What is Alef Hamza?

Question

I found this one, in the Find box (as Search criteria) of the document viewer.

What is supposed to match?

Answer 1

Match alef hamza Specifies whether you want Internet Explorer to match alef characters with hamza or madda when searching for text of Middle Eastern languages.

For example, if you want to find a word that begins with alef and specify match alef hamza, then the word will not be matched if it begins with alef hamza above, alef hamza below, or alef madda. If it is specified, you must enter the correct form of alef for a match.

-- http://www.microsoft.com/middleeast/Arabicdev/IE6/wPapers.aspx

Answer 2

I'm a speaker of Arabic, and Alef Hamza is the character Alef "ا", and Hamza "ء" (or Madda "~") is written with it, like "أ", "إ", or "آ".

So that option means if you want to match Alef only, or Alef with something else.

Example, some search engines consider "è, é, ê or ë" as "e", and others cosider them other characters.