Change text direction in structured documents

Learn how you can change the direction of text in structured documents in Adobe FrameMaker.

The direction – Left-To-Right (LTR) or Right-To-Left (RTL) – of a structured document is defined in the associated Adobe FrameMaker Structured Application. If the Structured Application supports document direction, you can change the direction of the text in supported elements in the document.

To change the direction of the text of an element:

Select the element in the Structure View.
Open the Attributes editor and change the dir attribute.

FrameMaker provides out-of-the-box direction support for DITA topics (topic, task, concept, and reference). However, you can create your own Structured Application with direction support.

FrameMaker offers a direction property that you can use in your Structured Application.

For example, you can create a read-write rule such as the following to specify that the FrameMaker direction property maps to the structured document dir attribute:

attribute "dir"
{
   is fm attribute;
   is fm property direction;
}

Note: If you change the direction attribute of an element in a non-DITA XML file, the direction of the contents does not immediately change. You will need to close and open the XML file to reflect the changes.

For more details on adding direction support to your own Structured Applications, see the FDK Programmer’s Guide.