Word: review comments typing backwards

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around a technical issue where comments in a document appear backwards, likely due to formatting related to right-to-left languages, such as Arabic. Participants explore potential causes, solutions, and the implications of language settings in Microsoft Word.

Discussion Character

  • Technical explanation, Debate/contested, Meta-discussion

Main Points Raised

  • One participant reports that their comments appear backwards in a document, with the cursor moving left while text accumulates on the right.
  • Another participant suggests that the issue may be related to Arabic language formatting, as the document was created in an Arabic version of Word.
  • A participant proposes a solution involving changing the text direction to "Left to Right," but others indicate that this option may not be available depending on the version of Windows or Office being used.
  • Some participants discuss the possibility of needing to install language packs to resolve the issue, while others express uncertainty about how the problem originated.
  • One participant mentions that the problem could stem from a macro embedded in a Word document from a previous version written in Arabic.
  • Several participants share experiences of encountering different menu options based on their system configurations, indicating variability in how the issue manifests across different machines.
  • A workaround is suggested involving converting the document to plain text, although this would result in the loss of formatting.
  • Another participant shares a method of selecting all text in the comment field and typing to circumvent the issue, noting that this must be done for each comment.
  • One participant expresses gratitude for the shared solutions and acknowledges the document's origin from Iran as a likely cause of the issue.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree that the issue is related to right-to-left language formatting, but there is no consensus on the best solution or the exact cause of the problem. Multiple competing views on how to address the issue remain present.

Contextual Notes

Some participants mention limitations in their software versions, such as not having access to certain language options or features, which affects their ability to resolve the issue. The discussion also highlights the variability in user experiences based on different system configurations.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be useful for users experiencing similar issues with document formatting in Microsoft Word, particularly those working with documents created in right-to-left languages.

DaveC426913
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Help! My comments are appearing backwards in a doc I'm reviewing.

See attached.

What I typed was: [ Hello Bob A1234 ]

The comment reads: [ 1234Hello Bob A :Comment ]
(see attached diagrams)

It builds like this:
[ |H:Comment ]
[ |He:Comment ]
[ |Hel:Comment ]
[ |Hell:Comment ]
[ |Hello:Comment ]
[ |Hello :Comment ]
[ |Hello B:Comment ]
[ |Hello Bo:Comment ]
[ |Hello Bob:Comment ]
[ |Hello Bob A:Comment ]
[ |1Hello Bob A:Comment ]
[ |12Hello Bob A:Comment ]
[ |123Hello Bob A:Comment ]
[ |1234Hello Bob A:Comment ]​
Several things are happening:
1] The 'Comment' header appears on the right of the comment box, with the colon to its left.
2] The text cursor starts at the right and advances left as I type (staying to the left of the building string of text) - even though the text itself accumulates on the right of the text string! (see demo, above)
3] Numbers break the pattern, jumping to the left even without the benefit of spaces.

Tests:
This does not do this in a new, blank document; it is intrinisc to this document.
This does occur on multiple machines; again, intrinsic to this document.
This does occur even if I copy and paste the document's contents into a newly-created document; soit is intrinsic to the content of this document.
Playing with the text style, even the 'Comment text' style has no effect.
This does not occur in other documents from this same source of mine.

I am unable to query the source, or ask for new documents.

My first suspicion is some sort of Arabic language formatting thing where writing is from right to left.

Any ideas what's wrong here?
 

Attachments

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Last edited:
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I tried for a bit to replicate the problem, but I couldn't get it to print backwards. Any chance of you deleting the text and posting the file so we can play around with it?
 
Thanks! Here's the doc.
 

Attachments

Well, I fixed it, I'll try my best to explain how!

Click so the cursor is in the comment box. Then go to format -> paragraph. On the first tab "indents and spacing" you'll see under general a "direction" You need to change this to "Left to Right"

Hope this helps.
 
Thank you! (I knew it was an Arabic thing...)

Trouble is, I don't have that option. A look through Help:

The feature described in this Help topic is only available if support for a right-to-left language, such as Arabic, is enabled through Microsoft Office language Settings.

And a look in Microsoft Office language Settings tells me that this is an XP Pro thing. I have XP Home.

While I can't fix the problem myself, confirming what the problem is gets me halfway there.
 
