Accent Software International Provides Bidirectional Text Processing

Adds Arabic and Hebrew Text Entry, Printing, User Interface and Keymaps

New York NY--June 20, 1995--PC Expo Booth 666 (Level 1 - Internet
Pavilion)-Today at PC Expo, Accent Software International introduces
Accent Professional 2. 0, which adds bidirectional word processing for
Arabic and Hebrew to the more than 30 languages in the original Accent 1.0
program. With a suggested retail of $399.00 Accent Professional 2. 0 also
includes an integrated fax capability, personal calendar, additional
European language support and enhanced word processing features.

Accent enables users to work in multiple languages--Westem and Central
European languages, Russian, Greek, Turkish, Hebrew and Arabic--under any
language version of Windows.

New in Accent Professional 2. 0:

* Bidirectional text entry
* Arabic and Hebrew keyboard maps, interfaces, and fonts
* Hungarian and Danish interfaces
* Over 70 additional fonts
* Expanded column, table aggregation capabilities
* Balloon help in 19 languages
* A globe icon for menu language selection
* Delrina Winfax
* Lotus Organizer

Unique Features

Unique to Accent products are an interface instantly switchable to any of
19 languages, country flags for easy language selection, and language
utilities for a wide range of languages. When users select a language,
program features automatically switch as well: menu, dialog box and help
language, keyboard layout, font, thesaurus, spell checker and hyphenation.
Accent products are compatible with existing document formats including
Word, WordPerfect and Ami Pro and require no additional hardware or
software.

Semitic Language Challenges

The addition of Semitic languages with bidirectional capability allows
users to select typing direction as well as language. The founders of
Accent Software, Bob and Jeffrey Rosenschein, are experts in bidirectional
technology for Windows. Microsoft selected them in 1991 to help develop
Windows for the Middle East. Accent successfully handles the complex
requirements of Arabic, including contextual analysis, kashida, ligatures
and diacritics.

Contextual analysis

Unlike printed letters in Western alphabets, Arabic letters frequently
change shape at different positions in a word. A letter might have up to
four different shapes, depending on whether it stands alone or comes at
the beginning, middle, or end of a word. Accent fully supports these
contextual changes, automatically changing the form of a letter to the
appropriate shape as a new character is inserted before or after it.

Kashida justification

In Western languages, when a paragraph of text is justified on both sides,
space is added between words to fill out lines and align them to the left
and right margins. However, justification in Arabic is done by lengthening
the characters to stretch out the words and fill out the length of a line
of text. The extra length added to a character is called a kashida. Accent
automatically justifies Arabic in single or mixed-text lines; in lines
containing no Arabic text, spaces are used for justification

Ligatures

A ligature is a combination of two or three characters into one shape, such
as joining an "a" and "e" into the "ae" shape. Accent supports 61 Arabic
ligatures in its Traditional Arabic font, forming them automatically when
the component characters are typed in succession. If one character of a
ligature is deleted, the remaining character(s) will automatically revert
to the correct shape according to context.

Diacritics

Diacritics are vowel or accent marks which appear above or beneath a
letter. When entering Arabic text, the vowel character is typed after the
letter character with which it should appear. Accent automatically
positions the diacritic correctly in relation to the letter and kerns it
vertically, when necessary.

"Our implementation gives the user full Arabic and Hebrew word processing
under any version of Windows, even English Windows," said Bob Rosenschein,
president of Accent Software International Ltd. He continued, "What's hard
about Semitic languages is not only that they're right to left--but that
they're bidirectional--mixing directional text on the same line." For
example, numbers are written left to right, as in English, even when
inserted in right-to-left Hebrew or Arabic text. Accent offers both
Hindu-Arabic and Arabic-Indic numerals.

Hebrew support includes modem and traditional fonts; full Nikud--vowels
written as dots and dashes below the letters; interactive keymaps
including a phonetic map in which Hebrew letters are located on the key of
their nearest English equivalent; and spell checking.

Expanding Market

Accent Professional 2. 0 is aimed at international organizations which
conduct business in more than one language, students, language
professionals, multi-ethnic populations and the travel industry.
Corporations and governmental organizations increasingly deal
internationally, and need to communicate in a broad range of languages and
alphabets. Students and language professionals benefit from multiple
languages in one program, eliminating the need to purchase specialized
hardware or software. As International borders open, travelers and foreign
communities will be able to work in their native language.

System Requirements

Accent products run on any language version of Microsoft Windows 3.1 or
higher, using at least a 3 86 PC with a minimum of four megabytes of RAM,
and a minimum of six MB of disk space.

Ordering Information

To order any of the products in the Accent family, call 1-800-535-5256.
Technical support and sales information about Accent Software
International is available via CompuServe under GO ACCENT, Section 17:
Accent Software International, or CompuServe ID number 74774,264.

Accent Software International Ltd.

Accent Software International Ltd., formerly known as Kivun Computers, is a
privately-held Israeli software development house founded in 1988. Accent
partnered with Microsoft Corporation in 1991 to develop the technology
currently used in the bidirectional version of Windows. In 1992 the firm
released Dagesh, a Hebrew word processor that supports English, Russian
and other European languages. In early 1994, the company shipped Accent
1.0, a fully multilingual software package that provides word processing
functionality in 34 languages. This was followed by Accent Special
Edition, Accent Express and Accent Professional 1.1. Accent has since
achieved worldwide sales and distribution.

Accent's LanguageWare Line of Products

Accent Professional              $399
Maximum Multilingual Features

Accent Special Edition           $199
Advanced Language Support in English, German, French,
Spanish and Italian

Accent Express                    $69
An Introduction to Multilingual Computing

Dagesh2                          $229
The Premier Hebrew Word Processor for Windows

Dagesh Lite                       $49
Basic Hebrew Word Processing for Windows

Accent Software International Ltd.
PO Box 914
Exton, PA 19341-0906
800-535-5256,  fax 800-535-5257
CIS: 74774,264

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