Bidiwise documentation

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Install Bidiwise from the Atlassian Marketplace (Confluence admin). Every site gets a 30-day free trial. After that it is $10 a month for up to 10 users, then billed per user.
Open a page with Hebrew, Arabic, Persian or Urdu text, click ••• (More actions) and choose Right-to-left.
Check the preview, tick any tables you want to read from the right, and click Apply right-to-left. Reload the page to see the result.
Space admins can fix a whole space from Space settings > Bidiwise right-to-left.
For a right-to-left block inside an English page, insert the Bidiwise RTL section macro.

Nothing changes on a page until you click Apply right-to-left (or Apply to in space settings). Every change is a normal page version you can see in page history, and Remove takes out exactly what Bidiwise added.

How Bidiwise fixes the reading order

Confluence lays out every paragraph left-to-right, even when it is written in Hebrew or Arabic. That puts the final period on the wrong side, turns "C++" into "++C", and leaves text against the left margin.

Bidiwise doesn't wrap your page in a macro. It adds invisible Unicode direction characters around each right-to-left paragraph, so your browser lays it out right-to-left, and adds Confluence's own right alignment where Confluence allows it. Your page stays ordinary Confluence text.

What it changes: paragraphs, headings, task items and decisions, including those inside tables, lists, panels, expands, quotes and layouts. A paragraph split by line breaks is decided line by line.
Right alignment: added at the top level of the page, in layout columns and in table cells. A paragraph that already has an alignment, such as centered, keeps it.
Never touched: code blocks, inline code, macros, images, files and link cards.
Scripts it recognizes as right-to-left: Hebrew and Arabic script (Arabic, Persian, Urdu and others), plus Syriac, Thaana, N'Ko and other right-to-left scripts.

The Right-to-left page dialog

Open it from a page's ••• menu > Right-to-left. The heading shows the page title and an Applied or Not applied label.

The dialog tells you how many lines will read right-to-left, how many stay left-to-right, and how many Latin terms will be kept in order. It then offers:

Direction:
- Each paragraph by its first letter (mixed pages): the default. A paragraph that starts with a Hebrew or Arabic letter reads right-to-left; one that starts with an English letter stays left-to-right.
- Every paragraph right-to-left: every paragraph with letters reads right-to-left, including ones that start with English.
Keep Latin terms with punctuation in order (C++ instead of ++C): on by default. English terms with inner or trailing punctuation, such as C++, C#, .NET, v2.1 or Node.js, keep their order inside right-to-left sentences.
Keep this page right-to-left after every edit: when on, Bidiwise fixes new text each time the page is saved (see Keeping pages right-to-left below). If the space has this turned on for all pages, the dialog says so, and on a page that isn't converted yet the toggle starts on.
Tables: one checkbox per table, for example "Table 1: 4 rows, 3 columns, 7 of 12 cells right-to-left". Tick a table to mirror it so its first column sits on the right, including merged cells. Untick it later to mirror it back.
Preview (first part of the page): the start of the page as it will look, drawn by Confluence's own renderer. It updates when you change the direction, the Latin terms option or a table checkbox.

Buttons:

Apply right-to-left saves the page as a new version named "Bidiwise: right-to-left direction". If the page is already converted, the button reads Update and saves your new settings. If nothing in the page needs to change, no new version is created and your settings are still saved.
Remove takes out everything Bidiwise added: the direction characters, the right alignment it added, and the table mirroring. It saves a version named "Bidiwise: right-to-left direction removed", turns off Keep this page right-to-left after every edit, and keeps the page out of the space-wide setting. Applying again from the dialog brings the page back in.
Close closes the dialog.

Settings in the dialog are saved only when you click Apply right-to-left or Update. After either action, reload the page to see the change.

If you can view the page but not edit it, the dialog shows the preview only, and Apply right-to-left and Remove are disabled. If someone saves the page while Bidiwise is working, you see "Someone saved this page while Bidiwise was working. Try again."

Keeping pages right-to-left after edits

When Keep this page right-to-left after every edit is on for a page, or the space-wide setting is on, Bidiwise checks the page each time it is created or edited and fixes any new right-to-left text with the same direction and Latin terms settings.

The fix is saved as a new page version by the app, named "Bidiwise: right-to-left direction".
If an edit adds no new right-to-left text, no version is created, so Bidiwise never loops on its own changes.
The page's own setting wins over the space setting. A page where someone chose Remove is skipped by the space setting.
New tables are not mirrored automatically. Open the dialog and tick them.

Space settings (space admins)

Go to Space settings > Bidiwise right-to-left. Only space admins see this page.

Space defaults

Direction and Keep Latin terms with punctuation in order (C++ instead of ++C): the settings used for the space scan, for Apply to, and for pages kept right-to-left by the space setting.
The toggle Keep every page in this space right-to-left when it's created or edited. Pages where someone chose Remove stay as they are. turns on the space-wide setting.

Changes here are saved as soon as you make them.

Existing pages

Click Scan space. Bidiwise lists the pages in the space and checks each one. You see a table with Page, RTL lines, LTR lines and Status (Needs changes, Applied or No change needed). Only pages you can see are included.
Click Apply to (for example Apply to 12 pages) to convert every page that needs changes. Each page keeps the tables already mirrored on it.
Click Remove from (for example Remove from 12 pages) to take Bidiwise's changes out of every converted page.

Runs go through the pages a few at a time with a progress bar, and the Status column shows each page's result. Keep the space settings page open until the run finishes. Every change is a normal page version saved as you.

