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    Hi All,
      Please share with us your feedback on Maren.

    How do you use it?
    What applications do you use it in?
    What problems does it solve for you?
    How do you find the conversion accuracy?


    Regards,

    Mostafa Ashour   |   Program Manager  

    Cairo Microsoft Innovation Labs   |   Microsoft Corporation

    Wednesday, July 1, 2009 10:35 AM

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    Hi Mostafa, as usual with all MS products Maren in really cool.
    I only have 2 points:
    1. please enable it with Arabic (Egypt) keyboard too
    2. i need to be able to write arabic intermixed with English, as follows:

    يا جماعة ال Microsoft Maren ده جامد جدا!!
    of course without the unnecessary line breaks (something i couldn't do in any way)
    while the best i could reach currently is this:
    يا جماعة ال Microsoft Maren ده جامد جدا!!

    -------------------------------------
    the idea is to have the words placed where they should be in the sentence,
    since we actually speak arabic intermixed with English and i'm sure the human brain is
    capable enough to switch the reading direction for one or 2 words immersed in the middle of
    the sentence then go back to RTL reading ;)

    the next challenge will be how you will be able to handle statements that are neither
    english nor arabic, like: enta meshayyar el file walla la2?

    Best regards
    Thursday, July 2, 2009 11:51 AM
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    I really never liked a Microsoft Program like this one begad , it is very smart and so so so easy.
    it solved to me begad lots of problems as i always recieve arabic mails from Suadi arabian clients and they refuse that we reply in English.

    begad you can;t imagine how this solved the problem to me , fe3lan great Job.

    bas as Michael Mentioned here , parts of the mails will include Products in eglish that i need to keep so try in next versions to include this mixture.

    Please give back to the team a great feedback and tell them that this Product Rocks

    Friday, July 3, 2009 2:16 PM
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    Online transliteration tools have been available for while now, but Maren is certainly a welcomed addition.

    Not being web-based and being system integrated is a huge plus. One can use it even offline and within nearly any application with text input.

    There's some annoyances though:

    Why is it LTR? I guess the new keyboard layout that Maren creates is actually an English layout despite it being named "Arabic (Saudi Arabia)".
    The OS comprehends the input from the keyboard as Latin script (and therefore LTR) then Maren does it's work to turn it to Arabic script.
    This messes up sentences with mixed Arabic and English.
    Sentences starting with an Arabic word and contain English words get messed up simply because the sentence is rendered from left to right.

    هذه جملة not ordered بترتيب صحيح

    On the other hand, sentneces starting with an English word and contain Arabic words are rendered correctly, LTR that is.
    This sentence متربتة in the correct order.

    That being said, lose the ugly theme.

    But overall, kudos to CMIL.
    Friday, July 3, 2009 7:31 PM
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    I am from Morocco, and we have the azerty keybord, how can I do please
    Saturday, July 4, 2009 6:17 PM
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    simply Woow ! 
    i'm really fast when it comes to typing in english
    ..but writing with arabic letters was really anoying & i was trying to exercise from a short while to get more speed in that arabic writing
    ..i've just installed Maren from about 10 minutes ..and i can say it made me speechless
     tested it in many hard words and it got it right !
    i was feeling bad that we are loosing our Arabic Beautiful language due to that Franco-Arabic
    ....i have some words for you
    My hat off for you Microsoft Cairo Lab Team ;)
    ..it added a lot of admiration to find that you keep an eye and get the best experience for everyone
    not only going with the wave as said :)

    Monday, July 6, 2009 3:09 AM
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    Its a good application , I liked it
     
    I used it in WLM 2009 , but i got the send don't send errors many time ,

    I hope in the next update to see , commonly used words appear in the top of the list

    I always write aha and it send أحا instead of اها which I mean

    conversation accuracy is fantastic
    Tuesday, July 7, 2009 10:56 AM
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    It's really a fascinating tool, guys.. A friend told me about it yesterday and I was not believing.. I am only using it for 10 minutes now and it's really great!
    We do appreciate your efforts; you pump life again to Arabic!!
    Many thanks, and I'll be providing you with any useful comments when I use it more and more.. For now, I find all the comments provided by the other participants really good.

    I hope I'll be able to do something really great like that in the near future; I am a Computer Science freshman..
    Tuesday, July 7, 2009 7:35 PM
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    حقيقة برنامج روعة خصوصا انه مدموج مع الوندوز فتشكرون على ذلك.
    لكن عندي بعض الملاحظات , طريقة تفعيل البرنامج شوية طويلة ياحبذا طريقة اسرع واسهل.
    وفية خاصية لو تدمج مع البرنامج راح استعمل البرنامج هذا على طول.
    المشكلة دائما تواجهني واظن الكثير مثلي, عندما يكون الوندوز ثنائي اللغة , وتبدا الكتابة بلغة مثلا ولنقل العربية , وعند الانتهاء من الكتابة تجد ان الذي كتب كان بالانجليزي , فتظطر للمسح والكتابة مرة اخرى.
    المشكلة هذي جدا مملة وتحصل معي كثيرا خصوصا فى المتصفح.
    شكرا مرة اخرى.
    Tuesday, July 7, 2009 11:29 PM
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    I like the program .. It helps a lot.

