Word 2003 and reversal of Hebrew text

[nicksims]

Client sends me a word file, 1 page, with some Hebrew text on it (we tried this with a page of just Hebrew and both English and Hebrew). I receive the file and both on screen and print, all the Hebrew text (English is never affected) is reversed. Each line is in the correct position, but the order of the letters (by each line, not the entire page at once) is completely reversed.

He created the Word files. The file is being emailed. The file has text and a Word border/box all around the text. I'm turning these into pdf's.

For example, "12 345 6789" becomes "9876 543 21". The spacing is consistent and remains correct.

I am able to turn on Word's ability to type in Hebrew via ctrl/shift-9. No effect.

The only way I have been able to correct this is to place the cursor at the farmost left side of each line (the end of the Hebrew sentence), use the delete key and delete each and every letter and space, and then ctrl-z each and every letter and space. Boom! The order is reversed and correct again.

1. Why are the files consistently showing the text out of order? How do I correct this?
2. Why would my bizarre deleting method work? A random discovery by the way.

Answer to #1 would be ideal, #2 a curiosity.

Thanks.
Nick

 

[SkipVought]

Hi,

Isn't that how Hebrew is read, right to left?

Skip,

_[red][/red]

 

[nicksims]

Correct. But with that difference in mind, it still reversed everything. With it set to read and write in Hebrew, it still placed the letters in the opposite order.

Today I had to save each of the Word files as pdf's. After I save the file and then save as a pdf, I'll close both files. If I re-open the pdf, the file is fine. If I re-open the corrected Word file (these are one page files- some only have a couple of lines of text), the Hebrew text is back out of order.

Strange.

Nick