Text Alignment in opposite directions (bidirectional Arabic with Latin)

Question

I work on a bilingual dictionary, Arabic-English,

for each term in the dictionary, the arabic term is aligned to right, when the english is left,

I use Hfill for small texts, but if the english text is long, How can I do this

    \documentclass[a4paper,xelatex,ja=standard, enablejfam=true, jbase=8pt, nomag]{book}
\usepackage[margin=2cm,columnsep=5pt]{geometry} 
\usepackage{multicol}
\setlength{\columnsep}{1.5cm}
\setlength{\columnseprule}{0.4pt}
\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setdefaultlanguage[numerals=maghrib]{arabic}
\setmainfont[Ligatures=TeX,Mapping=arabicdigits]{Amiri}
\setsansfont[Script=Arabic,Scale=0.8, Mapping=arabicdigits]{Amiri}
\setsansfont[Script=Latin,Scale=0.8, Mapping=arabicdigits]{Arial}
\newfontfamily\arabicfont[Script=Arabic,Scale=1.2, Mapping=arabicdigits]{Amiri}
\begin{document}
\begin{Arabic}
\textbf{قَبِلَ بِـ ( فعل ): - وافَقَ على} \hfill\LR{- content oneself with; accede to; accept to; agree to; approve of; assent to; consent to; settle for; subscribe to; admit; confirm; endorse; ratify; sanction; take }
\end{Arabic}
\begin{Arabic}
\textbf{قَبِلَ بِـ ( فعل ): - وافَقَ على} \hfill\LR{- content oneself with; accede to; accept to; agree to; approve of; assent to; consent to; settle for; subscribe to; admit; confirm; endorse; ratify; sanction; take }
\end{Arabic}
\begin{Arabic}
\textbf{قَبِلَ بِـ ( فعل ): - وافَقَ على} \hfill\LR{- content oneself with; accede to; accept to; agree to; approve of; assent to; consent to; settle for; subscribe to; admit; confirm; endorse; ratify; sanction; take }
\end{Arabic}
\begin{Arabic}
\textbf{قَبِلَ بِـ ( فعل ): - وافَقَ على} \hfill\LR{- content oneself with; accede to }
\end{Arabic}
\begin{Arabic}
\textbf{قَبِلَ بِـ ( فعل ): - وافَقَ على} \hfill\LR{- content oneself with; accede to }
\end{Arabic}
\end{document}

Welcome fo TeX.SE ! // As I understand it you want to create a dictionary. A way to do it I found at Overleaf: https://www.overleaf.com/latex/examples/dictionary-template/pdztbwjxrpmz . Click "View source" and may be copy the content to your Latex editor. // Key seems to be \newcommand{\entry}. As is you enter 4 groups of information, starting with the word of language-1. / Find examples for such \entry statements there, too. // At least this one solves the problem of too long text entries ;-) — MS-SPO, Aug 17 '21 at 18:52
// See also "Bilingual dictionary typeset in LaTex" in https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/1319/showcase-of-beautiful-typography-done-in-tex-friends/58218#58218 — MS-SPO, Aug 17 '21 at 18:54
Thanks a lot, I already use given dictionary template, I have problem to align Dictionary entry as Arabic for the right, where the english text is aligned to the right. — linuxscout, Aug 17 '21 at 21:06

Salim Bou · Accepted Answer · 2021-08-18T19:55:27.537

In your case a tabular is more suitable, collcell package is used to collect cell contents to applies \textenglish command on them

\documentclass[a4paper]{book}
\usepackage[margin=2cm,columnsep=5pt]{geometry} 
\usepackage{collcell,array}
\setlength{\columnsep}{1.5cm}
\setlength{\columnseprule}{0.4pt}
\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setdefaultlanguage[numerals=maghrib]{arabic}
\setotherlanguage{english}
\newfontfamily\arabicfont[Script=Arabic,Scale=1.2, Mapping=arabicdigits]{Amiri}
\newfontfamily\englishfont{Arial}
\newcolumntype{R}{>{\bfseries}Wr{4cm}}
\newcolumntype{E}{>{\raggedright\arraybackslash\collectcell\textenglish}p{11cm}<{\endcollectcell}}
\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{RE}
قَبِلَ بِـ ( فعل ): - وافَقَ على &

content oneself with; accede to; accept to; agree to; approve of; assent to; consent to; settle for; subscribe to; admit; confirm; endorse; ratify; sanction; take\

قَبِلَ بِـ ( فعل ): - وافَقَ على &

content oneself with; accede to; accept to; agree to; approve of; assent to; consent to; settle for; subscribe to; admit; confirm; endorse; ratify; sanction; take\

