Reading Order

Text entered in Visual Basic has either an RTL (Middle East) or an LTR (Latin) reading order. Reading order describes the order in which words are displayed in mixed text. It is instructive to note that reading order pertains to the word order, not the order of the entered characters. When Arabic is the keyboard language, new characters will always flow in a right-to-left manner. Conversely, when Latin is the keyboard language, characters flow in a left-to-right manner.

Reading order becomes important for mixed text situations where text strings contain words in both Middle East and Latin languages. This concept is illustrated in the following examples using Arabic and English text:

• The first two lines demonstrate that no matter which reading order is chosen, text in a pure Arabic or Latin run appears according to the expected behavior of each language.
  
  
• The third line shows that in an LTR reading order, Arabic text added to an existing Latin run flows toward the right of the Latin run. An RTL reading order displays the added Arabic text to the left of the Latin run.
  
  
• The fourth line shows that in an LTR reading order, Latin text added to an existing Arabic run flows toward the right of the Arabic run. An RTL reading order arranges the added Latin text to the left of the Arabic run.