How to Write Arabic in Google Docs, Word, and PowerPoint

You've converted your Arabic text — maybe using Omlyar, maybe by copying it from a message — and now you need to put it into a document. You paste it in, and immediately something looks wrong: the text is left-aligned, the letters appear in the wrong order, the font renders them as disconnected boxes, or the paragraph direction is fighting with your English content. This is the Arabic-in-documents problem, and it trips up almost everyone the first time.

The good news: Google Docs, Microsoft Word, and PowerPoint all support Arabic text fully. The settings just aren't obvious. This guide walks through each application with the exact steps to get Arabic text displaying, flowing, and printing correctly.

Understanding the Core Challenge: RTL Text

Arabic is written right-to-left (RTL). Every word processor defaults to left-to-right (LTR) because that's how English, French, Spanish, and most other languages work. When you paste Arabic text into an LTR document without adjusting the settings, the application doesn't know which direction to flow the text — and the results are predictably broken.

Two settings control how Arabic text behaves in any document application:

• Paragraph direction — tells the app whether a paragraph flows RTL or LTR. This affects text alignment, punctuation placement, and where the cursor begins.
• Font — must support the Arabic Unicode block. Many common fonts (Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri) technically include Arabic glyphs, but dedicated Arabic fonts render far better. More on fonts below.

The workflow for any of the three apps is the same: paste your Arabic text, set the paragraph direction to RTL, choose a good Arabic font, and done.

Google Docs

Enabling RTL Support

Google Docs has RTL support built in but hidden by default. You need to enable it once:

1. Open any Google Doc.
2. Go to Format in the top menu.
3. Select Paragraph styles → Options.
4. Click Display right-to-left paragraph direction controls.

Once enabled, two new paragraph direction buttons appear in the toolbar: a left-pointing paragraph icon (RTL) and a right-pointing one (LTR). You only need to do this setup once per account — the setting persists across all your documents.

Setting a Paragraph to RTL

1. Click into the paragraph where you've pasted (or will type) Arabic text.
2. Click the RTL paragraph button in the toolbar (it looks like lines with a left-pointing arrow).
3. The paragraph immediately shifts: text aligns to the right, the cursor moves to the right end of the line, and any Arabic you type or paste now flows correctly.

Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+R (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+Shift+R (Mac) toggles RTL paragraph direction without touching the toolbar.

Choosing an Arabic Font in Google Docs

Google Docs gives you access to Google Fonts, which includes several excellent Arabic typefaces:

1. Select your Arabic text.
2. Click the font name in the toolbar → More fonts.
3. In the search box, type "Arabic" or the font name directly.
4. Recommended choices: Noto Naskh Arabic (clean, readable, widely used), Amiri (elegant, traditional), Cairo (modern, works well alongside Latin text).
5. Click the font to add it to your toolbar list, then select it.

Mixing Arabic and English in the Same Document

The most common real-world scenario: a document that's mostly English with Arabic phrases embedded, or a bilingual document with paragraphs in each language. Set each paragraph's direction individually — English paragraphs stay LTR, Arabic paragraphs go RTL. Google Docs handles bidirectional text within a single line (like an English sentence with an Arabic name in it) automatically once the base paragraph direction is set correctly.

Microsoft Word

Enabling Arabic Language Support

On Windows, Arabic support in Word requires the Arabic language pack to be installed at the Windows level — not just in Word itself.

1. Go to Settings → Time & Language → Language & Region.
2. Click Add a language and add Arabic (any regional variant — Modern Standard Arabic works for text display).
3. Download the language pack when prompted. This only needs to be done once.
4. Restart Word if it was open.

On Mac, Arabic is already available through the system. In Word for Mac, go to Word → Preferences → Language and add Arabic if it's not listed.

Setting RTL Direction in Word

1. Click into your Arabic paragraph.
2. On the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, look for the RTL and LTR paragraph direction buttons (they appear once the Arabic language pack is installed).
3. Click the RTL button. The paragraph direction changes immediately.

Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+R sets RTL; Ctrl+Shift+L sets LTR. These are the same shortcuts as Google Docs.

