Word 2003 cursor control in complex scripts - logical vs visual

[Robert Purdy]

This question refers to Word 2003, running on Windows XP Professional.

Default language supported is English. Additional language support enabled
for Urdu, Farsi, Arabic and Hebrew. Sentences are mostly English but contain
embedded fragments of these other languages. Language detection is set to
automatic. Cursor control is set to logical (via a pair of radio buttons:
logical vs visual) but behaves as if set to visual.

How to switch to logical? The radio buttons don't seem to have any effect.

[P.S.: WordPad and NotePad give me logical cursor control, so it doesn't
seem to be an issue with the operating system, just with Word.]

 

[Peter T. Daniels]

It would be good to turn off "Detect language automatically" -- no one
is quite sure what it's actually detecting, but it doesn't seem to be
languages. (Mostly it seems to switch people's spellcheckers to French
or Ukrainian or something in the middle of checking English text.)

I've been using Hebrew, Arabic, and Syriac for years and have never
seen any difference between "logical" and "visual" cursor control --
what is _supposed_ to be the difference?

 

[Robert Purdy]

The only time there is a difference between logical and visual cursor control
is when the embedded fragment is written in the opposite direction to the
surrounding sentence.

In my case, the surrounding sentence is in English, which is written
left-to-right, and the embedded fragment is in one of the supplementary
languages I listed, which are written right-to-left.

The difference between logical and visual cursor control affects...
- the left and right arrow keys
- the delete and backspace keys
- the implementation of word wrap (sometimes called line wrap)
- the direction of typing (both overtype and insert modes)
- the direction of click-and-drag highlighting

The specific differences are easy to show to somebody when you're both
sitting at the same keyboard in front of the same sreen. But they are very
tedious to describe. I would encourage you to consult a manual.

It would be good to turn off "Detect language automatically" -- no one
is quite sure what it's actually detecting, but it doesn't seem to be
languages. (Mostly it seems to switch people's spellcheckers to French
or Ukrainian or something in the middle of checking English text.)

I've been using Hebrew, Arabic, and Syriac for years and have never
seen any difference between "logical" and "visual" cursor control --
what is _supposed_ to be the difference?

This question refers to Word 2003, running on Windows XP Professional.

Default language supported is English. Additional language support enabled
for Urdu, Farsi, Arabic and Hebrew. Sentences are mostly English but contain
embedded fragments of these other languages. Language detection is set to
automatic. Cursor control is set to logical (via a pair of radio buttons:
logical vs visual) but behaves as if set to visual.

How to switch to logical? The radio buttons don't seem to have any effect.

[P.S.: WordPad and NotePad give me logical cursor control, so it doesn't
seem to be an issue with the operating system, just with Word.]

 

[Peter T. Daniels]

The only time there is a difference between logical and visual cursor control
is when the embedded fragment is written in the opposite direction to the
surrounding sentence.

In my case, the surrounding sentence is in English, which is written
left-to-right, and the embedded fragment is in one of the supplementary
languages I listed, which are written right-to-left.

The difference between logical and visual cursor control affects...
 - the left and right arrow keys
 - the delete and backspace keys
 - the implementation of word wrap (sometimes called line wrap)
 - the direction of typing (both overtype and insert modes)
 - the direction of click-and-drag highlighting

The specific differences are easy to show to somebody when you're both
sitting at the same keyboard in front of the same sreen.  But they are very
tedious to describe.  I would encourage you to consult a manual.

What manual would that be?

It would be good to turn off "Detect language automatically" -- no one
is quite sure what it's actually detecting, but it doesn't seem to be
languages. (Mostly it seems to switch people's spellcheckers to French
or Ukrainian or something in the middle of checking English text.)

I've been using Hebrew, Arabic, and Syriac for years and have never
seen any difference between "logical" and "visual" cursor control --
what is _supposed_ to be the difference?

This question refers to Word 2003, running on Windows XP Professional..
Default language supported is English.  Additional language supportenabled
for Urdu, Farsi, Arabic and Hebrew.  Sentences are mostly English but contain
embedded fragments of these other languages.  Language detection isset to
automatic.  Cursor control is set to logical (via a pair of radio buttons:
logical vs visual) but behaves as if set to visual.
How to switch to logical?  The radio buttons don't seem to have anyeffect.
[P.S.:  WordPad and NotePad give me logical cursor control, so it doesn't
seem to be an issue with the operating system, just with Word.]-