How do I stop search in Preview reversing text direction eg. erutcurtsarfnI instead of Infrastructure?

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johnrag Author

Level 1

16 points

How do I stop search in Preview reversing text direction eg. erutcurtsarfnI instead of Infrastructure?

MacBook Pro 15", macOS 10.13

Posted on May 5, 2019 9:08 AM

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Answer 1

May 5, 2019 9:13 AM in response to johnrag

johnrag wrote:

How do I stop search in Preview reversing text direction eg. erutcurtsarfnI instead of Infrastructure?

MacBook Pro 15", macOS 10.13

You do not say what exact Mac /model /year /size /retina /touchbar is this

or

what exact macOS you are currently running?

Old issue / new issue?

What changed or what perpetuate this change in behavior.

Verify your software is up to date. macOS 10.13.6 if so you can reinstall the combo date in an effort to resolve anomalies like yours:

Download macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 Combo Update - Apple Support

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

245,507 points

May 5, 2019 10:49 AM in response to johnrag

I wonder if you have a right to left Language set somewhere?

In the Language & Region system preference pane, English/English (U.S.) should appear at the top of Preferred Languages. Drag it to the top of the list if not. You can remove any other languages that you don’t speak or want to appear.

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Answer 3

johnrag Author

Level 1

16 points

May 12, 2019 8:33 PM in response to BDAqua

Thank you for trying to replicate it. I hoped I might find a work around by transferring the pdf I downloaded to my PC, but no. It seems to start by finding lots of pages, but then the results column goes blank and then reports 'no results found' unless I search for the inverse of the word, in which case it produces results as in this screenshot.

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Answer 4

johnrag Author

Level 1

16 points

May 11, 2019 2:29 PM in response to leroydouglas

I now realise the problem is only with two files from the same local council website, both downloaded from the Summary of Submissions links at https://www.waikatodistrict.govt.nz/your-council/plans-policies-and-bylaws/plans/district-plan-review/stage-1/summary-of-submissions/

I have no problem with searching these files on my PC using Adobe Acrobat, so the problem may be with Preview, rather than the files.

My macOS is Mojave 10.14.4 .

It's not an issue I've had before and other searches in Preview work fine, except that sometimes I have to reload a file for Preview to find anything.

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Answer 5

johnrag Author

Level 1

16 points

May 12, 2019 4:24 AM in response to BDAqua

Thank you for that suggestion. It's possible to search in most browsers, but, as here, it's hard to find anything among the 4,032 instances of 'infrastructure'. If Preview worked as it does for most searches, it'd show the hits by page, together with other text, which makes it rather easier to find which of the 4,032 are relevant to my search.

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