English mode: pressing m on the English QWERTY keyboard produces the English letter m
    • AR (Keyboard) is the Arabic mode: pressing m on the English QWERTY keyboard produces the Arabic letter ة
  • NUMERALS allows the user to use the Arabic numerals 1234567890 or the Arabic-Indic numerals ١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩٠ Note that AR (BATR) must be chosen for this feature to work.
  • VOWELIZATION. If ON then kutubuN produces كُتُبٌ while if OFF it produces كتبٌ. Note that tanwiin will always appear but could be manually deleted using the backspace button.
• View has two buttons
  • If CHARACTER MAPPING is checked, a table is shown at the bottom of the eiktub™ window to help the user remember the mapping used (recommended for beginners). The table could also be used to enter a desired character into the pad by single clicking on the character in the table.
  • If QUREAANIC AND HONORIFIC TOOLBAR is checked, a toolbar allowing the user to enter basic Qureaanic symbols will appear. Not every Arabic unicode font supports Qureaanic symbols. In fact most standard fonts do not display Qureaanic symbols correctly. We recommend the font Scheherazade for use in Qureaanic script.
• Advanced.   This is needed in the rare occasions where a directional expression needs to be embedded into Arabic text. A good example is entering arithmetic expressions. Without the advanced characters, an embedded arithmetic expression will appear flipped as follows: 2=1+1. If before entering the expression a “Start of left-to right embedding” is entered then the expression will appear as: 1+1=2. To deactivate the special handling a “pop directional formatting” has to be entered at the end.

2. Consonants

• Most Arabic consonants are represented by their English counterparts.
• Refer to this page for the complete character mapping.
• With the exception of ذ (z'aal) and ة (taae marbuuTat'), every consonant is represented by one key (could be UPPER or lower case).
• The following rule applies in general: Capital letters represent "heavy" (or emphatic) Arabic letters.
• Example, د (daal) = d is equivalent to the English letter d, whereas ض (Daad) = D is a heavier sounding d that does not exist in English.

3. Diacritization شكل كما تسمع

• Full diacritization (تشكيل) involves adding short vowels (حركات ), long vowels ( أحرف العلة ), nunation ( تنوين ), and double consonant sign ( شدة ), and maddat' ( مدة ).
• The Arabic language has short and long vowels. Transcription of short vowels is called vowelization.
• This process is optional and is usually omitted in Modern Standard Arabic (e.g. Newspapers, magazines, etc.). Unfortunately it is customary to omit vowelization, which leads to confusion often. Short vowels are essential to the proper pronunciation of words. We therefore encourage full vowelization.
• We believe that the omission of vowelization is due to its unfriendly and impractical implementation in the standard Arabic keyboard.
• eiktub™ encourages full vowelization and diacritization. Just type the word the way you hear it. Simply write the way your hear: شكل كما تسمع .

4. Vowelization

• In eiktub™ the three short vowels fatHat’, Dammat’ and kasrat’ are represented by a, u and i respectively. This way typing vowels becomes a natural process that well correlates with pronunciation of words.
• The long vowels ealif, waaw, and yaae, on the other hand, are represented by aa, uu and ii respectively. Note that a long vowel automatically includes a short vowel.
• For example, the aa in samaae = سَمَاء (sky) includes both a fatHat’ and an ealif. However, eiktub™ has the capability of supressing all vowelization if desired by user.

5. xaddat' شدة

• xaddat' (stress) is inscribed by typing the same consonant twice.
• For example, muhammad will generate محمّد.
• Note that inserting a vowel between the same two consonant will not result in a xaddat': mamduuH will generate ممدوح .

6. tanwiin تنوين

• tanwiin Al-fatH, Al-Dam, and Al-kasr are represented by aN, uN, and iN repectively.
• eiktub™ recognizes when an elaif is needed in tanwiin Al-fatH as demonstrated by the following examples:
  • baytaN     = بيتاً (house)
  • baqarataN = بقرةً (cow)
  • samaaeaN = سماءً (sky)

7. hamzat'

• The hamzat' in all its forms is represented by the single character e.
• eiktub™ chooses the correct form of the hamzat' (ء) based on context
• This is much better than the standard Arabic keyboard where the user has to pick the right form of hamzat' based on transcription rules.
• With one exception, when words are properly vowelized the correct form of hamzat' is picked by eiktub™ as demonstrated in the following table:

• When stuck, the user could always choose the right form of hamzat' by single clicking on the appropriate button in the mapping table.
• A hyphen "-" is used to suspend parsing rules where needed. This usually involves hamzat' or eal Al-taEriif.
• Consider the following examples with hamzat'. The first row is correct while the second is not.

  بأنني	لإن	لأن
  bi-eannanii	la-ein	li-eanna
  بئنني	لئن	لئن
  bieannanii	laein	lieanna

  
  
• If the hamzat' is in the middle of one word only, no hyphen is needed.
• If the hamzat' is at the beginning of the word such as أن and that word is preceded by a letter such as
  أحرف الجر (like ل and ب ) and أحرف العطف (like ف).

8. Special Character: "The" = أل التعريف

• The definite pronoun "the" = أل التعريف is usually represented by Al. This will work in most cases.
• The representation Al- with hyphens at the beginning and end will always work even when there is a hamzat' after.
• Consider the following examples:

  بالناس	الناس	الناس	إنسان
  bAlnaas	Al-naas	Alnaas	einsaan
  للإنسان	بالإنسان	الإنسان	الئنسان
  lileinsaan	bAl-einsaan	Al-einsaan	Aleinsaan