W3C

Notes on Techniques
Authoring HTML: Handling Right-to-left Scripts

Last modified:
$Date: 2009/08/27 14:16:07 $
This document provides additional information for the document:
http://www.w3.org/TR/i18n-html-tech-bidi/

Introduction

This document provides pointers to further information and additional notes about specific browser implementations for Authoring HTML: Handling Right-to-left Scripts. Links are listed here so that they can be updated independently of the versions of the main document, as new information becomes available. The Note itself will be much slower to change, and cannot contain dynamic information.

Comments on this page may be sent to www-i18n-comments@w3.org, which is publicly archived.

Authoring with localization in mind

Whenever possible, avoid HTML attributes with values of right and left. Use CSS in a linked style sheet instead.
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  1. Making bidi localization easier
Only use text-align where you specifically want to override the current default alignment..
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  1. Making bidi localization easier

Setting up a right-to-left page

Add dir="rtl" to the html tag any time the overall document direction is right-to-left.
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  1. Setting up a right-to-left page
Browser-specific notes

IE Opera   Both IE and Opera change the position of the scroll bar when rtl is set on the html or the body tag. IE also mirrors the direction of objects on some Javascript dialog boxes, but only when rtl is set on the html tag.

TestsResults
If you need to avoid the scroll bar moving on some browsers, put dir on the head element and a div just inside the body element.
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  1. Setting up a right-to-left page
Browser-specific notes

IE Opera   Both IE and Opera change the position of the scroll bar when rtl is set on the html or the body tag. IE also mirrors the direction of objects on some Javascript dialog boxes, but only when rtl is set on the html tag.

Tests Results
Use logical order, not visual ordering for Hebrew, and choose an appropriate encoding.
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  1. Setting up a right-to-left page
  2. Choosing a character encoding
If you have to use an ISO encoding for a Hebrew page, declare the encoding as ISO-8859-8-i rather than ISO-8859-8.
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  1. Setting up a right-to-left page
  2. Choosing a character encoding
Do not use CSS styling to control directionality in HTML. Use markup.
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  1. Setting up a right-to-left page

Changing direction on block elements

Add the dir attribute to a block element to change base direction. Don't use CSS or Unicode control characters.
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  1. Changing the direction of a block element
Only use bidi markup to set the base direction for the document as a whole, or where you need to change the base direction.
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  1. Changing the direction of a block element

Mixing text direction inline

When you have bidirectional text nested in inline text of a different direction, and markup can be used, use the dir attribute to make the text display correctly. Otherwise, use RLE/LRE and PDF control characters to create an embedded base direction.
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  1. Mixing text direction inline
When weak or neutral characters or objects appear at the wrong side of a directional run, fix it using dir if there is markup already in place, or use an RLM/LRM.
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  1. Mixing text direction inline
When adjacent but separate directional runs with the same directionality are rendered in the wrong order, use RLM/LRM.
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  1. Mixing text direction inline
Use stateful Unicode control characters for bidirectional control only for attribute text or element text that allows no internal markup.
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  1. Mixing text direction inline
Consider using Unicode control characters to set the base direction around bidirectional text that will be displayed as tooltips, page titles, or on JavaScript dialog boxes.
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  1. Mixing text direction inline
Do not leave white space at the end of inline elements that mark a directional boundary.
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  1. Mixing text direction inline

Handling parentheses & other mirrored characters

Treat mirrored characters as if any word left in the name meant 'opening', and right meant 'closing'.
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  1. Handling parentheses and other mirrored characters

Overriding the Unicode bidirectional algorithm

Use the bdo element to force the directionality of a sequence of inline characters.
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  1. Overriding the Unicode bidirectional algorithm

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