    Seems that it won't work if I removed the Arabic(Saudi Arabia) Layout .. even if I restored it again from the control panel!! and I don't think that the application works with any other Arabic Layouts?? I recommend that the application must has a new separate layout called "MS Maren" for example.

    In my opinion the application must be smarter and store the users' frequently used words! If I chose a translation for a word then the application must remember my last choice and it make sense if the translation became on the top of the words next time I'm using the same word.

    Plus, If the word I want to type isn't in the list .. Why I can't add this word to the application's dictionary may be using On-Screen Keyboard in case the user don't have an Arabic Keyboard. Then, next time I write that word, it will be translated.

    Kind Regards,
    Osama Gamal
    Wednesday, July 8, 2009 8:36 AM
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    Amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazning ya gama3a really teslamo teslamo ,Although i didn't use it lessa Ana Fe3lan makontesh mesada2, Please keep up hard work [Microsoft Egypt Team] :) YOU DESERVE ALL THE BEST :)
    Friday, July 10, 2009 8:19 AM
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    Brilliant. Enough said.
    Wednesday, July 15, 2009 4:43 AM
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    Actually it's one of the best tools I used so far to convert from Franco-Arabic to Arabic, essentially because it's software-based, that way I don't have to open a website for example to write one sentence in Arabic, and I am truly amazed by the software's abilities.

    There are a few flaws though, I'll try to explain them:-

    1- I think many complained about this, but here I am repeating anyway :) The ability to save commonly used words is a must, for example, sometimes I need to write words in English in-between the sentence or sometimes the word the app chooses automatically isn't the one I want, and choosing the word every single time isn't practical at all.

    2- Another Must, the drop-down list from which I can choose the word I want when I'm writing, the ability to re-open that would be very nice and certainly helpful.

    4- This one isn't that big of a deal, but not a bad addition, simple too :), the conversion of the comma (,) from English to Arabic while using the software would be really nice.

    My final words are: Kudos to Cairo Microsoft Innovation Labs, and really nice work, keep it up.
    Thursday, July 16, 2009 4:33 PM
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    I used it in many apps, like word, excel, msn messenger, and firefox web brwoser..


    The conversion accuracy is almost the best ever, i tried other tools like google's


    but, why it is not included with Arabic (Egypt)?!
    Saturday, July 18, 2009 1:25 PM
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    First of all, Brilliant Idea.. Seriously!

    I just downloaded Maren today, And I'm glad to say that it works like a charm - uptiill now!

    I mainly use it to search the web, interact with people on Blogs and Boards, And occasionally in MS Office Word. But My problem would be the "Tashkeel" as Maren does not support it as I understand...

     When I'm using Maren and try to put a "3alama" at the end of a word, let's say a "Damma" for example, which is - on my keyboard - located on the letter "E". Maren thinks that I'm trying to capitalize the letter E instead of using the "Damma". I guess that's because it's using the "English" keyboard layout. I believe you need to fix that.

    Well, that brings me to this suggestion..
    I know that Maren may be Mainly developed for the occasional use and not for professional use, But wouldn't it be great to add "Grammar Support" which may - as a matter of fact WILL - require some hard work, but would be a welcomed addition to Maren. For example:   "I'll go with a very simple example"

    يلعب أحمد بالكرة --- that's with Maren, but what if I want to add the "Tashkeel"?
    يلعبُ أحمدُ بالكرةِ --- Notice the "3alamat" at the end of each word! 

    "Grammar Support" in simple words would be a feature with A "On/Off" switch. A feature that would put the CORRECT "Tashkeel" as you type. A feature that would integrate the Arabic grammar rules with the application and put them in use.

    Yes, again I know it's a pretty hard thing to do, but it's only a suggestion.. And if it's too hard you may add the "Tashkeel" feature already as a part of the "Suggestions" Maren gives you while you type. Ex:

    While I type the word "Yal3ab" Maren offers Me a few suggestions, so why not - among them - offer the most accurate word with "Tashkeel"... the only con of this would be the suggestion list, It will be much longer!

    Or for the Easier path, you may just fix the issue I stated first (with the "Damma" and stuff!), And leave the "Tashkeel" up to the user.


    Finally, The Conversion Accuracy seems to be pretty good.


    Thanks Guys for the wonderful application... Good Job!
    Monday, July 20, 2009 9:57 AM
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    Hi Maren folks.
    Here are two ideas i recently had


    1. After reading some comments below, i think you have to add that we need to use regional versions of Maren. Because spoken Arabic is different from one region to another (the gulf, Syria and Lebanon, Iraq, and so on..)

    One way to do this is to add other languages to windows, so add Maren KSA, and then Maren EG...
    Of course this is not a very practical solution. The better solution in my opinion is to keep Maren as another LTR language,
    so that it can integrated English and Arabic words more elegantly. Then from some Maren Control Panel you can expose options to choose one or more dialects to be active in Maren.

