Format tables for bidirectional text

Pages supports bidirectional text, so you can enter and edit text written from left to right (such as in English or Chinese) and from right to left (such as in Arabic or Hebrew) in the same document. You can also reverse the direction of tables to accommodate different languages.

The direction of text in table cells is based on the direction of the top-left cell in a left-to-right table, or the top-right cell in a right-to-left table. If one of those cells is empty, the direction is based on the current keyboard (set in the Input menu).

For information about using other languages on your computer, and for more information about using bidirectional text, see Use bidirectional text.

Change text direction in a table

You can change the direction of text in selected cells.

  1. Select the cells, then 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.

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

    The paragraph direction button next to paragraph alignment buttons

Reverse table direction

You can change the table direction so that header rows, column order, and other table elements are reversed.

  1. Click the table to select it.

  2. Do one of the following:

    • Choose Format > Table > Reverse Table Direction (from the Format menu at the top of your screen).

    • Click the Table tab at the top of the sidebar on the right, then click a Table Direction button at the bottom of the sidebar.

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

When you reverse table order, cell alignment is affected as follows:

See also
Use bidirectional text