How to translate a course into Arabic, right to left

To translate a course into Arabic, translate the text, then set its direction: dir="rtl" and lang="ar" on the html element of a hand-built course, right to left for the player and slide text in Storyline 360, and Articulate Localization in Rise 360, which supports right-to-left language versions, while its manual XLIFF guide covers translating into left-to-right languages. Then check every line where digits, English names and punctuation sit inside Arabic, because the Unicode bidirectional algorithm decides display order from character types and the base direction, not from the order in which the characters are stored. Test the package in SCORM Cloud and your own LMS before anyone enrolls.

Skip the direction and every Arabic word can be right while the paragraph hugs the left edge, period on the wrong side. That is MDN's own example of typographically incorrect text.

What changes when you translate a course into Arabic?

The whole screen reads from the right: text aligns right, table columns run right to left, form fields start at the right, and player buttons trade sides. What flips by itself depends on your tool.

Storyline keeps one slide layout for every language, so the arrangement of objects on a slide does not flip unless you show an alternate layer when Player.LanguageIsRightToLeft is True. Guidance on mirroring images, icons or arrows was not found in the pages read for this guide, so treat each one as a design task.

Whether Storyline's seekbar or Rise's progress indicator reverses was not found either; check both in preview.

Why do numbers and English words jump around in Arabic?

Because the order in which characters are stored is not the order in which they are displayed, and the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm decides the second.

The algorithm sorts characters by type: Latin and Arabic letters are strong, digits are weak, and spaces and punctuation are neutral. Same-direction characters form runs, and the paragraph's base direction sets the order of the runs and where neutral characters at their edges land.

Numbers, even Arabic numbers, are written from left to right. Because a digit is weak, a number after Arabic words is seen as part of the Arabic text. How a step or version number lands in a right-to-left course was not found in the pages read for this guide, so check each one in preview.

An English name such as "Microsoft Teams" in an Arabic sentence is a left-to-right run, and neutral punctuation at its edge takes the base direction. In MDN's example, an exclamation mark left outside an English title's element appears on the title's left edge.

In hand-built HTML, use markup: wrap the phrase tightly in an element with its own dir, or in bdi, which behaves as if dir="auto" had been applied. Where markup is not available, W3C says Unicode control characters are the only option, and only for inline phrases. Whether your authoring tool keeps those invisible characters through export and import was not found in the pages read for this guide.

And dir="auto" guesses from the first strongly directional character: MDN's comment that starts with an English name and continues in Arabic gets a left-to-right base direction.

How do you set up Arabic in each tool?

What does Storyline 360 support for Arabic?

Storyline 360 supports right-to-left scripts such as Arabic in published output, on a single-language copy or in one multi-language project. The clicks are in how to translate an Articulate Storyline or Rise course.

On a single-language copy, use a player font that supports right-to-left text, such as Arial Unicode MS or Microsoft Sans Serif, choose Arabic text labels, and set Text is read from to Right to Left under Player, Other. Player elements switch positions; the sidebar is a separate setting, and On Right under Features moves it.

Slide text has its own Right-to-Left Text Direction button on the Home tab, shown only if a right-to-left keyboard input language is installed on your computer. If the button is missing, look in your operating system's language settings.

Since the March 2025 update, one project can hold English and Arabic. In the Arabic version, shapes with text are set to right to left, left and right alignment swap, and centered text stays centered; the sidebar and player direction can follow each language with By Language. Layouts stay the same across versions; for a different right-to-left layout, Articulate points to saving that language as its own file with Save Translation As.

The XLIFF or Word export route skips closed captions, trigger conditions, player text labels and variable names; the file choice is in Storyline export for translation, Word or XLIFF.

What does Rise 360 support for Arabic?

Rise 360 supports multi-language courses with both left-to-right and right-to-left language versions, built with Articulate Localization; the Rise pages read for this guide do not name Arabic. Rise's manual guide covers translating into left-to-right languages with XLIFF and points to Localization for more than 80 languages, right-to-left ones included. What happens if you import an Arabic XLIFF into a duplicate anyway was not found in the pages read for this guide.

With Localization, right-to-left language versions are in a left-to-right layout in edit mode and adjust automatically to right-to-left layouts when the course is previewed, reviewed or published. Give your Arabic reviewer the preview, never a screenshot of the editor.

Right-to-left translation isn't supported for custom blocks at this time. Storyline blocks must be translated and validated through Storyline 360 before the translated versions can be embedded in Rise 360 content.

Each target language automatically uses default text labels in that language. The pages read for this guide do not name Arabic here, so open the preview and read the buttons yourself.

What do you set in a hand-built HTML course?

Put the direction and the language on the root element, in markup, as MDN's Arabic example does:

<html dir="rtl" lang="ar">

Even for documents in a single script, it is recommended to explicitly set dir on the root element, which is especially important for RTL scripts, because the default LTR base direction is wrong.

MDN Web Docs, "dir" HTML global attribute

You need both. The lang attribute declares the language but does not imply the base direction, and W3C warns against assuming either one says anything about the other. Keep the tag as short as possible: ar on its own, unless you need a region subtag.

Never set the base direction in CSS. W3C wants the direction available even when the CSS is not, and MDN recommends the attribute, noting that the CSS direction and unicode-bidi properties can override it.

With dir="rtl" on the root, paragraphs right-align, table columns run right to left and form input starts at the right. W3C says that if you write the style sheet correctly, CSS will automatically mirror the layout. The logical property margin-inline-start maps to the left or right margin depending on writing mode and direction, and has been available across browsers since January 2020.

What else changes besides the layout?

Which fonts work, and does letter spacing matter?

Use a font that has Arabic and keep letter spacing at zero. Arabic is cursive: every letter has one, two or four joining forms (isolated, initial, medial, final) depending on which sides it joins, and moving two joined characters closer together or further apart creates undesirable results.

