Reading and writing Arabic both follow directly from its script — a fully cursive, right-to-left system without a separate "print" and "cursive" style the way Latin-alphabet languages have. What you learn to read is essentially what you learn to write by hand.
Arabic is read and written from right to left, including the direction pages turn and where a book's spine sits. Numbers are a genuine exception: multi-digit numerals are written left to right even within right-to-left Arabic text, which surprises many beginners the first time they see it.
Unlike English, where print and cursive are two distinct skills, Arabic's everyday printed and handwritten forms are fundamentally the same connected script — learning to recognize the letterforms in print largely transfers directly to reading handwriting, and vice versa for writing.
No — this is a genuine exception. Multi-digit numerals are written and read left to right even in the middle of right-to-left Arabic text.
Not fundamentally — both use the same connected, cursive letterforms, unlike English's separate print and cursive styles. Skills learned reading print transfer well to handwriting.
Start with them on, since they remove ambiguity about pronunciation while you're still building letter recognition, then gradually shift to unvoweled text as your vocabulary grows.
Tarc's Arabic lessons progress from individual letters to real words and short phrases, reinforced by spaced-repetition review so recently learned words keep coming back until they're recognized quickly.
See also: Arabic Alphabet · Arabic Listening & Speaking · Learn Arabic