Change the direction of text as you type on Mac
macOS supports bidirectional text, so you can enter and edit text from left to right (such as English or Chinese) and from right to left (such as Arabic or Hebrew) in the same paragraph. The first character you enter determines the default direction for a paragraph.
Change direction in paragraphs
In an app on your Mac, do one of the following:
In any paragraph: With the pointer anywhere in the paragraph, choose a writing direction command from the Format menu. In some apps, you may need to choose Format > Alignment or Format > Text. Some apps may not offer the commands.
In a paragraph written right to left: Control-click anywhere in the paragraph, choose Writing Direction (or Paragraph Direction) from the shortcut menu, then choose a command. For Default, the direction is based on the first character in the paragraph.
For example, if you start a paragraph with an English character, even if most of the paragraph is in Arabic, the sentences in the paragraph are displayed left to right as:
تم إصدار MacBook و MacBook Pro بشكل جديد
When you choose Right to Left from the shortcut menu, the sentences in the paragraph are displayed correctly as:
بشكل جديد MacBook Pro و MacBook تم إصدار
Change direction in selected text
In selected text written right to left: In an app on your Mac, Control-click the selection, choose Writing Direction from the shortcut menu, then choose a command. For Default, the direction is set to that of the paragraph in which the text appears.
For example, if you’re using an English input source but you begin a sentence with a Hebrew character, the text is displayed incorrectly as:
.is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet א
If you select the sentence and choose Left to Right from the shortcut menu, the sentence is displayed correctly as:
א is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
Use bidirectional keyboard shortcuts
On your Mac, choose Apple menu
, then click Input Sources. If necessary, add an input source for a right-to-left language.
Select the input source on the left, then make sure the “Enable keyboard shortcuts” option is selected.
You can also turn on or off the split cursor option (used to more precisely show the boundary between left-to-right and right-to-left text).
In an app, choose one of the following bidirectional keyboard shortcuts:
Change selected text to left to right: Press Command-Option-Control-Right Arrow.
Change selected text to right to left: Press Command-Option-Control-Left Arrow.
Change selected text to the default direction: Press Command-Option-Control-Down Arrow.
Change a paragraph to left to right: Press Command-Control-Right Arrow.
Change a paragraph to right to left: Press Command-Control-Left Arrow.
Change a paragraph to the default direction: Press Command-Control-Down Arrow.
Type Arabic short date in the order it’s displayed: Press Control-Slash to enter each slash.
