[XeTeX] Questions to MikTeX - First steps in arabxetex

[Marek Stepanek]

Hello all!



This is my first posting here! Please be indulgent, because I have some
naive questions. 

I have a friend and colleague, writing since a long while a grammar about
Azeri-Turkish language. His mother language is Farsi (Persian) and this is
the main language of his grammar. He his writing with a non supported
software: Universal Word (www.wysiwyg.com) on Windows Vista, entering his
characters in original keyboard layout (Character "Naskh" and with three
Alphabets: Azeri-Turkish, Azeri-Arabic, Azeri-Cyrillic).

The pdf files, which he is creating with the print dialog out of Universal
Word are not readable on all platforms or have some encoding? problems
(compare to one example on: www.az-dili.com). I would like to convince him
to use for his texts XeLaTeX, but there are many obstacles to overcome. I am
on Macintosh he is on Windows Vista. I know fairly well my LaTeX, but have
no experience with arabxetex.

So: What I did so far is: install complete versions of MikTeX on his Windows
machine; and two editors: TeXnicCenter and WinEdt (Probably not the right
ones, to write Arab-Farsi from right to left?). I succeeded to find the
right "button" to save his documents in Unicode Text out of Universal Word.
Next step would be, to put a XeLaTeX frame around the Farsi text, but I am
far away of being able, to suggest a template for my grammarian. First I
have to see how to cope with different font collections, how to control
encodings, how to handle this terrible Microsoft OS ...

Some questions:

How to control encoding in TeXnicCenter? Only two choices: Windows, Unix,
Macintosh (I suppose, this is for control of line endings only?)

Is there on Windows a Unix-Shell? I found something called in German
"Eingabeaufforderung". But this tool does not know many commands. And it is
hanging on many tex-examples, while compiling with latex or xelatex ...

My dream would be, that someone could make a little little template out of
an pdf-example on www.az-dili.com

Are by any chance some XeLaTeX Gurus here in Munich?


Thank you all for your help and indulgence



marek



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