---
title: baseWritingDirection
framework: appkit
role: symbol
role_heading: Instance Property
path: appkit/nscell/basewritingdirection
---

# baseWritingDirection

The initial writing direction used to determine the actual writing direction for text.

## Declaration

```swift
var baseWritingDirection: NSWritingDirection { get set }
```

## Discussion

Discussion The default value of this property is NSWritingDirection.natural. The Text system uses this value as a hint for calculating the actual direction for displaying Unicode characters. If you know the base writing direction of the text you are rendering, you can set the value of this property to the correct direction to help the text system.

## See Also

### Modifying Textual Attributes

- [isEditable](appkit/nscell/iseditable.md)
- [isSelectable](appkit/nscell/isselectable.md)
- [isScrollable](appkit/nscell/isscrollable.md)
- [alignment](appkit/nscell/alignment.md)
- [font](appkit/nscell/font.md)
- [lineBreakMode](appkit/nscell/linebreakmode.md)
- [truncatesLastVisibleLine](appkit/nscell/truncateslastvisibleline.md)
- [wraps](appkit/nscell/wraps.md)
- [attributedStringValue](appkit/nscell/attributedstringvalue.md)
- [allowsEditingTextAttributes](appkit/nscell/allowseditingtextattributes.md)
- [importsGraphics](appkit/nscell/importsgraphics.md)
- [setUpFieldEditorAttributes(_:)](appkit/nscell/setupfieldeditorattributes(_:).md)
- [title](appkit/nscell/title.md)