MS Word fix: Text direction in comment balloons for documents created in a right-to-left language
Reversing text direction in comment balloons for documents created in a right-to-left language country
SOLUTION:
Open up a marginal comment to the MS Word file;
Click in the marginal comment (i.e. place cursor inside it);
Click the left-to-right icon on the upper-most menu strip (normally to the right of ‘View Gridlines’) — text in comment then reverses direction, but now you need to make MS Word realize you want this to stick;
Go to Home/Styles and click the down arrow (menu expansion icon) under Change Styles;
The styles task pane opens. There should be a box around ‘Comment Text’. (If there isn’t, you may need to do something else: let me know and I’ll explain);
Right-click or click down arrow for ‘Comment Text’;
First option on the menu that comes up is ‘Update Comment Text to Match Selection’;
Click that: problem should be solved.
EXPLANATION
This is just a work-around. I don’t know what the underlying logic is. This is a real pain of a problem that comes especially with working on MS Word files created in Israel, and I’ve searched the internet for a solution and not found anything. e.g. this Microsoft help page is no help at all! In the end, after many frustrated hours, I realized that there was this ultra simple work around.
Hi there,
I have read your instructions but the ‘Comment Text’ option isn’t showing in the Changes section of my Word 2007 – how can I change this?
Thanks!
Steve
Hi Steve,
Home ribbon / Styles section / little arrow in the bottom right to expand the style pane /
Style pane then opens up on right-hand quarter of the screen [the list usually reads .. Clear all / [and then a bunch more in alphabetical order]]
Bottom right of style pane you have “Options…”. Click and it opens up a new window, with “Select Styles to Show” as the top drop-down; click on that and select “All Styles”.
Then the number of styles listed in the Style Pane normally increases, and in there somewhere you will have “Comment Text”.
Hope that helps! Get back to me if it doesn’t.
Ben
Very helpful! Now, the little line above the End notes is also aligned right. How to fix that?
Select View / Draft layout
The select References / Show Notes
Open up footnote/endnote dialogue box
Find the endnotes (or footnotes) settings drop down menu
Select endnote separator. Then the line appears in your lower window. Left click it and use the Paragraph settings dialogue box to set justify-left.
This was enormously helpful, thank you so much!
I changed the instructions slightly for Word 2010:
Open a comment bubble and put your cursor in it.
Go to the Home ribbon and choose left-to-right text direction and left alignment.
Right-click in comment bubble, go to Styles, and choose Update Comment Text to Match Selection.
Hi, Ben
How can this be fixed in Word 2000?
Thanks
Vivek
I edit on a Mac, so I knew that I needed to use a PC to fix right-to-left issues, but other solutions that I had found for fixing comment text were frustratingly ineffective. Your process, however, worked (on a PC), and I’m so grateful. Thanks very much for sharing this information!
Really glad it helped!
It really helped. thanks