Good morning & good week to all,

I created a Corel Draw template (*.cdt). Everything was working well until, for some unknown reason, the text direction for Artistic Text and Paragraph Text (and all Bullet styles) switched to right-to-left. I do not recall doing anything to cause this.

Also, the only place that I can find the text direction option is in the Text > Options > Guidelines > Styles > Edit button for fonts > Paragraph Tab (in Format Text dialog box). The text direction shows Right-to-Left and it is grayed out - not available!

My system is Hebrew enabled and Hebrew is a right-to-left language. However, I do not use and have never used Hebrew in any form in CorelDraw.

Also, there is no information at all in the User's Guide or on-line help.The words "direction" and "text" do not appear together.

2 questions:

The important one - How can I access the text direction property?

The less important one - What could I have inadvertently done to change the text direction from L-2-R to R-2-L?

All help will be much appreciated.

Leah Smaller

Technical Writer

Certified Feldenkrais Method practitioner

leah@compulite.com

Hi Leah,

You can reach Text Direction from

1. Tools > Options > Document > Styles
2. Text > Paragraph Formatting (Opens the Paragraph Formatting docker)
3. Left Ctrl + left Shift

All these three ways will change the text direction of your current document. If you want the new direction to be the default for new documents, "Save Settings As Default" from the Tools menu.

An easy way is to select nothing (click on a blank space with the Pick tool) and hit left Ctrl + left Shift, and specify whether you want to apply changes for Artistic Text, Paragraph or both. Then "Save Settings As Default".

This is a general behavior; change any attribute with nothing selected to change the defaults.

See Also

Why are certain options not saved?

Note that when you change the Text Direction, you set direction for the current script. Each style has a "sub Style" for each of the three scripts; Latin, Asian and Middle East.

If you are using the Styles options (Tools > Options >…),

1. Choose the Style (Bullets1, Default Artistic Text…), and click Edit.
2. Choose the script (Latin, Asian…) you want to change its direction in the Character tab, see image below.
3. Change the Direction in the Paragraph tab.

If you are using the Paragraph Formatting docker or the "Ctrl + Shift",

1. Choose the Language from the system Language Bar.
2. Choose a direction from the docker, or hit (Left or Right) Ctrl + (Left or Right) Shift.
   

 Hi Ahmad,

Thanks for your reply ....It is really nice that you are in the same time zone.

Your reply has not, however, solved my problem. I did drill down into the Tools menu, but as I mentioned in my original query, the Text direction option is not available (it is grayed out). i did a screen capture, but I am new to this forum and don't know how to include an image in this reply, like you did in yours.

Also, in the the Paragraph Formatting dialog, NO text direction field appears!

Also, clicking anywhere and pressing Ctrl + Shift has no effect.

It seems that text direciton is simply not available in this particular template.

I basically solved this problem by copying a file that used the original template (before the R-2-L corruption), but I would really like to know:

a) why the text direction changed (when I am sure that I did not do anything to cause this) ?

b) why is not available anymore at all?

Since you seem to be a more experienced CD user than I am, I have another question. How do a make the template that I designed the default template, i.e. when I click New File, the new file opens with my template? I already figured out how to do it through File>New From Template, but would like to be able to use the New File icon on the toolbar.

Thanks again and I would really appreciate it if you could help me out here.

Leah Smaller

Technical Writer

Certified Feldenkrais Method practitioner

leah@compulite.com

 Hi Ahmad,

The weird thing is that in the Paragraph tab, the text directions is grayed out = not available!

BTW in the Syles box , the only font that has the edit option is Latin font.

The Paragraph Formatting docker has no Language options at all!

Ctrl + Shift does not have any effect!

Have you any idea what is going on here? Should I just reinstall CDx4?

Add image to your post

See this section from CorelDRAW.com Help (upper right corner): Can I add attachments to my posts?

CorelDRAW Version

All my screenshots are for CorelDRAW X4 (and apply for X3). Are you sure you are using X4?

If you have a working file (in which you write LTR) opened, saving settings as default should solve the problem.

Default Template

All options you can set under Document (Tools > Options) can be saved as default for new documents, which means a new Default Template. See the link in one of the previous posts: Why are certain options not saved?

I don't think you can save objects in your Default Template. If you want a template with object, you need to open a New from Template. I tried to open CORELDRAW.CDT (the Default Template), drew object, saved, closed and then opened a new file, but the new was with no objects.

Maybe somebody knows the trick.

See how to quickly access frequently used objects in this thread: Download Extra Shapes.

Styles' Edit Button

You have one Edit button which opens the dialog box shown in my first attached image. In the Character tab in that dialog, you can reach the script options. In other words, this Edit button is to edit the Latin, Asian and Middle East fonts; one for all :)

System Language Bar

This bar is on the Windows Taskbar, beside the System Tray (not on CorelDRAW Paragraph Formatting docker).

What Is Going on Here?

I don't know :(

Maybe somebody can help us here.

Good morning Ahmad,

Thanks for your support, you have been very generous with your time.

I took your advice and just opened a L2R file and saved it as default - so all is back on track.

Anyone else want to chime in here?

I guess that no one else here has a problem with R2L text because their languages are L2R.

Anyone else want to chime in here? I guess that no one else here has a problem with R2L text because their languages are L2R. 

So, thanks again and have a good day.

Leah

 Hi Ahmad,

Me again. As you saw I added a screen capture for the R2L doc, notice that the Text Direction field is grayed out. Any ideas? Also look at the Paragraph Format here - no text directin option.

Hi Leah,

I checked some suspected places, but I found no clue. I wish I could help more :( I'll keep you posted if I ever find an answer.

After all is back on track, can you set the text Direction from the docker or the dialog?

Are you sure it's not hidden below the Indents section? ;)

BTW, from the images you posted, you might need to check this post about smoothing screen fonts.