How to write from right to left in Microsoft Office 365 / 2019?

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Several languages such as Arabic, Persian, Urdu or Hebrew are usually written from right to left. Today we will learn how to shift the writing direction in Office 2016/2019/365 from the default Left To Right (LTR) into Right To Left direction (RTL). For convenience, we are providing detailed instructions for Word and Outlook; however process is similar for other Office apps such as Excel and PowerPoint.

Set Word paragraph defaults to right to left

To ensure that your Word document default writing direction is RTL, proceed as following:

  1. Open a new Microsoft Word document.
  2. In the Home tab, locate the Paragraph section in the Ribbon.
  3. Hit the small arrow at the bottom right side of the section as shown below:
  1. The Paragraph Settings dialog will open up.
  2. In the General section, you’ll notice the Alignment combo box.
  3. Set the Alignment value to be Right.
  4. Select Right-to-left check box below.
  5. At the bottom of the dialog hit the Set as Default button.
  6. In the next dialog, select to apply this setting to all documents based on the normal.dotm template.

Word right to left writing

If you are not able to locate the RTL direction buttons in Word, proceed as following:

  • Open your Word document, click on File and select Options.
  • In the customize ribbon, click on the drop down box and select All commands.
2015-10-13 14_30_35-Word Options

  • Then search for the Left to Right and Right to Left in the options.
  • Press on New Group at the bottom and rename it as you need.
  • Add both LTR and RTL in the created group and select OK to add it in the Ribbon.
2015-10-13 14_31_35-Word Options

In Quick Access Toolbar:

  • Open your word document, click on File and select Options.
  • In the Quick Access Toolbar, click on the drop down box and select All commands.
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  • Then search for Left to Right and Right to Left in the options.
  • Click Add and select OK to add those options in Quick access toolbar.
2015-10-13 14_33_36-Word Options

Right to left switching with Macros

Readers asked me whether there is a way to programmatically set Right to Left for specific pages / ranges and paragraphs in a Word document.

The VBA method .RtlPara allows you to set the paragraph direction for a specific selection using Macros.

Default RTL in Outlook emails

To set right-to-left as your default Outlook email text direction, proceed as following:

  1. In the Outlook ribbon , hit the New Email button to open a new email item.
  2. Navigate to the Format Text tab.
  3. In the Paragraph Ribbon header, hit the small arrow at the bottom right side.
  4. The Paragraph settings dialog opens up.
  5. In the Alignment combo box, select Right.
  6. Then pick right-to-left as the email document Direction.
  7. Hit the Set as default button and apply all changes to all email items created off the normalemail.dotm template.

Note: While writing this tutorial, i have noticed that the Format Text Ribbon (including the Paragraph section) buttons are disabled by default. If so, just click your email item body and the Ribbon will be enabled.

Enable RTL buttons in Outlook

  • Open your Outlook 365 and Click on New mail in the Home ribbon.
  • Now in the opened compose mail dialog box, click on File and select Options.
  • In the Customize Ribbon, click on the drop down box and select All commands.
2015-10-13 14_40_25-Outlook Options

  • Search for Left to Right and Right to Left options.
  • Press on New Group at the bottom and rename it as you need.
  • Add both LTR and RTL in the created group and select OK to add it to the ribbon.
2015-10-13 14_41_01-Outlook Options

In Quick Access Toolbar:

  • In your Outlook then hit New mail in the Home ribbon.
  • In the dialog box of compose mail, click on File and select Options.
  • In the Quick Access Toolbar, click on the drop down box and select All commands.
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  • Search for Left to Right and Right to Left options.
  • Click Add and select OK to add it in Quick Access Toolbar.
2015-10-13 14_41_50-Outlook Options
  • Hit either LTR to write from Left to Right and RTL to write from Right to Left in both Quick Access Toolbar and Customize ribbon.

FAQ

Can i make only part of my document right to left in Word ?

To align part of your document to the right proceed as following:

  • In Word, Excel or PowerPoint, open the Home tab.
  • Highlight the text you would like to change.
  • Open the Paragraph group, hand under Choose Direction select right-to-left.
  • Hit OK.
  • Save your document, spreadsheet or presentation.

What are the keyboard shortcuts to change text direction?

In Word and PowerPoint, hit Alt +H, the hit PG and then chose the direction in the dialog.

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