If I change it, save it, then post it back, do you think it will remain corrected on your machine? I can do that, if you think it'll help!
 
cristo said:
If I change it, save it, then post it back, do you think it will remain corrected on your machine? I can do that, if you think it'll help!
I wish I could. I'm doing this on behalf of my wife and I made that suggestion. She categorically ruled that out.

She'll do it, she'll just have to do it through her approved IT channel. But thanks very much for the offer!
 
Ahh right, ok. Well, at least you're halfway there! Good luck!
 
Darn. That was weird. I knew it had to do something with the foreign language. The file brought up a lot of different options I have never seen before. My machine has XP Pro and I still did not have the direction option.
 
  • #10
FredGarvin said:
Darn. That was weird. I knew it had to do something with the foreign language. The file brought up a lot of different options I have never seen before. My machine has XP Pro and I still did not have the direction option.

So, it worked for cristo but not for you.

Is it possibble you don't have the language options installed? They don't come installed as default. Look up 'language direction' in help
 
  • #11
I probably don't. I was suprised to see some menu options in arabic though.
 
  • #12
FredGarvin said:
I probably don't. I was suprised to see some menu options in arabic though.

I didn't get that. But of course, I don't have the version installed. Hey cristo, did you get some arabic menu options?
 
  • #13
DaveC426913 said:
Hey cristo, did you get some arabic menu options?

Nope, all my menu options are in English as usual. It's very strange how the same document can have different effects on different computers, like this!
 
  • #14
The easiest solution is to your your document as plain text (*.txt), close Word, open the text document in Notepad, reopen Word and copy and paste the whole text into a blank Word document.

You'll lose any formatting, though.

The problem occurs when the document was created in an Arabic version of Word.
 
  • #15
laurencekoste said:
The easiest solution is to your your document as plain text (*.txt), close Word, open the text document in Notepad, reopen Word and copy and paste the whole text into a blank Word document.

You'll lose any formatting, though.

The problem occurs when the document was created in an Arabic version of Word.
Well OK thanks. It's been 2 1/2 years ... but thanks...:wink:
 
  • #16
I know, but other people with the same problem will google it and find this page (that's what I did).
 
  • #17
Here is how to get around the problem.

Left Click in the COMMENT FIELD and KEY in "CTRL-A" to select all. Then start typing.

I had a document sent to me from the Middle East and I drove me bonkers! You will have to do this for each comment - just the nature of the two language formats - but it works!
 
Last edited:
  • #18
DaveC426913 said:
Is it possibble you don't have the language options installed? They don't come installed as default. Look up 'language direction' in help

Dave, have you tried installing various language packs and trying again to go from your halfway point to correcting it fully? You can always uninstall the language packs later.

I'm just as concerned as to how this came about. Was it something you changed? Or was it an overactive (invasive) piece of code that crept onto your system from some website or program you downloaded? Could it have been a macro embedded in a Word document left over from a previous version written in Arabic?
 
  • #19
mugaliens said:
Dave, have you tried installing various language packs and trying again to go from your halfway point to correcting it fully? You can always uninstall the language packs later.

I'm just as concerned as to how this came about. Was it something you changed? Or was it an overactive (invasive) piece of code that crept onto your system from some website or program you downloaded? Could it have been a macro embedded in a Word document left over from a previous version written in Arabic?

Well, since I was a significantly younger man at the time...as was whatever version of Windows I was running, let alone Word ... I'm afraid I have no answer now. :wink:
 
  • #20
DaveC426913 said:
Well, since I was a significantly younger man at the time...as was whatever version of Windows I was running, let alone Word ... I'm afraid I have no answer now. :wink:

Oh. So this happened a while ago? I missed the memo (in your OP, and my bad). And looking back, I see it was in 2007. Who necromaniacly resurrected this thread?

Ah - a one-post-wonder.

I'll reset my radar so as to avoid OPW responses to threads from yesteryear!

- Mugs
 
  • #21
necromaniacal

:biggrin:
 
  • #22
Are you collaborating with someone who speaks Arabic or another "right to left" language? This problem happened to me and it was because the default style in the document was formatted in Arabic.
 
  • #23
Pretty impressive that it was revived THREE times, and even this time the posted completely ignored both the date AND the content.
 
  • #24
Thanks to all who posted about comments coming out backwards. The original document is from Iran, which probably explains why the comments were backwards in my edit.

A special thnk you to Smorge, who offered an easy solution to the problem.

Terry K
 
  • #25
Will someone puhLEEZE close this 4 1/2 year old thread!
 

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