RTL Support and Limitations

RTL stands for "right-to-left," and this is a key component in delivering a website with an RTL language such as Hebrew, Arabic, Urdu, etc. Gantry has built-in RTL support which will automatically “flip” the content layouts and ordering to support RTL. We’ve also provided an override in the advanced section of the theme details. You can turn this default behavior off if you like, though if the language file supports it, RTL will be enabled.

You can force WordPress to display a language in RTL format. In this case, there is a configuration file located in YOUR_SITE/wp-config.php. Just edit the file and add the following code:

$text_direction = 'rtl';

A visual example of how this looks/works can be seen below. The first image is in the default English in the traditional LTR format, while the second one is the same default English, but with the forced RTL in the wp-config.php file.

Left To Right	Right To Left

RTL Limitations

Gantry provides a great deal of functionality to support RTL right out of the box. However, RTL is complicated, and your specific layout will need extensive RTL support in your CSS files to properly handle the needs of your design while in RTL mode. For example, if you have a widget header that is shaped like a ribbon that comes in on the left side of the widget in regular LTR mode, then you must create a special version of this ribbon that comes in from the right for RTL mode. Also, you will have to provide the specific changes to the layout in your CSS file to ensure this image is rendered correctly.

To help out with this process, we have created a special feature that detects RTL mode. This then inserts a class called rtl in the body tag. That way, you can add specific rules to just target the .ribbon class in RTL mode.

Here's an example:

body.rtl .widget .ribbon { float: right; }

Other limitations are entirely based on the browser. Some browsers support RTL mode very well. Not surprisingly, these are the Mozilla and WebKit-based browsers: Firefox, Safari, Chrome, etc.

Internet Explorer, even in 9.0, does a very poor job of rendering in RTL mode. You will probably have to spend extensive time doing CSS work-arounds for these browsers. This is far beyond the scope of what Gantry can do for you.