From http://www.w3schools.com (Copyright Refsnes Data)
For <fo:simple-page-master> the writing-mode property is used to specify the placement of the five regions on the master.
For <fo:region-*> the writing-mode property defines the column-progression within each region.
For <fo:table> the writing-mode property controls the layout of the rows and columns.
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
| lr-tb | Default. Text are written left-to-right and top-to-bottom (normal "alphabetic" text) |
| rl-tb | Text are written right-to-left and top-to-bottom (Arabic and Hebrew text) |
| tb-rl | Text are written top-to-bottom and right-to-left (Chinese and Japanese text) |
| lr | Same as lr-tb |
| rl | Same as rl-tb |
| tb | Same as tb-rl |
From http://www.w3schools.com (Copyright Refsnes Data)