The Bidiwise RTL section macro

Use it when one part of a page should read right-to-left and the rest should not. Insert Bidiwise RTL section in the editor and type inside it. Everything inside reads right-to-left and is right-aligned. Panels, tables, task lists, status labels, mentions, dates and emoji inside the section display as usual.

Macro settings:

Direction: Every paragraph right-to-left (the default) or Each paragraph by its first letter.
Digits: Keep as typed (0-9), Arabic-Indic or Persian. Digits are shown in the chosen style; the text you typed is not changed.
Mirror tables (first column on the right): off by default.
Keep Latin terms with punctuation in order (C++ instead of ++C): on by default.

The section changes how its content is displayed, not the stored text. Other macros can't be drawn inside the section: a block macro shows a note asking you to move it outside the section or to use Right-to-left from the page's ••• menu instead, and an inline macro shows as [macro].

Licensing and trials

Bidiwise is paid through Atlassian, with a 30-day free trial. It is $10 a month flat for 1 to 10 users, then billed per user per month in graduated bands ($1.70 per user for users 11 to 100, with lower rates for larger sites). Annual billing is 10 times the monthly price.

If the subscription isn't active:

The page dialog shows "The Bidiwise subscription on this site isn't active, so it can't change pages. You can still remove what it added." Apply right-to-left is disabled and Remove still works.
In space settings, turning on the space-wide setting and Apply to are refused with a message asking your site admin to renew it in Manage apps. Scan space and Remove from still work.
Pages are no longer kept right-to-left after edits.
Pages you already converted stay as they are.
Bidiwise RTL section macros show their content exactly as typed, left-to-right, with a short note above it saying the subscription isn't active. Nothing inside the section is hidden.

Permissions and data

Bidiwise runs on Atlassian's Forge platform and sends nothing to any outside server. The app has no external network permissions and no remote backend.
The page dialog and space settings read and save pages as you, so they only reach pages you can see and edit. Keeping pages right-to-left after edits runs as the app, because Confluence page events run in the background.
On each page where Bidiwise is used, it stores a small page property named bidiwise with that page's settings: whether it is kept right-to-left after edits, the direction, the Latin terms option, which tables are mirrored, whether someone chose Remove, and when it was last applied. No names, account ids or page text.
For each space whose admin saved settings, it stores one record in Forge storage for your site: the space key, the space-wide setting and the direction options.
Page text is read to count lines, draw the preview and convert the page. It is not stored by the app.
Error logs contain only messages and page ids, never page content.

Permissions requested: read and write pages, Confluence search (to list a space's pages for the scan), a content summary permission Forge requires to receive page created and updated events, and app storage.

Limits and known gaps

Confluence has no list direction setting, so bullets and numbers in lists stay on the left. The reading order of each item is still fixed.
Confluence only allows right alignment at the top level, in layout columns and in table cells. Inside lists, panels, expands and quotes, text reads in the right order but stays left-aligned.
Heading anchor ids include the direction characters after you apply. A link to a heading that was copied before applying may need to be copied again.
Pages only. Blog posts are not supported.
The preview shows the first part of the page, not the whole page.
A space scan covers up to about 2,000 pages per run, in the order they were created.
The space-wide run happens in your browser window. Closing the page stops it; pages already done keep their changes, so scan again and continue.
When keeping pages right-to-left after edits, the app skips a page it isn't allowed to edit, for example a restricted page that doesn't include the app.
Remove takes out every direction isolate character of the kinds Bidiwise uses, including any typed on the page by hand.
Arabic-Indic and Persian digits are available in the RTL section macro only.
Right-to-left reading order has been verified in the page view. Behavior in the editor, in Confluence search and in PDF and Word export has not been confirmed yet.

FAQ

Will my other macros stop working inside the right-to-left block? Not with the page-level fix. Bidiwise doesn't wrap your page in a macro; it writes direction characters into the paragraphs themselves, so every macro on the page is left alone.

Do task lists and tables still work? Yes. Task items, decisions and table cells are converted in place as ordinary content. Tables can also be mirrored so the first column is on the right.

Why does "C++" show up as "++C", and does Bidiwise fix it? Right-to-left layout moves trailing punctuation. With Keep Latin terms with punctuation in order on, terms like C++, C#, v2.1 and Node.js keep their order.

I aligned the text right, but the punctuation is still on the wrong side. Why? Right alignment moves the paragraph but keeps a left-to-right reading order. Bidiwise changes the reading order and adds right alignment where Confluence allows it.

Can I see the result before anything changes, and undo it later? Yes. The dialog shows a preview and nothing is saved until you click Apply right-to-left. Remove takes out exactly what Bidiwise added and mirrors tables back, and every change is also in page history.

My page has English and Hebrew paragraphs. Will the English ones flip? No. In the default direction mode each paragraph is decided by its first letter, and lines split by a line break are decided one by one.

New text I add goes back to the wrong order. Do I have to apply again every time? Turn on Keep this page right-to-left after every edit, or ask a space admin to turn it on for the whole space. New text is fixed each time the page is saved.

Why are the bullets still on the left? Confluence has no list direction setting. Bidiwise fixes the reading order of each list item but can't move the bullet.

We have hundreds of pages to fix. Do we have to open each one? No. A space admin can scan the space and apply to every page that needs it in one run.

Uninstalling and your data

The direction characters and right alignment Bidiwise added are part of your page text and stay after you uninstall. If you want them gone, run Remove on the page, or Remove from in space settings, before uninstalling. The small bidiwise page property stays on each page and is deleted with the page. When the app is uninstalled, Atlassian deletes Bidiwise's Forge storage (the space settings) for your site.

Support

Open a request in the Great Work support portal (linked from the Marketplace listing) or email hello@greatwork.company. First response within 1 business day.