Unicode-Bidi

unicode-bidi Support Key: [*CSS2] [IE5*]	Other International Properties
	direction ruby-align ruby-overhang ruby-position line-break word-break writing-mode ime-mode	text-justify text-autospace text-kashida-space layout-flow layout-grid layout-grid-mode layout-grid-type layout-grid-line layout-grid-char layout-grid-char-spacing
= Index DOT Css by Brian Wilson =

What is it?: Text in some languages flows from right to left, while many other languages flow from left to right. There will inevitably be cases where left to right text and right to left content must be intermingled. Unicode allows for a complex process of determining the directional flow of content based on properties of the characters and content, as well as explicit controls for language "embeddings" and directional overrides. This algorithm should be used with bi-directional content as formatted by CSS. The 'unicode-bidi' and 'direction' properties specify how document content maps to the Unicode algorithm.

Allowed Values
inherit
[CSS2]: Type: Explicit; Description:
Explicitly sets the value of this property to that of the parent.
normal
[CSS2] [IE5]: Type: Explicit; Description:
The element will not open an additional level of embedding. In the case of inline elements, implicit Unicode character ordering will be applied across elements.
embed
[CSS2] [IE5]: Type: Explicit; Description:
Creates an additional explicit Unicode bidi embedding level, with the direction of the content specified by the 'direction' property. Implicit Unicode character ordering is also obeyed.
bidi-override
[CSS2] [IE5]: Type: Explicit; Description:
Creates an additional explicit Unicode bidi embedding level (like the "embed" value), with the direction of the content specified ONLY by the 'direction' property; ordering based on implicit Unicode character properties is not obeyed. This value literally overrides the normal Unicode ordering scheme.

Example: Ext/Doc: div { unicode-bidi: embed; direction: rtl }; In-Line: <div STYLE="unicode-bidi: embed; direction: rtl">Bidi content</div>

Notes

CSS2 states that, because HTML 4.0 defines bidi behavior for HTML elements, a browser conforming to CSS2 may ignore the 'unicode-bidi' and 'direction' CSS properties.

Browser Peculiarities

The Internet Explorer 5.0 on-line CSS reference says that the 'unicode-bidi' property is an inherited property. This conflicts with CSS2.
The Mozilla code contains a special branch maintained by IBM that supports full bidirectional language rendering, but (as far as I know), this is not a part of the "official" Netscape versions of the product. Hence, I do not list support for "unicode-bidi" here for "Netscape" proper, even though it is directly derived from the Mozilla code.