MS Word: Cursor on the wrong side of the paragraph break mark -- HELP, PLEASE!!! Thread poster: Patricia Rosas
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Patricia Rosas 
United States
Local time: 17:51
Spanish to English
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In memoriam
I just merged two files and opened the "Styles and Formatting" window. Suddenly, the cursor was sitting on the right-hand side of the paragraph icon and the paragraph icon itself was sitting on the far right side of the page (instead of on the left, where it normally is).
When I type, the text appears to the right, not to the left, of the cursor (when a paragraph is right-aligned, the text is still to the left of the paragraph icon).
The formatting settings for the pa... See more I just merged two files and opened the "Styles and Formatting" window. Suddenly, the cursor was sitting on the right-hand side of the paragraph icon and the paragraph icon itself was sitting on the far right side of the page (instead of on the left, where it normally is).
When I type, the text appears to the right, not to the left, of the cursor (when a paragraph is right-aligned, the text is still to the left of the paragraph icon).
The formatting settings for the paragraph mark indicate that it is LEFT-justified and that everything else is just as it always is.
I've checked everything (I'm no novice to Word), including page layout, adding a new template, different "Views," and restarting the system, but nothing changes where the cursor sits in relation to the paragraph mark. If I open an existing file, things are fine, but if I open a new file, the problem recurs, and if I open a new file based on an existing template, the cursor is at the left, but at the bottom of the page, so I have 6 inches of blank space before I can start entering text.
Has anyone every encountered this before?? Thank you! ▲ Collapse
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Probably you have accidentally changed the text direction from left to right. Go to Format > Paragraph and in the top section (General) check the text direction. If it's Right-to-left, change it to Left-to-right.
I hope this helps.
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Patricia Rosas
United States
Local time: 17:51
Spanish to English
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TOPIC STARTER In memoriam | the "text-direction" icon is blanked out | Aug 27, 2007 |
Thanks, Henrik. The suggestion sounds logical, but when I load up files (tried several), and I pull down the "Format" menu, the "text-direction" icon is grey and clicking on it gets no response.
I even tried in a document that only has the paragraph icons on the right-hand side. I highlighted text and para. markers, but still no box.
All the same, this helps because it gives me another phrase to search on in the "help" menus.
Thanks again!
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| Try the shortcut | Aug 27, 2007 |
What you describe really looks like right-to-left text direction, thought seems like it's not activated on your computer. When you hit the left arrow, does the cursor more to the right or to the left? If the direction has changed, it should move to the wrong direction.
Try one more thing – select the text and press left Ctrl + left Shirt key. See if it helps.
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Patricia Rosas
United States
Local time: 17:51
Spanish to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER In memoriam
Henrik,
The left arrow moves me left, and right to the right, etc.
I tried cntl + shift (not sure what you meant about left) but I'm still on the right side of the cursor. Did you happen to see my other post -- this started after I opened a file from a professor in Israel, so I'm certain that's the source of the problem.
Patricia
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P Forgas
Brazil
Local time: 21:51
Portuguese to Spanish
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| Change paragraph direction | Aug 27, 2007 |
The feature or some of the options described in this Help topic are only available if support for right-to-left languages is enabled through Microsoft Office Language Settings.
Place the insertion point in the paragraph that you want to change, or select several paragraphs.
Do one of the following:
To have text begin from the left, click Left-to-Right on the Formatting toolbar.
To have text begin from the right, click Right-to-Left on the Formatti... See more The feature or some of the options described in this Help topic are only available if support for right-to-left languages is enabled through Microsoft Office Language Settings.
Place the insertion point in the paragraph that you want to change, or select several paragraphs.
Do one of the following:
To have text begin from the left, click Left-to-Right on the Formatting toolbar.
To have text begin from the right, click Right-to-Left on the Formatting toolbar.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HP052580991033.aspx ▲ Collapse
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Patricia Rosas
United States
Local time: 17:51
Spanish to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER In memoriam | already tried that ... | Aug 27, 2007 |
P Forgas wrote:
The feature or some of the options described in this Help topic are only available if support for right-to-left languages is enabled through Microsoft Office Language Settings.
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Unfortunately, as I've found out today, I don't have any of these features on my machine so I can't toggle between the two direction.
I guess I get to spend tonight installing the features for these other languages :-/
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Patricia Rosas
United States
Local time: 17:51
Spanish to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER In memoriam | thank you P Forgas and Henrik ... | Aug 27, 2007 |
It wasn't as bad as I thought. I was able to download the ??? to enable use of Hebrew, and then I found the the left-to-right option under Customize-->Format, and it seems that I've been able to fix it in this one file. Tomorrow, I'll see if I can turn it off in the style sheets.
Thanks for your help!!
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| Maybe it will really help installing this feature | Aug 27, 2007 |
It shouldn't take too much time. Just open Control Panel > Regional and Language Options, select the Language tab, check the Install files for complex script and right-to-left language and hit OK. Windows may require the installation CD. Maybe after installing it you can control the text direction?
Regarding left Ctrl + Shift, when you have this feature installed, (left of right) Ctrl + left Shift changes the text direction to the left, and (left or right) Ctrl + left Shift changes ... See more It shouldn't take too much time. Just open Control Panel > Regional and Language Options, select the Language tab, check the Install files for complex script and right-to-left language and hit OK. Windows may require the installation CD. Maybe after installing it you can control the text direction?
Regarding left Ctrl + Shift, when you have this feature installed, (left of right) Ctrl + left Shift changes the text direction to the left, and (left or right) Ctrl + left Shift changes it to the right. ▲ Collapse
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Patricia Rosas
United States
Local time: 17:51
Spanish to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER In memoriam | thanks again! | Aug 27, 2007 |
Henrik Pipoyan wrote:
It shouldn't take too much time. Just open Control Panel > Regional and Language Options, select the Language tab, check the Install files for complex script and right-to-left language and hit OK. Windows may require the installation CD. Maybe after installing it you can control the text direction?
That's what I did, and it was very quick. I didn't need the CD. The icons for changing the text direction are in the Customize part of the Tool menu--I might have been able to use those without the download (not sure).
Regarding left Ctrl + Shift, when you have this feature installed, (left of right) Ctrl + left Shift changes the text direction to the left, and (left or right) Ctrl + left Shift changes it to the right.
Thanks for explaining that!
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