Is Your Power BI Report Ready for Arabic? 19 Things to Check

Most Power BI reports in the Gulf are built in English first, or by someone who reads from the left. Then a manager asks for the Arabic version. Power BI Desktop won't do it for you: Microsoft's supported languages page says plainly that "Desktop doesn't support right-to-left languages", and that "inside reports, the layout of visuals doesn't change if you're using a right-to-left language." Every place, order and alignment on the page stays as it was built: for a reader who starts at the left.

Below is what goes wrong, kind by kind: 19 kinds in six groups, each group with a small made-up picture (left: as built; right: what an Arabic reader expects). Each kind has one of three answers:

• DataArcus does it, through your approval. DataArcus's Arabic twin writes Arabic pages from your English ones, or a script adds Arabic calendar columns to your date table. Nothing is written before you approve the plan.
• A Power BI Desktop setting. On an Arabic page you built yourself: the setting to change, by name. Desktop isn't available in Arabic, so the names are its English ones.
• Power BI has no setting for it. Said plainly, with what you can do instead.

1. Where the eye starts

An Arabic reader starts at the top right. A page built in English puts its heading, its first card and its page buttons at the left. Keyboard and screen reader users meet the visuals in the Tab order, and that runs from the left too.

• The heading at the left. DataArcus: the twin mirrors every visual's place. In Desktop no setting mirrors a page: move the heading, the cards and the slicers by hand so the page starts at the right.
• The Tab order. DataArcus: the twin keeps each stop's order on the mirrored places, so the stops run from the right. In Desktop: View > Selection > Tab order (Microsoft Learn), right to left, top to bottom.
• A row of page buttons. DataArcus: the twin mirrors their places, so the first page's button is at the right. In Desktop: move the buttons.
• The page navigator. Power BI has no setting for it. Its buttons follow the order of the report's pages (Microsoft Learn), and we measured in Desktop that it has no order setting: the first page stays at the left. The twin moves it, nothing more. For a row that starts at the right, use single page buttons.

2. Text

Text is where an Arabic page looks unfinished first.

• Visual titles aligned left. Left is Power BI's default. DataArcus: the twin aligns every title right (centred ones stay centred). In Desktop: Format > General > Title > Horizontal alignment: Right (Microsoft Learn).
• Arabic text boxes aligned left. DataArcus: the twin aligns text boxes right. In Desktop: select the text box and align its paragraphs right.
• Arabic and English in one text. A title like «المبيعات حسب Region» mixes two directions. We measured in Desktop that Power BI draws a title as a left-to-right paragraph: an ellipsis after Arabic words landed at the wrong end until a right-to-left mark followed it. Measured again on 26 Oct 2026 (Desktop 2.159): an English word anywhere in an Arabic text, at either end or between Arabic words, can swap the Arabic around it. And on 27 Oct 2026: each English run inside a direction isolate (U+2068 and U+2069, from Unicode's bidirectional rules) drew right, except where Power BI cut a card's text with an ellipsis; with the whole text also wrapped in a right-to-left isolate (U+2067 ... U+2069), every kind of text on the canvas drew right, cut card texts included. DataArcus writes each mixed text that way (the twin, the Arabic reports and the Theme Generator's Arabic download). Power BI has no setting for it: retype the text with the isolates and the whole text wrapped in U+2067 ... U+2069. Page names are the exception: no mark helped, Power BI lays the page tabs out left to right, so keep English out of an Arabic page name.
• English titles, text boxes, buttons and page names. DataArcus: the twin writes each in the Arabic you approve. It drafts them from a fixed glossary and lists every text in its plan; a text without an approved Arabic stays as it is. In Desktop: write each in Arabic.
• English field names on axis titles, table headers, legends and slicer headers. DataArcus: the twin gives each field an Arabic name in that visual only; your model is not renamed. In Desktop: right-click the field in the visual's field well, Rename for this visual. We measured that Power BI then shows that name everywhere the visual shows the field.

3. Charts

A chart built in English starts at the left: the first category, the first month, the value axis. Power BI turns these round chart by chart, with settings that are not obvious.

• Bar charts. DataArcus: the twin puts the names at the right and the bars growing from the right. In Desktop: the value axis's Invert range (Microsoft Learn) makes the bars grow from the right, and moving the axis to the other side puts the names at the right. We measured both in Desktop.
• Column, line and combo charts. DataArcus: the twin puts the value axis at the right and the categories from the right. In Desktop: More options (...) > Sort axis, sort by the category, Sort descending, and move the value axis to the right. We measured that a category axis ignores Invert range: the sort is what turns it round.
• Charts over time. The same, with the first period at the right. DataArcus: the twin runs time from the right by default, and you can ask it to keep time left to right.
• Waterfalls. Power BI has no setting for it: its waterfall shows the categories in ascending or chronological order (Microsoft Learn) and adds them up from the left. Through your approval, DataArcus can draw a waterfall that reads from the right, as a stacked column chart, from your English original. It has no Total column and no total label; each step's tooltip gives the running total. Or keep Power BI's own waterfall, left to right.