Arabic Fonts in Word

Word has several built-in Arabic fonts. The best ones for clean output:

• Traditional Arabic — the most common default; slightly formal, excellent readability.
• Arabic Typesetting — high-quality Naskh style, good for longer texts.
• Simplified Arabic — more geometric, works well at small sizes.
• Calibri and Arial — include Arabic glyphs and are fine for basic use, but lack the refinement of dedicated Arabic fonts at larger sizes.

Avoid fonts that clearly weren't designed with Arabic in mind — they often display Arabic as disconnected letters (not joined), which is incorrect. If you see separated letters in your pasted text, the font is the problem.

Font Size for Arabic in Word

Arabic letters are generally more complex than Latin letters, with more strokes and detail. Arabic text at the same nominal font size as your English body text will often look slightly smaller visually. A common adjustment is to set Arabic text 1–2 points larger than the surrounding English — so if your document uses 12pt body text, set Arabic to 13–14pt.

Microsoft PowerPoint

Adding Arabic to a Slide

PowerPoint handles Arabic through text boxes. The key is to set the text box direction before typing or pasting:

1. Insert a Text Box on your slide (Insert → Text Box).
2. Before typing anything, right-click inside the text box and select Paragraph (or use the Home tab → Paragraph group).
3. In the paragraph dialog, find the Text direction or Alignment options and select Right-to-Left.
4. Now paste or type your Arabic text. It will flow correctly from right to left.

Alternatively, use the keyboard shortcut: with the cursor inside the text box, press Ctrl+Shift+R.

Fonts and Size in PowerPoint

The same font recommendations from Word apply in PowerPoint. For presentation slides specifically, Cairo (available via Google Fonts and installable on Windows/Mac) is worth the extra install — it has a clean geometric style that reads well at headline sizes and pairs nicely with modern presentation fonts like Calibri or Open Sans.

For slides, go slightly larger with Arabic text than you would with equivalent Latin text. Arabic letters have more visual detail, and they need a bit more space to read clearly from a distance.

Bidirectional Slides

If your slide has both English and Arabic content, keep them in separate text boxes. Trying to mix RTL and LTR within a single text box in PowerPoint is technically possible but fragile — small edits can scramble the direction. Two separate text boxes, each with its own direction setting, is far more reliable.

The Fastest Workflow: Omlyar → Copy → Paste

The quickest way to get accurate Arabic script into any document is:

1. Open Omlyar in a browser tab.
2. Type your text in Arabizi — whatever you want to say, written phonetically in Latin letters.
3. Copy the Arabic output (the copy button in the top right of the output panel).
4. Switch to your document, click in the right place, paste.
5. Set the paragraph or text box to RTL, choose an Arabic font, adjust size if needed.

The entire process takes under 30 seconds once your document is configured. After the first time you set up RTL and font in a document, you can save it as a template — future Arabic documents start from there.

On Mobile: Google Docs and Word Apps

Both the Google Docs and Microsoft Word mobile apps support Arabic, and they handle it more automatically than the desktop versions.

On iOS and Android, if your device has Arabic as an installed keyboard or system language, pasting Arabic text into either app will usually trigger automatic RTL direction without any manual setting. If it doesn't:

• Google Docs (mobile): Tap the paragraph → tap the format icon (the A with lines) → Paragraph → select Right-to-Left.
• Word (mobile): Select the paragraph → tap the paragraph formatting icon → Text direction → Right-to-Left.

Font choice on mobile is more limited — both apps use whatever fonts are installed on your device. Arabic will always render correctly with the system Arabic font, even if it doesn't match your preferred desktop typeface.

Common Problems and Fixes

Problem	Cause	Fix
Letters appear as separate boxes (□□□)	Font doesn't support Arabic Unicode	Switch to an Arabic font (Noto Naskh Arabic, Traditional Arabic)
Letters appear disconnected instead of joined	Font is Latin-only and substituting glyphs	Same fix — choose a proper Arabic font
Text aligns to the left and reads backwards	Paragraph direction is set to LTR	Set paragraph/text box to RTL
Pasted text appears in reverse letter order	Clipboard captured a display artefact rather than the Unicode string	Copy again from source; paste with Paste as plain text (Ctrl+Shift+V)
Arabic and English on the same line look jumbled	Bidirectional text algorithm conflict	Separate Arabic and English into distinct paragraphs or text boxes
RTL buttons not visible in Word	Arabic language pack not installed	Add Arabic in Windows Language settings, restart Word