How to get text in Comments box to stop running backward?

[lucinda09]

I am a copy editor and get many files from other countries. Even though the
document text is set to English, the Comments boxes in Arabic-based computers
always run backward, no matter what different settings or "tricks" I try.
Setting the preference to English within the box has no effect. This is
infuriating! How can I correct this?

 

[grammatim]

The Format Paragraph panel (first tab) has a radio button for "left-to-
right" (third line under General, at the top). I suppose this only
appears if you have Arabic or Hebrew enabled in Windows, so first you
should go do that in case it isn't.

Then you need to find and Modify the Styles used in balloons, which
you can get at by choosing "All Styles" from the options in the Styles
panel (which is accessed differently in different versions of Word).
The styles to check are Balloon Text, Comment Reference, and Comment
Text.