Copilot in Word With Right-to-Left Text: Arabic and Hebrew Support Notes

When you work with Arabic or Hebrew text in Microsoft Word, Copilot may not handle right-to-left formatting as expected. The AI model processes text primarily in left-to-right order, which can cause misaligned paragraphs, reversed punctuation, or incorrect text direction in generated content. This article explains the specific limitations of Copilot with right-to-left scripts and provides practical steps to correct formatting issues after generation.

Why Copilot Struggles With Arabic and Hebrew Text Direction

Copilot in Word generates text using large language models trained predominantly on left-to-right scripts. The model does not natively detect or preserve the text direction of your document. When you ask Copilot to write or edit Arabic or Hebrew content, the output often defaults to left-to-right paragraph direction. Punctuation marks such as commas and periods may appear at the wrong end of a sentence. Copilot also may not correctly apply right-to-left ligation rules for Arabic characters, resulting in broken letter forms in some font families.

The root cause is that Copilot processes prompts as plain Unicode text without reading the paragraph formatting attributes of the surrounding document. It does not inherit the Right-to-Left paragraph property set in Word. This limitation affects all right-to-left scripts, including Arabic, Hebrew, Urdu, and Persian.

What Copilot Can and Cannot Do With Right-to-Left Text

Copilot can generate grammatically correct Arabic and Hebrew sentences when the language is specified in the prompt. For example, typing “Write a formal email in Arabic confirming a meeting” produces coherent text. However, the generated paragraph will be left-aligned with left-to-right direction. Copilot cannot apply the correct bidirectional algorithm for mixed scripts within the same paragraph. If you have English terms embedded in an Arabic sentence, the punctuation placement may be incorrect.

Steps to Correct Text Direction After Copilot Generation

Use these methods to fix right-to-left formatting after Copilot inserts text into your document.

1. Set the paragraph direction to right-to-left
   Select the Copilot-generated paragraph. On the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, click the Right-to-Left button. It is the icon with a paragraph symbol and a right-pointing arrow. The text reflows to right alignment and the cursor moves to the right side of the paragraph.
2. Use the keyboard shortcut for quick toggling
   With the text selected, press Ctrl + Right Shift to switch to right-to-left direction. Press Ctrl + Left Shift to return to left-to-right. This shortcut works in Word for Windows and Word for Mac.
3. Correct punctuation placement manually
   After changing direction, review periods, commas, and question marks. In right-to-left paragraphs, punctuation should appear at the left end of the sentence. If a period appears at the right end, place the cursor before the period and press Backspace, then retype the period at the correct position.
4. Apply the correct font for Arabic or Hebrew
   Select the text and choose a font that supports the script. For Arabic, use Arabic Typesetting, Traditional Arabic, or Calibri. For Hebrew, use David, Frank Ruehl, or Calibri. Copilot may default to a font without proper glyph support, causing missing or joined characters.
5. Enable the right-to-left cursor movement
   Go to File > Options > Advanced. Under Editing options, check the box Enable right-to-left cursor movement. This ensures the arrow keys move the cursor correctly through Arabic or Hebrew text.

If Copilot Still Produces Incorrect Text Direction

Copilot generates left-to-right text even after I set the document to right-to-left

Copilot does not read the document’s default paragraph direction. You must manually change the direction after each generation. To reduce repetition, create a Word macro that applies right-to-left direction to the selected text and assign it to a keyboard shortcut. Open the Visual Basic Editor with Alt+F11, insert a new module, and paste this code:

Sub SetRTL()
    Selection.ParagraphFormat.TextDirection = wdTextDirectionRTL
End Sub

Assign the macro to a shortcut in File > Options > Customize Ribbon > Keyboard shortcuts > Macros.

Arabic or Hebrew text appears as boxes or question marks

The font Copilot used does not contain glyphs for the script. Select the text and change the font to one listed in step 4 above. If the issue persists, install the Arabic or Hebrew language pack from File > Options > Language. Under Office authoring languages and proofing, click Add a Language, choose Arabic or Hebrew, and follow the installation prompts. Restart Word after installation.

Copilot mixes English and Arabic in the same sentence incorrectly

Bidirectional text requires manual adjustment. After Copilot generates the text, select the entire paragraph and set it to right-to-left. Then, for each English term embedded in the Arabic text, select the English word individually and set its direction to left-to-right using Ctrl+Left Shift. This preserves the correct reading order for both languages.

Copilot in Word With Right-to-Left Text: Built-in Word Features vs Manual Correction

Item	Built-in Word Feature	Manual Correction After Copilot
Paragraph direction	Home > Paragraph > Right-to-Left button	Select text and click button or press Ctrl+Right Shift
Font support	Font menu with script-specific fonts	Change font after generation
Punctuation placement	Automatic for typed text	Manually move punctuation to correct end
Cursor movement	File > Options > Advanced > Enable right-to-left cursor movement	Enable once, works for all text
Language detection	Automatic based on keyboard input	Copilot does not detect language from document context

Word provides full right-to-left support for manually typed content. Copilot bypasses these settings. You must apply the formatting after generation. The fastest workflow is to generate the text, press Ctrl+A to select the whole document, then press Ctrl+Right Shift to set all paragraphs to right-to-left. Review punctuation for each paragraph and adjust fonts if needed.

For repeated tasks, consider typing the first few words of the Arabic or Hebrew text manually with the correct direction, then use Copilot to continue the sentence. Copilot will match the direction of the existing text in some cases, but not reliably. Test this approach with short prompts before using it in long documents.

If you share documents with colleagues who use right-to-left scripts, save the file as a PDF after applying all formatting corrections. PDF preserves text direction and font rendering more consistently than Word format across different systems.