Change global text direction settings

Applies to: Microsoft Office Excel 2003

1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the International tab.
2. Choose one of the following:
   • Click Right-to-Left to set edit field starting alignment to right, reading order (reading order: The visual order in which characters, words, and groups of words are displayed. English and most other European languages are displayed in left-to-right order and Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, and Urdu are displayed in right-to-left order.) to right-to-left, and keyboard language (keyboard language: The language selected for entering text.) to the currently enabled right-to-left language.
   • Click Left-to-Right to set edit field starting alignment to left, reading order to left-to-right (left-to-right: Refers to keyboard settings, document views, user interface objects, and the direction in which text is displayed. English and most other European languages are left-to-right languages.), and keyboard language to the currently enabled left-to-right language.

Note When you change the global text direction (Global text direction: Defines the flow of text in text entry boxes and edit controls. You can choose a left-to-right or right-to-left direction, or base the direction on the context of the first strong character that is detected.) setting, it will affect the edit fields of items that you open after you change the setting; it will not affect the text direction of the edit fields of items that are already open.

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