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Change text direction is grayed out in Word

Anonymous
2024-02-19T20:07:29+00:00

I am using Outlook 365 (Word version 16.82) on a Mac running Sonoma 14.3.1.

I am able to add "Change text direction" to the Quick Access menu but it is grayed out.

I have tried to select some text to see if that enables the option but it doesn't change anything.

My text is written in US English.

Any ideas?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | MacOS

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  1. Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 434.7K Reputation points
    2024-02-19T20:33:22+00:00

    The Text Direction tool is active only when working in a Text Box.or Shape. It cannot be used on normal document text. When a Text Box or Shape is selected the tool appears on the Shape Format contextual tab of the Ribbon.

    I'm not aware of anything comparable in Outlook.

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  1. Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 434.7K Reputation points
    2024-02-22T16:08:09+00:00

    This is something different... It has to do with Languages which read from Right-to-Left rather than Left-to-Right.

    In Word the tool you're looking fo is Right-to-Left Text Direction. Select All Commands from the left list. I'm not sure whether it's supported in Mac Outlook, though.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-02-22T17:02:27+00:00

    That was very helpful.

    I had chosen the option "Change Text Direction" but using your suggestion, I looked farther down in the drop-down and found "Right-to-Left Text Direction". I was able to add it to the Quick Access toolbar. I tested it and it works!

    Perfect solution. Thank you.

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-02-22T15:19:04+00:00

    Thank you for responding.

    I am taking a course on MS Word formatting and this was part of a lecture on how to reverse text for languages such as Arabic and Hebrew. The instructions were to modify the Quick Access toolbar to include the option to change the text direction. I suspect that the course developers are using a different version of Word but I will reach out to them. I appreciate your comments.

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