How to switch writing direction (LTR/RTL) in Word 2007?

  1. Add and enable the alternate language under Start / Programs / Microsoft Office / Microsoft Office Tools / 2007 Microsoft Office system Language Settings

  2. Click the round Office button:

    1

  3. Click Word Options:

    2

  4. Click Customize:

    3

  5. In the Choose commands from drop-down menu, select Home Tab instead of Popular Commands

  6. Find and highlight Left-to-Right Direction, then click the Add button to move it to the Customize Quick Access Toolbar section

  7. Add the Right-to-Left Direction command to the QAT as well

  8. Now in the QAT you will see the RTL (4) and LTR (5) buttons, which you can use as required


Word left-to-right/right-to-left handling (LTR/RTL) works on two levels: the paragraph level, which can be controlled by right-clicking on the paragraph and choosing the appropriate direction (right-to-left, or left-to-right); and the run level.

Consider the following sequence of letters:

ABCD

This is an example of an LTR run. If we are using an RTL language, even though the sequence of letters is the same order, the text should be displayed in reverse, as a RTL run.

Actual order: ABCD
Visual order: DCBA

When we add netural characters -- characters that don't have rules about whether they are displayed as LTR or RTL -- the run direction cannot be determined based on the characters themselves; we have to explicitly define the direction of the run:

(assumes LTR paragraph direction)
Actual order:    ABCD0123
LTR run:         ABCD0123
partial RTL run: DCBA0123
full RTL run:    3210DCBA

When typing, there is no need for you to set the run direction; Word sets the run direction of a given neutral character based on the direction of the current language you are typing in.

In older versions of Word (<=2003), I didn't find any way to do this through the UI, only through the VBA editor.

  1. Select the text you want to change
  2. Press ALT+F11 to open the VBA programming environment
  3. Click on the Immediate pane; or if it's not visible, press CTRL+G
  4. Type Selection.LtrRun and press ENTER

Note: To set the run to RTL, type Selection.RtlRun

In Word 2010, you can customize the ribbon by adding the commands LtrRun and RtlRun to set the LTR/RTL run direction.

Tags:

Right To Left

Microsoft Word 2007

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