Odd text cursor

[Saga]

Hello all. Sometime Ihave the need to include special characters,
such a vowel with an accent. I do this by pressing Alt key and
typing in ASCII using the numeric keypad. The problem is that
sometimes I miss a key or a number and the special character
does not display, but the vertical bar cursor changes in that
a small triangula flag pointing left appears at the top of the text
cursor. I have tried to duplicate this behavior unsuccessfully.
Does anyone know what this text cursor indicates and why the
flow and control of text behaves in a different way?

By "different way" I mean that I place the text cursor at a
specific location and when I start typing, the text appears else
where, or when I try to move the text cursor using the arrow keys
the cursor moves to an unexpected location. Thanks. Saga

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Perhaps you have changed text direction to right-to-left?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Saga]

Thank you for the reply. Perhaps I did. How is text direction changed
using Word XP (2002)? I tried to duplicate this behavior and was
unable to. Searching got lots of results on how to change text orientation
which is something different. Thanks again, Saga

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

In order to be able to do this, I think you have to have a right-to-left
language enabled. That's about as much as I know; maybe someone more
knowledgeable will chime in here. If not, post your question in
microsoft.public.word.docmanagement, and Peter T. Daniels will be able to
help.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Saga]

Thanks again Suzanne! That is odd, AFAIK, I do not have any
right to left languages installed and yet I get this text cursor when I
miss the mark when inserting special characters using the Alt-XXX
method.

I will follow your recommendation and post in the ng that you mention.
Regards, Saga