    2. Another idea i just had is to install Maren as a dictionary in mobile phones, just like the T9 dictionary. That would be really cool

    Regards
    Michael
    Monday, July 27, 2009 11:02 AM
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    Thanks all for your feedback. We will sure take it into consideration in upcoming releases of Maren.

    Regards,
    Mostafa Ashour -- MSFT Program Manager
    Wednesday, July 29, 2009 12:34 PM
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    pls take a look at this script style, is very easy to type than your software

    http://www.lexilogos.com/clavier/araby.htm

    hope to see somethig like that next version
    Thursday, July 30, 2009 4:27 AM
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    not easier
    not easier i mean of  course
    this site
    http://www.lexilogos.com/clavier/araby.htm
    any way the program is so great so easy
    it would make typing arabic easy for those aravic people who lives outside arab country
    they even don't know the arabic letter they just learned the franco arabic
    then it is a chance to learn them
    time after time he would know that enta that means you would be typed إنت
    but the thing is i don't want the program to work automaticly as i sometimes i want to write arabic i type arabic good
    if you know what i mean
    like i am typing english know and i want to write sentence in arabic i change the keyboard to arabic but it type english to convert it into arabic
    i want to change the keyboard then choose maren manual
    if you understand
    and another thing when typing great but what if i recevied franco arabic how could i convert into arabic letters

    like i got an email in franco arabic

    i want to convert it

    what i do ?

    but in general
    my best regards and
    my best wishes to you guys

    sincerly
    Kareem Rabie

    Sunday, August 16, 2009 8:54 AM
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    First of all, a Big Thanks to all the developement team working on Microsoft maren, really very clever

    it was a pain in the neck typing arabic inside word processing applications

    to answer your questions

    microsoft maren is really quite easy to use, just using alt + Tab and typing Space to insert word is just quite cute..
    i use microsoft maren mainly during my Windows Live Messenger chat sessions , really beautiful..
    i really type arabic in a very slow rate, may be 5 words a minute or so, it solved a major problem!
    it is 90% accurate, the other 10% will be discussed in another reply to gather enough information for developing team

    Simply a great Software, thank you all!
    Monday, August 17, 2009 9:16 PM
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    I agree with the previous reviews, but the software doesn't support an AZERTY keyboard .
    what about other Arabic country like     Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia!!
    When debugging, novices insert corrective code; experts remove defective code xD
    Wednesday, August 26, 2009 1:43 AM
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    Exactly , we'll have to focus on the problems, and one of the biggest I found is that MAREN doesn't offer the possibility to choose a keyboard. .. My laptop has the French AZERTY keyboard, which won't let me type as fast as I hoped when I downloaded the software... GUYS pleeeeaaaaasse don't neglect the AZERTY support in the next version !!
    Brilliant work
    Saturday, September 5, 2009 2:02 AM
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    This web-based editor supports full vowelization (tashkeel):

    http://www.eiktub.com/

    It also has an alternative version with features similar to Maren (i.e. a word list):

    http://eiktub.com/new_pad.html

     

     

    Sunday, January 3, 2010 6:22 PM
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    the application is very cool especially the drop menu with suggestions, i type Arabic faster using Maren than with the Arabia layout!! one problem for me is Hamazat try writing these words, it's really pain in the neck, برؤيتي جاءت another suggestion is to add , button for user's input to the glossary, it would be really handy for most of us thank you and keep it up
    Saturday, January 30, 2010 5:32 PM
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    I shall test it and post the feedback asap :-)
    Waleed El-Badry
    Teaching Assistant
    Faculty of Engineering
    Misr University for Science & Technology

    MCPD Logo Gold Partner
    Saturday, January 30, 2010 8:58 PM
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    Hi... Great job guys. I am a heavy transliteration user, and i have the following ideas that you need consider implemetning:

    1. add a different space shortcut (like shift+space) to prevent Maren from transliterating. Very useful while mixing english and arabic

    2. You REALLLY need to make maren convert commas and periods into their arabic RTL counterpart

    3. Yamli has a huge advantage of distinguishing between capital and non-capital letters. ص for instance can be 'S', while س can be 's', T for ط etc...

    4. Maren really messes up sentence orders when righting RTL with english and Arabic

    5. CANT STRESS THIS ENOUGH :  the need for custom dictionaries, frequent words, and an option toggle to click on and correct previous words. You might also want to include some sort of user feedback (optional) to uplaod useage data and enrich your database.

    Finally, why is "j" and "g" not treated differently, i.e. j = ج and g =غ

    شكرا يا شباب

    يعطيكم العافية

    مستعدون للمساعدة


    Tuesday, April 6, 2010 7:19 PM
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    I am using Maren for almost 5 years, now I can't live without it....I write Arabic everywhere and Maren helps me to use the same keyboard without losing Arabic writing.
    It's a great tool with great benefits.
    Thank you :) 
    Monday, March 16, 2015 3:47 PM
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    I am experiencing problems with Microsoft Maren with Windows 10 after the latest Windows Update (Dec 14th, 2015). It's not functional anymore even after a few re-installs, repairs and restarting. I hope this issue gets fixed soon. Thanks.
    Monday, December 14, 2015 4:40 PM