قَبِلَ بِـ ( فعل ): - وافَقَ على &

content oneself with; accede to\

\end{tabular}
\end{document}

Update

Another solution using \hangindent and \hangafter to controls the amount of indentation from right side

\documentclass[a4paper]{book}
\usepackage[margin=2cm,columnsep=5pt]{geometry} 
\setlength{\columnsep}{1.5cm}
\setlength{\columnseprule}{0.4pt}
\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setdefaultlanguage[numerals=maghrib]{arabic}
\setotherlanguage{english}
\newfontfamily\arabicfont[Script=Arabic,Scale=1.2, Mapping=arabicdigits]{Amiri}
\newfontfamily\englishfont{Arial}
\newbox\arabbox
\newdimen\arabboxwd
\newdimen\tempwd
\newcommand{\entry}[2]{%
\setbox\arabbox\hbox{\bfseries#1}%
\arabboxwd=\wd\arabbox%
\advance\arabboxwd by 2ex%
\tempwd=\linewidth%
\advance\tempwd by -\arabboxwd%
\begin{english}
\hangindent=-\arabboxwd
\hangafter=-1
\noindent\hbox to 0pt{\hskip\tempwd\hskip2ex\textarabic{\box\arabbox}\hss}%
#2\par
\end{english}
}
\begin{document}
\entry%
{قَبِلَ بِـ ( فعل ): - وافَقَ على}
{- content oneself with; accede to; accept to; agree to; approve of; assent to; consent to; settle for; subscribe to; admit; confirm; endorse; ratify; sanction; take}
\entry%
{قَبِلَ بِـ ( فعل ): - وافَقَ على}
{- content oneself with; accede to; accept to; agree to; approve of; assent to; consent to; settle for; subscribe to; admit; confirm; endorse; ratify; sanction; take text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text}
\entry%
{قَبِلَ بِـ ( فعل ): - وافَقَ على}
{- content oneself with; accede to}
\end{document}

Thanks, I use two columns page, where I need to use the empty spaces under arabic text to reduce waste — linuxscout, Aug 17 '21 at 21:11
@linuxscout answer updated using \hangindent and \hangafter — Salim Bou, Aug 18 '21 at 12:57
This solution works well in one column, can you help me to make it works on two columns. — linuxscout, Aug 18 '21 at 18:53
@linuxscout Just change \textwidth in the definition of \entry command with \linewidth Answer updated — Salim Bou, Aug 18 '21 at 19:55

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 17 '21 at 19:09

Here is an example, based on the Overleaf dictionary template. I just copied the \newcommand{\entry}[4] and adapted the direction of character presentation.

For a western reader the order may be a bit uncommon. Don't know if you would present it in an Arabic-English dictionary this way. If you want a different order of the 4 groups (indicated by variables #1 .. #4), change their order in the \newcommand definition. If you want less, say 3, set the options to [3] and delete what's not needed (say \hfill\LR{(#2)}\).

This way you can build a dictionary.

An alternative might be using tables as a layout means, e.g. with the arabic word in the leftmost column.

\documentclass[a4paper,xelatex,ja=standard, enablejfam=true, jbase=8pt, nomag]{book}
\usepackage[margin=2cm,columnsep=5pt]{geometry} 
\usepackage{multicol}
\setlength{\columnsep}{1.5cm}
\setlength{\columnseprule}{0.4pt}
\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setdefaultlanguage[numerals=maghrib]{arabic}
\setmainfont[Ligatures=TeX,Mapping=arabicdigits]{Amiri}
\setsansfont[Script=Arabic,Scale=0.8, Mapping=arabicdigits]{Amiri}
\setsansfont[Script=Latin,Scale=0.8, Mapping=arabicdigits]{Arial}
\newfontfamily\arabicfont[Script=Arabic,Scale=1.2, Mapping=arabicdigits]{Amiri}
% --- adapted from Overleaf template ----------------
\newcommand{\entry}[4]{\markboth{#1}{#1}\textbf{#1}\ \hfill\LR{(#2)}\ \hfill\LR{\textit{#3}}\ $\bullet$\ \hfill\LR{#4}}
\begin{document}
    \begin{Arabic}
        % --- one example ---------------
        \entry{ - وافَقَ على}{how to hyphenate this word or phrase}{type of word}{content oneself with; accede to; accept to; agree to; approve of; assent to; consent to; settle for; subscribe to; admit; confirm; endorse; ratify; sanction; take }
\end{Arabic}

\end{document}

Result:

Thanks four you response, but in this case the english text is right aligned. — linuxscout, Aug 17 '21 at 21:08

Text Alignment in opposite directions (bidirectional Arabic with Latin)

2 Answers2