New in Writer: Write in Arabic, Hebrew, and Other Right-to-left Languages

New in Writer: Write in Arabic, Hebrew, and Other Right-to-left Languages

We're happy to introduce complete support for right-to-left languages like Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, and Urdu. This update opens Writer to more than 300 million people in 20 countries across the world, and we couldn't be more excited.

 

Here's everything that's new, improved, and fixed:

 

I. Enhanced Writing Experience 

 

Working with bullet points, punctuation, even comments and tracking changes—we've refined and rewritten so many little things to enhance your writing experience in all right-to-left languages.

 

We've also dramatically improved the way we handle ligatures, so now you can place cursors and select combined letters with complete precision .

II. Right-to-Left Tables 

 

With a new dedicated Table Direction toggle, you can choose where you want to put the first column of your table. Set Right-to-left as the preferred table direction, and everything from text direction to tab stops will be set that way as well.

III. Precise Margins

 

Rulers in Writer got a major overhaul recently. They can handle multiple indentation styles, tab stops, and even header/footer margins. And now when you choose a right-to-left language, Writer will mirror them to match your writing direction.

To get started:

1. Click on the  More Options icon. 

2. Go to Text Direction  dropdown, and choose Right to Left.

 

Here's how to change your display language.

 

Not just documents, you can also create and edit spreadsheets in right-to-left languages now!  Read more

As always, we can only keep making these updates better with your feedback. Give the new features a try and let us know what you think.

 

Happy Writing!