w:bidi (Bidirectional Paragraph Layout)

Description

w:bidi is a toggle property that sets the base writing direction of a paragraph to right-to-left (RTL). When active:

• The paragraph is laid out from right to left.
• Paragraph alignment values are mirrored (left means right-aligned, right means left-aligned).
• Indents and tab stops are measured from the right margin.

It is defined in ECMA-376 Part 1 §17.3.1.6.

This property does not affect individual runs within the paragraph — per-run directionality is controlled by w:rtl in w:rPr.

Attributes

Examples

<!-- Arabic paragraph flowing right-to-left -->
<w:p>
  <w:pPr>
    <w:bidi/>
    <w:jc w:val="right"/>
  </w:pPr>
  <w:r>
    <w:rPr><w:rtl/></w:rPr>
    <w:t>هذا نص عربي</w:t>
  </w:r>
</w:p>

using DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Wordprocessing;

var para = new Paragraph(
    new ParagraphProperties(
        new BiDi(),
        new Justification { Val = JustificationValues.Right }
    ),
    new Run(
        new RunProperties(new RightToLeftText()),
        new Text("هذا نص عربي")
    )
);

Notes

• For a fully RTL paragraph, set both w:bidi on w:pPr and w:rtl on w:rPr for each run.
• w:jc w:val="right" in a bidi paragraph has the visual effect of left-aligned text (because the base direction is RTL).
• The Unicode Bidi Algorithm (UBA) still applies within each run.