Copy and paste Arabic and Hebrew text from Microsoft Word

Last updated on Jun 2, 2026

Learn how to use the clipboard to transfer right-to-left text while preserving alignment and direction in Adobe InDesign.

InDesign preserves text direction and alignment when you paste Arabic and Hebrew content from Microsoft Word, maintaining the original text flow. This applies to documents that support right-to-left language. Make sure your document uses the appropriate composer and language settings before pasting.

Select the text you want to copy from the Microsoft Word document containing Arabic or Hebrew text.

Press Ctrl + C (Windows) or Cmd + C (macOS).

In InDesign, select the Type tool.

Select inside an existing text frame or drag to create a new text frame.

Press Ctrl + V (Windows) or Cmd + V (macOS) to paste the text.

Tip

For documents with mixed left-to-right and right-to-left content, you can manually adjust paragraph direction in the Paragraph panel (Window > Type & Tables > Paragraph) after pasting.