Sets or retrieves the reading order of the object.

Syntax

HTML	<ELEMENT DIR = sDir... >
Scripting	object.dir [ = sDir ]

Possible Values

sDir	String that specifies or receives one of the following values. ltr Default. Content flows left to right. rtl Content flows right to left.

The property is read/write. The property has a default value of ltr.

Expressions can be used in place of the preceding value(s), as of Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5. For more information, see About Dynamic Properties.

Remarks

Unless explicitly set, the dir property has no return value when accessed in script.

The property does not affect alphanumeric characters in Latin documents. These characters always render ltr. However, the property does affect punctuation characters in Latin documents. For example, punctuation marks such as periods and question marks render to the left of a sentence when the dir property is set to rtl.

Standards Information

This property is defined in HTML 4.0  and is defined in World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Document Object Model (DOM) Level 1 .

Applies To

A, ACRONYM, ADDRESS, AREA, B, BDO, BIG, BLOCKQUOTE, BODY, BUTTON, CAPTION, CENTER, CITE, CODE, COL, COLGROUP, CUSTOM, DD, DEL, DFN, DIR, DIV, DL, DT, EM, EMBED, FIELDSET, FONT, FORM, hn, HTML, I, IMG, INPUT type=button, INPUT type=checkbox, INPUT type=file, INPUT type=image, INPUT type=password, INPUT type=radio, INPUT type=reset, INPUT type=submit, INPUT type=text, INS, KBD, LABEL, LEGEND, LI, LISTING, MAP, MARQUEE, MENU, NOBR, OBJECT, OL, OPTION, P, PLAINTEXT, PRE, Q, RT, RUBY, S, SAMP, SELECT, SMALL, SPAN, STRIKE, STRONG, SUB, SUP, TABLE, TBODY, TD, TEXTAREA, TFOOT, TH, THEAD, TR, TT, U, UL, VAR, XMP

See Also

direction, HTML Character Sets