W3C's note does not name letter spacing. Look for a spacing value your Arabic style inherits from an English heading style, set it to zero and check the result in preview.

For the Storyline player, Articulate names Arial Unicode MS and Microsoft Sans Serif. Arabic-ready fonts for slide text or Rise 360 themes were not found in the pages read for this guide. Preview every text style in real Arabic, bold and the smallest size included.

W3C notes that diacritics for vowel information are unusual in Arabic script text. If your translator adds vowel marks to settle an ambiguous term, check that they are not clipped in tight boxes.

What happens to the voiceover and captions?

Arabic narration needs Arabic captions. Captions match the language of the audio and are needed for accessibility, while subtitles in other languages are not directly an accessibility accommodation. The general audio choices are in how to translate a training course into Spanish.

W3C notes that diacritics for vowel information are unusual in Arabic script text. The pages read for this guide say nothing about how a narrator or a synthetic voice handles that, so have an Arabic speaker listen to every generated line. Check automatic captions too: missing one word such as "not" can make captions contradict the audio.

With Localization, Rise 360 translates the captions and transcripts you attach to video and audio; Storyline's XLIFF or Word route needs them translated separately and imported. Timing rules for Arabic captions were not found in the pages read for this guide; time them against the Arabic audio, not the English cues.

Which Arabic should the course be in?

No page read for this guide says which variety workplace training should use, so decide before translation starts. ISO 639-3 lists Arabic (ara, or ar) as a macrolanguage with 30 individual languages, 28 of them active, among them Standard Arabic (arb), Egyptian Arabic (arz), Moroccan Arabic (ary), Gulf Arabic (afb) and Levantine Arabic (apc). W3C's Arabic layout note is written for Standard Arabic and Persian.

Write your choice into the spec, for screen text and narration separately, and pick the reviewer from your learners' region. The tag stays ar either way unless a region subtag adds information you need.

Write down the digits too. W3C's note lists European numerals (0 to 9) and Arabic-Indic numerals, and numbers in either set are written left to right.

Does Arabic run longer than English?

A figure for English to Arabic was not found in the pages read for this guide. W3C's expansion table, from IBM's guidance, is not broken out by language; short strings grow the most. If your course is a Storyline multi-language project, longer translations get scrollbars and the Layout Issue Finder lists them.

How do you test the Arabic SCORM package?

Test in SCORM Cloud, then in your LMS. SCORM Cloud's free testing imports the course, launches it in a sandbox and shows completion, pass or fail, score, time and debug logs, though it does not check strict conformance. Packaging is in how to translate a SCORM package.

With Localization, Storyline and Rise publish one package with both languages or one per language, and report the learner's language code, in cmi.student_preference.language for SCORM 1.2, an element that is not mandatory there and that some LMSs might not support. Saved progress keeps the chosen language, and Rise 360 currently does not let learners reset it in an LMS, so switching may need your administrator.

If your course has free-text questions, type Arabic into them. Chrome and Safari offer a direction option in the context menu of input fields, and Firefox toggles a textarea's direction with Ctrl+Shift+X on Windows.

How do you run an Arabic translation from start to finish?

You need the authoring files, an Arabic translator, an Arabic-speaking reviewer from the learner group, an Arabic keyboard input language on the authoring computer for Storyline, a free SCORM Cloud trial and a test enrollment in your LMS.

1. Freeze the English and write the spec: variety, digits, the ar tag, and the product names that stay in Latin script.
2. Export and translate. On Storyline's export route, captions and player labels travel separately.
3. Set the direction: player, slide text, sidebar and labels in Storyline; Localization in Rise; dir, lang and logical CSS in HTML.
4. Fix the mixed-direction spots, numbers, English names and end punctuation, line by line.
5. Check fonts and letter spacing on every Arabic style.
6. Replace audio and captions, checked by an Arabic listener.
7. Publish and test in SCORM Cloud, then in your LMS with the Arabic reviewer.

These are working estimates, not figures from any source on this page.

Which Arabic course mistakes cost the most?

1. Reviewing Rise in the editor. In edit mode, right-to-left language versions are in a left-to-right layout; they adjust to right-to-left layouts when the course is previewed, reviewed or published.
2. Leaving numbers and English names to chance. A weak digit after Arabic words is treated as part of the Arabic run.
3. Spacing between joined letters. Moving two joined characters closer together or further apart creates undesirable results, so check every Arabic text style for a spacing value.
4. Treating lang as the direction. It declares the language and does not imply the base direction.

Each one shows up at step 7 and sends you back to step 3, 4 or 5.

Need your course in another language? We build in English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Russian and German. We build the first lesson free from your own material, then give you a fixed price for the rest. Get your free first lesson.

Other questions about Arabic course translation

Does Rise 360 support Arabic?

The Rise pages read for this guide do not name Arabic. They say Rise 360 supports multi-language courses with both left-to-right and right-to-left language versions through Articulate Localization, adjusting to right-to-left layouts in preview, review and the published course, and that right-to-left translation isn't supported for custom blocks at this time. The manual XLIFF guide covers translating into left-to-right languages.

Can one Storyline layout serve English and Arabic?

Since the March 2025 update one project can hold both. Alignment flips but the layout stays the same, so design one that works in both directions; for a different Arabic layout, show a slide layer when Player.LanguageIsRightToLeft is True.

Should an Arabic course use Arabic-Indic digits?

The pages read for this guide do not settle it. W3C lists European and Arabic-Indic numerals, both written left to right; pick one in the spec.

Why are my Arabic letters disconnected?

The pages read for this guide do not diagnose it. W3C's layout note says moving two joined characters closer together or further apart creates undesirable results, so check any spacing setting on that text style first.