Daniel Israel wrote :

I could do this. But I thought the bar side switched for right to left languages. Doesn't this mean the functionality is already there?

yes, in skins/monobook/rtl.css

Is there a way to set that switch without mucking about in all the settings?

yes, insert it in monobook.php :

look for :

if($this->data['usercss' ]) { ?> <style type="text/css"><?php $this->html('usercss' ) ?></style> <?php }

change it to

if($this->data['usercss' ]) { ?> <style type="text/css">@import "<?php $this->text('stylepath') ?>/<?php $this->text('stylename') ?>/rtl.css?<?php echo $GLOBALS['wgStyleVersion'] ?>";<?php $this->html('usercss' ) ?></style> <?php }

*but* the text will also be aligned on the right, the tabs are inverted, etc ..., so it might be a starting point, but you'll have to change things anyway

for instance, if you want the text aligned on the left, change it in rtl.css (or do it in [[Mediawiki:Monobook.css]])

body { direction: ltr; /*instead of : direction: rtl;*/ ... }

or in [[Mediawiki:Monobook.css]] / [[Mediawiki:Common.css]] edit and add (it will overwrite rtl.css property for body direction):

body { direction: ltr; }

and so on for all the css specific to rtl languages.