Text entered into Firefox is backwards

This article is no longer maintained, so its content might be out of date.

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.


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 Ctrlcommand+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 Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode.

Click the menu button Fx89menuButton, click Help, select Troubleshoot Mode… and click Restart in the Restart Firefox in Troubleshoot Mode? dialog.

Note: You can also start Firefox in Troubleshoot Mode by holding down the Shift key while starting Firefox.holding down the option key while starting Firefox.quitting Firefox and then going to your Terminal and running: firefox -safe-mode
You may need to specify the Firefox installation path (e.g. /usr/lib/firefox).

  1. In the Firefox Safe Mode dialog, click Continue in Safe Mode.
  2. If the text direction appears to be normal in Safe Mode, then one of your add-ons is causing problems. See Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems 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.

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