DictionaryforMIDs: English-Arabic dictionary

DictionaryforMIDs version: 3.5.7
Dictionary edition: 0.6.1 (15Mar04)
Entries: 83,527

1. Dictionary

This dictionary was created from the English -> Arabic dictionary from FreeDict.  FreeDict originally got the dictionary file from ArabEyes.  The ArabEyes dictionary is released under the GPL license.

Many of the English headwords translate to the same Arabic definition.  None of the contributors for DictionarytoMIDs know the Arabic language, we merely converted the dictionary from the FreeDict format.  So we are not sure the reason for the translations.  We apologize if there are obvious errors in the dictionary.

2. Fonts

If you do not have Arabic fonts on your phone, then you may use the bitmap fonts supplied with the dictionary package.  Go to the Menu and select Settings -> Use Bitmap Font

The bitmap fonts were generated by the "BitmapFontGenerator" available from DictionaryforMIDs. The bitmap fonts were taken from the "Arial Unicode MS" font. The "Font Properties Extension" tool available from Microsoft shows this font has "editable embedding allowed":
"Fonts may be embedded in documents, but must only be installed temporarily on the remote system"

3. Request for Help

This release of the dictionary does not contain an Arabic IME (Input Method Editor).  An IME allows you to type in Arabic.  Work is underway to add custom IMEs to DictionaryforMIDs.  So for this release, unless you add a 3rd party Arabic IME program, you will only be able to search from English to Arabic.  You will not be able to search from Arabic to English.

We could use some help with this IME.  If you have a phone that can input Arabic, or you have a program that adds Arabic support to your phone, then we'd be grateful if you could give us the key mappings for the Arabic letters.

Here is an example from English:

Please supply the basic Arabic mapping (think of English phones before predictive text was available).  Please send the mapping information to dreamingclouds (at) gmail.com

Thank you
DictionaryforMIDs Team