Arabic Directionality and Orientation

Whenever the Arabic keyboard is active, letters will automatically be entered from right to left. However, the overall document orientation does not change automatically. It is important to understand that the orientation is not the same as letters being added from right to left. When writing in Arabic, the orientation can be either left-to-right or right-to-left, but letters will always be added from right to left and words will always wrap properly from line to line.

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Left-to-right orientation is the default orientation. If you are adding a few Arabic words to a block of text that is written in English (or in any other left-to-right language), you should not change the orientation. In this case, the paragraphs and lines will still begin at the left margin, but when you type in Arabic, the letters will be added from right to left. You will see that Arabic letters that you have typed will be pushed off to the right to make room for the next letter that you type.

•	Right-to-left orientation should be used if you are writing a document in Arabic, or even if you are writing a block of Arabic text. New paragraphs and new lines will start at the right margin as you would expect in a Arabic document.

To change the orientation, press Ctrl+Shift+< for right-to-left orientation or Ctrl+Shift+> for left-to-right orientation. You can also change the orientation by clicking Tools, Lingua, and then selecting the orientation. If you prefer to use the action line, see Orientation: LR command.

If you are adding a Arabic word or phrase to a block of English text, it is important to enter spaces before and after the Arabic in English. If the spaces that separate English from Arabic are inserted in Arabic rather than in English, then the management of spaces at the end of a line may not be correct. When entering Arabic text in midst of English text that has already been typed, you should enter two spaces and then position the cursor so that one space is before the cursor and one is after the cursor. The same principal applies to adding text in any right-to-left language to a block of text written in any left-to-right language. Similarly, if you are entering English text (or text in any left-to-right language) to a Arabic document with a right-to-left orientation, then the spaces between the Arabic and the English text must be entered in Arabic.

Arabic: Directionality and Orientation