# Dir="auto" for composer and elsewhere **URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/dir-auto-for-composer-and-elsewhere/276330 **Category:** Feature **Created:** [August 23, 2023, 4:12pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/dir-auto-for-composer-and-elsewhere/276330 "2023-08-23T16:12:31Z") **Posts on this page:** 7 **Page:** 1
### Author: ![Falco](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/falco/32/179432_2.png) [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco) #### Post date: [August 23, 2023, 4:12pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/dir-auto-for-composer-and-elsewhere/276330/1 "2023-08-23T16:12:31Z")
Continuing the discussion from [What does the support mixed text direction setting do?](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-does-the-support-mixed-text-direction-setting-do/91247): > [@Supporting mixed text directions](https://meta.discourse.org/t/supporting-mixed-text-directions/91247/1): > > ### How does it work? > > The setting only effects how content is displayed by the browser. It doesn’t affect content that is saved to the database. Text is parsed with a regular expression to determine it’s direction. The appropriate `dir` value is added to the text’s outer HTML tag. Ideally this same behaviour could be accomplished by setting the `dir` attribute to `auto`. This can’t be done yet, because `dir="auto"` is not supported by any IE browsers. Should we deprecate this setting, composer button and add `dir="auto"` by default in our text areas? IE is not a blocker anymore. > **[dir HTML global attribute - HTML | MDN](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/Global_attributes/dir)** > > The dir global attribute is an enumerated attribute that indicates the directionality of the element's text. ---
### Author: ![david](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/david/32/157490_2.png) [@david](https://meta.discourse.org/u/david) #### Post date: [August 23, 2023, 4:16pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/dir-auto-for-composer-and-elsewhere/276330/2 "2023-08-23T16:16:40Z")
This setting also affects non-textarea things. e.g. it is used to apply `dir=` to paragraphs/quotes in posts: > And topic titles: > and more. Can we use `dir="auto"` for all these things now? 🤞 ---
### Author: ![Falco](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/falco/32/179432_2.png) [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco) #### Post date: [August 23, 2023, 4:51pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/dir-auto-for-composer-and-elsewhere/276330/3 "2023-08-23T16:51:18Z")
Makes sense, users need this everywhere they input text: - Composer textarea - Composer preview - Topic titles in topics - Topic titles in lists - Posts in topics - Bio in usercard / profile - Topic “previews” in topics lists ---
### Author: ![david](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/david/32/157490_2.png) [@david](https://meta.discourse.org/u/david) #### Post date: [March 11, 2024, 4:53pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/dir-auto-for-composer-and-elsewhere/276330/4 "2024-03-11T16:53:22Z")
I took a stab at updating our `support_mixed_text_direction` setting to lean on `dir="auto"` instead of using a regex to parse all user input at render-time: [https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/26129](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/26129) > [@Falco](#): > > composer button I _think_ we’ll need to keep this. Setting `dir="auto"` on a textarea will use a heuristic to decide the direction of **the entire textarea**. That doesn’t sound too useful if you’re writing a post which contains a combination of rtl and ltr languages. So I think the button is required for you to switch back & forth while editing? In cooked posts, the `dir="auto"` can be applied per-paragraph, which solves that problem. Would be great if some readers / writers of RTL languages can weigh in on that, and perhaps take a look at the PR. (cc @osama - git suggests you have done a lot of work on our RTL logic) ---
### Author: ![Osama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/osama/32/98013_2.png) [@Osama](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Osama) #### Post date: [March 11, 2024, 10:30pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/dir-auto-for-composer-and-elsewhere/276330/5 "2024-03-11T22:30:55Z")
> [@david](#): > > I _think_ we’ll need to keep this. Setting `dir="auto"` on a textarea will use a heuristic to decide the direction of **the entire textarea**. That doesn’t sound too useful if you’re writing a post which contains a combination of rtl and ltr languages. So I think the button is required for you to switch back & forth while editing? Yes, exactly, the button is very useful when you’re typing a post that mixes RTL and LTR languages. Your PR LGTM @david 🚀 ---
### Author: ![david](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/david/32/157490_2.png) [@david](https://meta.discourse.org/u/david) #### Post date: [March 13, 2024, 9:29am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/dir-auto-for-composer-and-elsewhere/276330/6 "2024-03-13T09:29:42Z")
This is now merged. Please let us know if you have any feedback ---
### Author: ![david](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/david/32/157490_2.png) [@david](https://meta.discourse.org/u/david) #### Post date: [September 1, 2024, 7:00am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/dir-auto-for-composer-and-elsewhere/276330/7 "2024-09-01T07:00:29Z")
This topic was automatically closed after 171 days. New replies are no longer allowed.