99.9% of the time in English language writing, sentences start on the left hand side of the page. This is simply how we do things. But not every language uses this convention.
In Hebrew and Arabic, for instance, sentences begin at the right hand side of the page. Versions of Microsoft Word designed for these languages therefore default to right-to-left.
Whichever version of Word you’re using, though, you can adjust the text direction to suit your particular needs.
Writing in a Right-to-Left Language
If you need to write in a language that reads from right to left and your version of Word doesn’t support this, you will have to install the necessary language and keyboard settings.
If both left-to-right and right-to-left languages are enabled in a document, the ‘LTR’ and ‘RTL’ buttons should appear in the ‘Paragraph’ section of the ‘Home’ tab.
Changing the Text Direction
Even if you’re not writing in a right-to-left language, you may need to change the text direction if you’re using a version of Word where right-to-left is the default or if you’re editing a document written using this format.
In these cases, with Word 2010 or later on a Windows computer, your simplest option is to add buttons to the Quick Access Toolbar. To do this:
- Click the little arrow on the right of the existing buttons and select ‘More Commands’
- In the new window that opens, select ‘All Commands’ from the dropdown menu
- Find ‘Right-to-Left Text Direction’ and/or ‘Left-to-Right Text Direction’ in the list
- Add these to your toolbar by selecting them and clicking ‘Add’
The Left-to-Right button has an arrow pointing from left to right; Right-to-Left has the arrow pointing in the opposite direction.
You can now use these buttons to set the text direction for all (or part) of a document.
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Alternatively, you can also add these buttons to the main ribbon on Microsoft Word by right clicking on the ribbon and selecting ‘Customize the Ribbon’.
This opens a menu similar to the one used to customize the Quick Access Toolbar. The main difference is that you need to create a new ‘Group’ under one of the main tabs so that the commands have somewhere to appear.
Microsoft Hates Mac Computers
It’s a melodramatic subtitle, we’ll grant you, but it’s the only explanation for why Microsoft Word on the Mac has only recently added support for right-to-left languages.
If you want to change the text direction from right-to-left to left-to-right in older versions of Word on an Apple computer, you’ll need to cheat using this workaround:
- Copy and paste your text into Pages, where it will default to left-to-right
- Copy and paste your reformatted text back into Word
You can also change the text direction from left-to-right to right-to-left using this method if you have an appropriate right-to-left script installed on Pages.
The text direction should then match the settings you chose in Pages (or other compatible program). If not, it might be time to get a PC instead.