4. Tables and the matrix

• Table column order. DataArcus: the twin reverses the columns (the first at the right) and aligns the text columns right. In Desktop: drag the columns in the visual's field well into the reverse order.
• The matrix. Power BI has no setting for it: the matrix has no right-to-left setting, so its row headers stay at the left and its columns, such as months, run left to right. Today the twin moves it to its mirrored place and changes only the order of its measures; it fakes nothing. Its right-to-left options are being tried in Power BI Desktop. Until one is proven, show the same numbers as a table or a chart, which the twin mirrors, or keep the matrix as it is.

5. Month and day names

Month, day and quarter names come from your date table. They are your model's data, so no report setting changes them, and Power BI doesn't translate your data (Microsoft Learn).

• DataArcus: add_gulf_calendar with arabicColumnsOnly writes a script that adds Arabic calendar columns to your date table (such as "Month Name (Arabic)"), each sorted like its English column. You apply it yourself in Power BI Desktop's TMDL view: DataArcus never changes your model. Then show those columns in place of the English ones; the twin offers the same script.
• In Desktop: add an Arabic month column to your date table and set its Sort by column to the month number (Microsoft Learn), or the months sort in alphabetical order. Our Gulf calendar article has the Hijri months and the weekend too.

6. Slicers

• Dropdown and list items. Power BI has no setting for it: the items and the dropdown's text keep Power BI's own alignment and direction. The twin moves the slicer, nothing more.
• Pill slicers' order. A row of buttons reads from the left. DataArcus: the twin sorts them descending, so the first value is at the right. In Desktop: sort the slicer by its value, descending, from its More options (...) menu (Microsoft Learn); the buttons follow the sort.
• Pill values not centred. A value set to one side of its button reads from the wrong side in the other language. In Desktop: centre the values in their buttons, as DataArcus's own pills are in both languages. The twin keeps the slicer's alignment.

The 19 kinds at a glance

From a report built in English, the twin does most of the work in one plan. On an Arabic page you built yourself, the answer is a Desktop setting, or none.

What the Arabic twin can and cannot do today

The twin writes Arabic pages from English ones: as a separate report, or as a new copy that holds both languages in one report. Your original report is not changed. It can:

• mirror every visual's place, and keep the Tab order on the mirrored places;
• align titles and text boxes right, and write every text in the Arabic you approve, with English runs isolated;
• turn bar, column, line and combo charts round, with time from the right unless you ask for left to right;
• reverse a table's columns, sort pill slicers from the right and mirror a row of page buttons.

It cannot, because Power BI has no setting for it:

• the matrix: only the order of its measures today;
• slicer items, and the page navigator's order (both moved, nothing more);
• Power BI's own waterfall (it offers its waterfall that reads from the right, without the Total column);
• your data: month and day names are a step in your model, the calendar script above;
• inside a custom visual: moved, nothing more.

Run the check on your report

DataArcus's check_report has an Arabic lens from DataArcus 0.3.1 (0.3.0 has no lens). It reads any report saved as a Power BI project (PBIR), whoever built it, and answers "Is this report ready for Arabic?" page by page: a short summary first, then each finding with its fix, as one of the three answers above.

With DataArcus installed in Claude, ask: "Is my report ready for Arabic? Use check_report with the Arabic lens." See the DataArcus page and how to install it.

What it found on four made-up reports

We ran the lens on four made-up reports, built for its tests (no customer data):

• a report of two pages in English: 18 findings, 14 of them fixed by one call, the twin;
• an Arabic page built by hand: 13 findings: 1 fixed by the calendar script, 9 Desktop settings and 3 that Power BI has no setting for;
• the twin DataArcus wrote of the first report: 4 findings, all of them things Power BI or the model's data decide (the matrix, slicer items, and English month names until the calendar script is applied);
• a report in English with no Arabic pages: 13 findings, 11 of them fixed by the twin.

What it reads, and what it doesn't

It reads the report's files on your computer, never your data, and changes nothing. It counts and sorts the report's texts and settings without returning the texts themselves. Every fix it names waits for you: a plan you approve in DataArcus, or a setting you change yourself.

Questions

Does Power BI support Arabic?

Partly. The Power BI service is available in Arabic; Power BI Desktop isn't, and Microsoft says Desktop doesn't support right-to-left languages. Inside a report, the layout of visuals doesn't change for a right-to-left language, so an Arabic report has to be laid out from the right by whoever builds it.

Can a Power BI matrix read from right to left?

Not with a setting: the matrix has no right-to-left setting, so its row headers stay at the left and its columns run left to right. DataArcus's twin changes only the order of its measures today. To read the numbers from the right, show them as a table or a chart.

Does the Arabic check change my report?

No. check_report only reads the report's files on your computer. It never reads your data and writes nothing. Each fix it names is a plan you approve in DataArcus, or a setting you change yourself.