The HTML Bidirectional Text Override element (<bdo>
) overrides the current directionality of text, so that the text within is rendered in a different direction. The text's characters are drawn from the starting point in the given direction; the individual characters' orientation is not affected (so characters don't get drawn backward, for example).
Content categories | Flow content, phrasing content, palpable content. |
---|---|
Permitted content | Phrasing content. |
Tag omission | None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory. |
Permitted parents | Any element that accepts phrasing content. |
Permitted ARIA roles | Any |
DOM interface | HTMLElement Up to Gecko 1.9.2 (Firefox 4) inclusive, Firefox implements the HTMLSpanElement interface for this element. |
Attributes
This element's attributes include the global attributes.
dir
- The direction in which text should be rendered in this element's contents. Possible values are:
ltr
: Indicates that the text should go in a left-to-right direction.rtl
: Indicates that the text should go in a right-to-left direction.
Examples
<!-- Switch text direction --> <p>This text will go left to right.</p> <p><bdo dir="rtl">This text will go right to left.</bdo></p>
Result
Notes
The HTML 4 specification did not specify events for this element; they were added in XHTML. This is most likely an oversight.
Specifications
Specification | Status | Comment |
---|---|---|
HTML Living Standard The definition of '<bdo>' in that specification. |
Living Standard | |
HTML5 The definition of '<bdo>' in that specification. |
Recommendation | |
HTML 4.01 Specification The definition of '<bdo>' in that specification. |
Recommendation |
Browser compatibility
The compatibility table in this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.
Feature | Chrome | Edge | Firefox | Internet Explorer | Opera | Safari |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Basic support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Feature | Android webview | Chrome for Android | Edge mobile | Firefox for Android | IE mobile | Opera Android | iOS Safari |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Basic support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
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