If you find that entering text into webpages, searches, and the Location bar are appearing right-to-left instead of left-to-right, there are a few possible causes. This article lists the possible causes and solutions.

Table Of Contents

• Keyboard shortcut
• Add-ons
• Java applet running in another tab

Keyboard shortcut

The most common cause for switching the text direction is that you accidentally pressed a keyboard shortcut on your computer. To change it back, perform the following steps:

1. Highlight the text in the form field where to change the text direction.
2. Press the shortcut CtrlCmd+Shift+X

The text direction in form fields should revert back to normal.

Add-ons

Sometimes, add-ons can cause the text direction to be changed. To make sure that no add-ons are causing the problem, start Firefox in Safe Mode.

1. Close down Firefox completely: At the top of the Firefox window, click the File menu, and select the Exit menu item.Close down Firefox completely: On the menu bar, click the Firefox menu, and select the Quit Firefox menu item.Close down Firefox completely: At the top of the Firefox window, click the File menu, and select the Quit menu item.
2. In Windows, click Start, open the All Programs list, and navigate to the Mozilla Firefox folder. In the Mozilla Firefox folder, select Mozilla Firefox (Safe Mode).Hold down the Option key, as you start Firefox.Go to your Terminal and run:

   firefox -safe-mode

   You may need to specify the Firefox installation path (e.g. /usr/lib/firefox-3.5).
3. Firefox should start up with a Firefox Safe Mode dialog.
   
   Note: You can also start Firefox in Safe Mode by clicking Start, selecting Run (or use the Start Search box in Windows 7 and Vista) and then entering the following in the text field:
   

   "%PROGRAMFILES%\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -safe-mode

4. In the Firefox Safe Mode dialog, click Continue in Safe Mode.
5. If the text direction appears to be normal in Safe Mode, then one of your add-ons is causing problems. See Troubleshooting extensions and themes on how to find the faulty add-on and disable it.

Java applet running in another tab

Java is a programming language that some websites use for interactive content such as online games. Specific Java applets are sometimes known to cause text direction problems. To determine if this is the problem, close all other tabs except the current one. If the issue is still not resolved, try to upgrade to the latest version of Java. See the Installing or updating Java Knowledge Base Article for further details.