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cursor moves in opposite direction in middle east versions of InDesign CS5

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    • December 28, 2010 at 3:10 am #58223
      abe2010
      Participant

      As I'm trying out InDesign CS5 Middle East version, I noticed something strange while typing in right to left languages: The arrow keys on my keyboard move the cursor in the opposite direction. So when I press the right arrow key, the cursor moves to the left and when i press the left arrow key the cursor moves to the right. Well I was just wondering if this was done intentionally or if it is a bug. I personally find it very confusing and annoying. Any info is appreciated. Thanks.

    • December 28, 2010 at 8:23 am #58228
      Theunis De Jong
      Member

      It's totally intentionally, and correct behavior. You are used to left-to-right text, so the arrows on your cursor seem to “point the right way”. However, you should interpret them as “move to previous character” and “move to next character” — and in that case, it's logical that they move in the other direction for RTL languages, such as Hebrew and Arabic.

      Imagine the confusion if this hadn't been done this way — what ought the Backspace key do?

    • December 31, 2010 at 2:40 am #58251
      Chris Thompson
      Member

      If you think that's confusing, just wait until you reach some RTL text mixed with LTR numbers and opening/closing brackets. Story Editor can sometimes be a better way to sort things out in those situations.

    • January 3, 2011 at 8:10 am #58265
      abe2010
      Participant

      Thanks to everyone for their input.

      I finally figured it out, almost accidentally. If you open the preference pane and go down to the section “Right to Left” there will be an option under the heading “cursor control”, called “cursor movement” which can be set to either “logical” or “visual”.

    • January 3, 2011 at 8:41 am #58266
      abe2010
      Participant

      Well, here's the real problem. Even when “cursor movement” is set to “visual” and the arrow keys actually move the cursor in the direction of the arrow, when the shift key is pressed (in order to select) then the cursor movement reverts back to the “logical” movement while selecting text. Now that's really confusing.

    • January 4, 2011 at 3:23 pm #58283
      Boaz Eilat
      Participant

      You can change the cursor behavior in RTL text by changing some keyboard shortcuts. Go to “Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts” and create new set (I call it RTL set).

      In the “Product Area” choose “Text and Tables”. The relevant commands are:

      Move to the left one character

      Move to the left one word

      Move to the right one character

      Move to the right one word

      Select one character to the left

      Select one character to the right

      Select one word to the left

      Select one word to the right

      For each of these commands you have to delete the original shortcut and replace it with similar shortcut but with opposite direction arrow. Then, change the “Context” to” text”, press Assign and thats it.

      When working with LTR text you can switch to your original KBS set.

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