Slide sorter displays slides from right to left

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Problem

• In Slide Sorter view, slide thumbnails are displayed from right to left rather than from left to right as you might expect.
• When you print handouts, the slides are ordered from right to left instead of left to right

Cause

The presentation is set for Right-to-Left layout direction rather than Left-to-Right. This can happen when the presentation was created on a computer or PPT version set to use Hebrew, Arabic or some other Right-to-Left language.

Thanks to PPT MVP John Wilson for helping to track this one down and providing test files to work with.

Solution

This macro will switch the layout direction each time you run it. If the presentation is Left-to-Right, it makes it Right-to-Left and vice versa.

Sub ToggleDirection()

    If ActivePresentation.LayoutDirection = ppDirectionMixed Then
        MsgBox "Presentation has mixed layout direction; cannot change"
        Exit Sub
    End If

    If ActivePresentation.LayoutDirection = ppDirectionRightToLeft Then
        MsgBox "Presentation was Right to Left" & vbCrLf & "Converting it to Left to Right"
        ActivePresentation.LayoutDirection = ppDirectionLeftToRight
    Else
        MsgBox "Presentation was Left to Right" & vbCrLf & "Converting it to Right to Left"
        ActivePresentation.LayoutDirection = ppDirectionRightToLeft
    End If


End Sub

See How do I use VBA code in PowerPoint? to learn how to use this example code.

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