lucy24 - 9:25 pm on Sep 9, 2012 (gmt 0)

This is incorrect. Setting dir="rtl" only tells browsers that text will be read right-to-left instead of left-to-right.

If direction applied only to text, there would be no need for the attribute at all, because a browser that can do Hebrew or Arabic will do them in the correct direction. The <dir> directive applies, at a minimum, to text and tables. That is, if you've said <dir="rtl"> then each table row will run from right to left rather than left to right.

There are further complications when you get into side-by-side issues like {display: inline-block} or multi-column formats.