In case you have to mix right-to-left text into your documents and you aren’t sure how to make it happen, it is super easy to do with LibreOffice when running in concert with openSUSE with KDE Plasma as the desktop environment. You’ll have to check with your Desktop Environment for how to add additional keymaps and how to switch between them.
Instructions in Short Form
On KDE Plasma, open SystemSettings, select the Input Devices Module. Under the Keyboard sub-module, select the Layouts tab. In the Layouts Indicator, activate Show layout indicator and take note of Shortcut(s) for Switching Layout. In my case, it is Ctrl+Alt+K
Toggle the Configure layouts, then +Add the desired layout. From there, open the text editor of your choice, like LibreOffice and start typing away. Switch the layouts through either the indicator or the keyboard shortcut. You’ll be happily amazed by how well it works across multiple applications.
A Little Video to Demonstrate
Mostly as an excuse to play with Kdenlive and SimpleScreenRecorder, I made a video of how to do switch your layouts on the fly and write. Unfortunately, I don’t have the physical character layout on my keyboard and I was too lazy to figure it out and demonstrate a proper Arabic sentence.
Final Thoughts
One of the features I have enjoyed for many years working with the Linux and KDE [Plasma] has been the absolutely fantastic flexibility to allow me to get whatever work done that is required of me. I have had to use the switching keymaps on numerous occasions and the dynamic switching to those keymaps is absolutely a must. It’s just another way that Linux has made my life easier.
