How may I create Arabian bullets with InDesign (with the bullet symbol aligned to the right)?

[José5ECD]

Hello,

I need to create a document but it is in Arabian and as you all may know, Arabian is written from left to right, so the bullets symbols must be placed on the right side and not on the left side.

To avoid confussions, what I want is what you see in this picture:

I need the bullets exactly as you see in the picture. The symbol is on the right side and not on the left side.

How may I do this?

Cheers

[Joel Cherney]

You have the Character panel open in your screenshot. If you select the Paragraph panel, you'll find that there are buttons to select LTR paragraph behavior and RTL paragraph behavior. (In the flyout menu for the Character panel, there are options ot control character direction and numerals and etc., but in order to get your bullets to right-align, you have to change the Paragraph settings.)

[José5ECD]

Hello, thanks for your reply but in the paragraph panel, even if I select right aligment, the bullet is always on the left side, and I need it be on the right side, as you see in the previous picture.

I did not take that picture, is just an example posted by someone in Internet.

My paragraph panel is in Spanish, but if you tell me exactly in English what buttons should I press or what should I do, I'll follow your instructions.

I have pressed the buttons for the right alignment (in the paragraph Window) and I always get the bullet on the left side. The language is set up to Arabian, so this cannot be a bad settings problem.

Please, take a look to the following screenshot:

Please, could you explain me, step by step, what should I do, telling me exactly what buttons should I press or what options should I configure, so I can get the bullets aligned to the right side?

Cheers

[José5ECD]

I am attaching an additional screenshot, so you will see better the problems and the buttons I am pressing. Even if I press the right alignment buttons for the paragraph, even if I have set up the lagunguage as Arabian (Arabe in Spanish), despite all this, I continue with the bullets on the left side and I need them on the right side.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I'd suggest the setting, which perhaps should be automatic for the LTR/RTL switch, will be found in the Bullets and Numbering setting for that paragraph style., not the paragraph alignment settings. I don't know if the panel includes extra options with RTL enabled.

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[José5ECD]

Hello, I tried to change the alignment in the bullets and numbering windows, but it does not work...

Any suggestion about how may I place the bullets to the right side?

Should I create new style for the paragraph? Where should I go and what should I change?

[Joel Cherney]

Your first screenshot clearly shows tools for manipulating RTL text, but all the rest of your screenshots show a plain-vanilla Spanish interface. So, the first screenshot is not your computer? I assumed, from your screenshot, that you have the Middle East edition of InDesign installed. Clearly, my assumption was incorrect.

What you need to do is to go into your Creative Cloud app preferences (not the InDesign preferences!) and choose a language that supports RTL text. E.g. English (Hebrew) or French (Arabic). I don't know if there's a choice for Spanish UI with RTL tools or not. Once you've chosen a language in the CC app that supports Arabic, then you need to reinstall InDesign from the Creative Cloud app. (You shouldn't need to uninstall first, although sometimes I do have to uninistall before reinstalling. Can't say I love the CC app, to be honest.) 

Once you've done that, you will have the RTL and LTR paragraph buttons: 

[José5ECD]

Do you mean these buttons?

Okay, so if the only way to get those buttons is to reinstall Adobe InDesign from Adobe Cloud that would be a royal... so if there is no easy solution for this, I would have to insert the bullets symbols by hand, just creating a text box on the right side...

Indesign should allow more options to decide where the bullets can be placed.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

InDesign does not have RTL language support in most Western language installs. You have to enable one of the RTL languages for those features to become available. (Which is as it should be; they are useless clutter except for the small percentage of designers who work with Hebrew, Arabic, Farsi etc.)

—

[José5ECD]

Small? Not at all. A lot of companies outsource the DTP services and in the documents packs you get a lot of languages, even Arabian, which by the way is a very common language for instructions manuales, leaflets, etc.

The most exotic language I had the opportunity to work with was Haitian Creole, that yes, is exotic, ¿but Arabian?, I doubt it.

Anyway, thanks.

[Joel Cherney]

It's usually not a royal anything, honestly. Typically takes three or four minutes. It's easy. 

[José5ECD]

I have to write 8 bullets, reinstalling the whole software would take more time. Thanks for your help anyway.

[Joel Cherney]

Okay, yeah, eight bullets are worth a dirty hacky workaround, I guess. Note that periods at the ends of paragraphs will display on the wrong side of the sentence, there may be reversals of things like parentheses and quotation marks, and other such directional issues. But those can be fixed manually if necessary. 

[Zaid Al Hilali · Accepted solution]

Just like others have suggested. You will be able to give your Arabic text RTL numbers list in the Middle Eastern version of Adobe InDesign. You may download and use ME copy from your desktop CC application.

[zeppozippo]

I've got the ME version downloaded, but I still cannot put my bullet list on the right side. I have put the paragraph direction right to left. Is there another magic button?

[zeppozippo]

Solved with a restart. Now it works...