RTL Text Tool

Handles right-to-left text: toggles how the editing box renders, inserts and strips Unicode direction marks, and normalizes the Arabic and Persian letter forms that differ between keyboards.

What is the RTL Text Tool?

Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Urdu and Pashto run right to left, while numbers, Latin words and URLs embedded in them still run left to right. Unicode resolves that mix with the bidirectional algorithm, which infers direction from the characters themselves and gets it wrong often enough that invisible direction marks exist to override it. This tool works on a single text box, wrapping it in a right-to-left mark, stripping direction marks out again, switching the box between right-to-left and left-to-right rendering, and unifying Arabic and Persian letter variants.

Key Features

• Editing box that starts in right-to-left mode with right alignment
• Direction toggle that changes rendering only, leaving the characters untouched
• Wraps the text in U+200F right-to-left marks on request
• Strips every U+200F and U+200E mark from the text
• Normalizes Arabic yeh, kaf, teh marbuta and hamzated alef forms

Common Use Cases

• Fixing an Arabic label whose trailing punctuation or number jumps to the wrong side
• Unifying Persian text typed on an Arabic keyboard so searches match consistently
• Clearing invisible direction marks out of text copied from a website or PDF
• Previewing how a mixed Arabic and English string will read in a form field

How to Use the RTL Text Tool

1. Paste your text over the mixed Arabic, English and Persian sample in the input box.
2. Press Flip Text Direction to see the same characters rendered left to right instead.
3. Click Add RTL Unicode Marker to wrap the text in U+200F marks.
4. Use Remove RTL Markers to strip both the right-to-left and left-to-right marks out again.
5. Run Normalize Arabic/Persian Text, then press Copy to take the cleaned string.

Tips for Best Results

• Flip Text Direction only restyles the box, so copying afterward gives you exactly the characters you started with.
• Normalization is one-way: once Arabic yeh becomes Persian yeh, the original spelling cannot be recovered.
• Mirror Text reverses characters for visual effect and will scramble any real Arabic or Hebrew wording.
• Try Remove RTL Markers first when text copied from elsewhere aligns oddly for no visible reason.

Why Use WiserWork's RTL Text Tool?

Direction marks are invisible, which makes bidirectional problems maddening to diagnose in an ordinary editor: the text looks wrong but there is nothing to select. Having add, strip and preview in one box turns that invisible layer into something you can act on. The letter normalization solves a separate and very common headache, namely that Arabic and Persian keyboards produce different code points for letters that look identical.

Who Uses the RTL Text Tool?

Translators and localization staff use it to sanitize strings before they go into a product. Developers testing bidirectional layout paste mixed text in to see how a field behaves. Anyone typing Persian on an Arabic keyboard, or the reverse, uses the normalizer so their text matches what search and databases expect.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a right-to-left mark?

U+200F is an invisible character with a strong right-to-left direction and no width or glyph of its own. It gives the bidirectional algorithm a directional anchor at that point, which changes where neighboring neutral characters such as spaces, digits and punctuation are placed.

Does Flip Text Direction change my text?

No, it changes only the direction and alignment of the editing box so you can preview the same characters under the opposite reading order. Copy the box afterward and you get your original string back unchanged.

Why does a period end up on the wrong side of my Arabic sentence?

Punctuation is directionally neutral, so the bidirectional algorithm assigns it a side based on the characters around it and the paragraph direction. Wrapping the text in a right-to-left mark gives it the anchor it needs.

Which characters does Remove RTL Markers delete?

Only U+200F, the right-to-left mark, and U+200E, the left-to-right mark. Other invisible formatting characters, including the embedding and isolate controls, are left in place.

What does Normalize Arabic/Persian Text actually replace?

Arabic yeh becomes Persian yeh, Arabic kaf becomes Persian kaf, teh marbuta becomes heh, and the hamza and madda forms of alef all become plain alef. The result follows Persian conventions.

Should I run normalization on Arabic text?

Usually not. The replacements push spelling toward Persian conventions, and applying them to Arabic alters correct spellings, most visibly by flattening teh marbuta into heh. Save it for Persian text or for building search keys.

Why do identical-looking letters fail to match when I search?

Arabic and Persian keyboards produce different code points for characters that render almost the same, such as the two forms of yeh and kaf. A search compares code points rather than shapes, so the strings will not match until one side is normalized.

What is the difference between Mirror Text and Reverse Line Order?

Mirror Text reverses every character in the box, which destroys readable wording. Reverse Line Order leaves each line intact and only flips the order of the lines from top to bottom.

Does the tool add marks around a Latin phrase nested inside my text?

No. The marker is added once at the very start and once at the very end of the whole text. Isolating an individual embedded phrase would require the Unicode isolate characters, which this tool does not insert.

Can I undo an operation?

There is no undo button, and each action rewrites the same box in place. Remove RTL Markers reverses the marker step, but for the others keep a copy of your original text before experimenting.

Bidirectional text goes wrong in ways you cannot see, because the characters responsible have no shape at all. Add a mark, strip the marks out, switch the preview direction, or unify the letter forms, then copy the result.