indesign text link direction incorrect after change from arabic to English

Forum|Forum|8 months ago
July 30, 2025
2 replies
262 views

I've needed Indesign to set arabic for a few years but have now reverted to Indesign in international English. I completely uninstalled, changed language on CC account to English and then reinstalled, asked it not to keep preferences. The text link direction is wrong when I place a word document in any existing Indesign file. And also the endnote box is generated with the wrong text link direction.

The change direction tickbox from 'story' is not available in the English version.

New documents are fine but old ones (that didn't even use arabic) are affected. Export to idml doesn't change the behaviour. Does this mean that there's something hidden in all my old files that forces it to follow this text direction and that cannot be overridden?

Willi Adelberger

Community Expert

Text direction is part of paragraph and character styles. Work on these to correct it. You have to change from Adobe World composer to Adobe Paragraph Composer in Paragraph Styles in Fine tuning.

J

ja52653699Author

Participating Frequently

Thanks but it's the text 'link' direction. So the [+] link check box is at bottom left instead of right even after reinstalling with International english. It also happens to the auto generated endnotes text frame.

.

At left text box created using type tool. Correct for left to right setting. At right text box auto created by placing word doc. Same text. Normal paragraph styles applied - language set to english.

Willi Adelberger

Community Expert

If it is the link, it is the character style.

kglad

Community Expert

in the future, to find the best place to post your message, use the list here, https://community.adobe.com/

p.s. i don't think the adobe website, and forums in particular, are easy to navigate, so don't spend a lot of time searching that forum list. do your best and we'll move the post (like this one has already been moved) if it helps you get responses.

<"moved from using the community">

J

ja52653699Author

Participating Frequently

Thank you.

kglad

Community Expert

sure.

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