How to change the text direction on Windows?

Question

Sometimes when I'm typing, text orientation changes from LTR to RTL, but I am not able to find any shortcut to change the text direction on Windows.

How can I change the text direction inside a text box or a text area?

After a lot of search, I was able to do this. Hold LeftCtrl then press LeftShift to make text LTR. Similarly, hold RightCtrl then press RightShift to make text RTL. — Imran Qadir Baksh - Baloch, Sep 08 '12 at 14:04

score 42 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 23 '17 at 19:22

42

To switch between RTL (Right-To-Left) and LTR (Left-To-Right) text directions, you need to click Ctrl+Shift:

Ctrl+Left Shift for LTR.
Ctrl+Right Shift for RTL.

To change the direction of the whole text, select all of it (Ctrl+A) before changing the text direction.

edited Mar 23 '17 at 19:22

Daryn

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answered Sep 08 '12 at 14:05

amiregelz

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Is there a way to disable these? The only times I hit them is by accident. – n611x007 Dec 21 '12 at 06:55
@naxa See [**How to disable Ctrl+Shift keyboard layout switch (for the same input language) in Windows?**](http://superuser.com/q/109066/138020) – amiregelz Dec 21 '12 at 15:29
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Dear @amiregelz, unfortunately your link doesn't contain the solution. I've already disabled the Ctrl+Shift shortcut there, but the page is about keyboard layouts, not writing directions. – Gogowitsch Sep 28 '14 at 08:43
What if you only have a Left Ctrl and not a Right one? – Hakanai May 04 '15 at 04:35
This does not work for me, I do not have R2L enabled. Win7, MSWord 2013. – vinnief Apr 22 '16 at 04:19
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Minor correction / addition to the answer (at least for Windows 10): Which Control key you press doesn't matter. The Shift does, though. I frequently find myself pressing Control on the left and Shift on the right and then cursing and swearing until I press the right combo to get it back (which led me here for some definite answers). – Mayyit Sep 18 '16 at 03:03
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this is a really poorly thought out key combo. CTRL&SHIFT is hardly a rare combination, I would imagine that the vast majority of uses of this key combination are accidental. (I tend to do it when I've been highlighting text by whole word for instance) – Some_Guy Jul 17 '21 at 17:42
This worked for me in the Trilium Windows Desktop notes app. It's unfortunate because you often use CTRL-SHIFT-C key combination for cloning a note somewhere in the tree. I guess sometimes I must be clicking CTRL just that millisecond before I get to SHIFT. It was driving me nuts not knowing what was causing RTL text, so thanks! – Yann Duran May 15 '23 at 14:21

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered May 22 '18 at 06:42

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I struggled to fix a similar issue - it turned out to be limited to Office applications (inc. Outlook) and was caused by having Hebrew listed as an editing language (Options>Language>Choose Editing Languages).

Removing it and restarting all Office applications solved the problem.

answered May 22 '18 at 06:42

Benjamin

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Welcome on board, I think you are unable to understand the Key Question, please read carefully before you compose the answer. Refer this link, https://superuser.com/help/how-to-answer. – Rajesh Sinha May 22 '18 at 11:18

How to change the text direction on Windows?

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