Format cells for bidirectional text

Numbers supports bidirectional text in cells, so within the same spreadsheet, you can have some cells with text written from left to right (such as in English or Chinese) and others with text written from right to left (such as in Arabic or Hebrew).

Note: To change the direction of cell text, your computer must be set up for input sources that use different text directions—for example, one keyboard for typing a right-to-left language, such as Hebrew, and another for typing a left-to-right language, such as English. You can’t reverse the direction of a table. See Set up a keyboard or other input source for another language.

The default direction of text in cells is based on the current keyboard (selected in the Input menu).

Change text direction in cells

You can change the direction of text in selected cells.

  1. Select the cells.

  2. Click the Text tab at the top of the sidebar on the right.

    If you don’t see a sidebar, or the sidebar doesn’t have a Text tab, click Format button in the toolbar.

  3. Click the Style button near the top of the sidebar, then in the Alignment section, click Paragraph direction button.

    Bidirectional text button

When you change the direction of cell text, the cell alignment is affected as follows:

SEE ALSOEnter text in another language