Contents
This section is normative.
The Bi-directional Text module defines the Bi-directional attribute collection.
ltr
. Possible values are:
*[dir="ltr"] { unicode-bidi: embed; direction: ltr}
*[dir="rtl"] { unicode-bidi: embed; direction: rtl}
*[dir="lro"] { unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr}
*[dir="rlo"] { unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: rtl}
Example
<p> The Hebrew word for "Hebrew" is <span xml:lang="he">עברית</span>, but since Hebrew letters have intrinsic right-to-left directionality, I had to type the word starting from the letter "ע", i.e. <span xml:lang="he" dir="lro">עברית</span>. </p>
The Unicode bidirectional algorithm requires a base text direction for text
blocks. To specify the base direction of a block-level element, set the
element's
@dir
attribute. The default value of the
@dir
attribute is ltr
(left-to-right text).
When the @dir attribute is set for a block-level element, it remains in effect for the duration of the element and any nested block-level elements. Setting the @dir attribute on a nested element overrides the inherited value.
To set the base text direction for an entire document, set the @dir attribute on the html element.
Example
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 2.0//EN" "http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/DTD/xhtml2.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" dir="rtl"> <head> <title><em>...a right-to-left title...</em></title> </head> <body> <em>...right-to-left text...</em> <p dir="ltr"><em>...left-to-right text...</em></p> <p><em>...right-to-left text again...</em></p> </body> </html>
Inline-level elements, on the other hand, do not inherit the @dir attribute. This means that an inline element without a @dir attribute does not open an additional level of embedding with respect to the bidirectional algorithm.
An element is considered to be block-level
if its presentation, when expressed in
[CSS2], is display: block
and inline-level
if its presentation, when expressed in
[CSS2], is display: inline
.
In general, using style sheets (such as [CSS2]
to change an element's visual rendering from
the equivalent of display: block
to
display: inline
or vice-versa is straightforward. However, because the
bidirectional algorithm relies on the
inline/block-level distinction, special care must be taken during the
transformation.
When an inline-level element that does not have a @dir attribute is transformed to a block-level element by a style sheet, it inherits the @dir attribute from its closest parent block-level element to define the base direction of the block.
When a block-level element that does not have a @dir attribute is transformed to an inline-level element by a style sheet, the resulting presentation should be equivalent, in terms of bidirectional formatting, to the formatting obtained by explicitly adding a @dir attribute (assigned the inherited value) to the transformed element.
Implementations: RELAX NG, XML Schema
[XHTML 2] 15 Bi-directional text collection and embedded attributes?
PR #7783
State: Approved
Resolution: Modify and Accept
User: None
Notes:
The dir attribute does not apply to embedded content. The src attribute is not
equivalent to an xml "include" - it is a reference to a (potentially) external
resource that is rendered in the way appropriate to that resources type. But
that
rendering is done in the context of a separate renderer; ala the object element.
Similary, the styling from stylesheets that apply to the parent document does
not
apply to any embedded content. The fact that your example is "text" does not
really
matter - text is no more special than any other embedded content. It is handled
by
however the user agent processes text content, but in a different context than
the parent element.
We will add text to the src attribute description to clarify this.