[Scott Meyers]

Jay Freedman wrote:
It's possible that you've somehow gotten a right-to-left language
enabled, maybe by pasting something from another document or web page.
Look in Control Panel Regional and Language Options Languages, and
also in Start Programs Microsoft Office Office Tools Language
Settings, to see if you have support enabled for anything other than
English.

Office XP must have installed support for multiple languages by default, because
there were a number of non-English languages enabled, but disabling all except
US English does not change Word's behavior. However, I've noticed something
else. When I move the cursor to the left of a line, I get a hollow
right-pointing cursor that indicates that clicking will select the entire line.
When I move the cursor to the right of a line, I get a yellow left-pointing
cursor whose upper part is shaded (to make it look 3D) that indicates that
clicking will select the entire line. Any idea what the significance of the
yellow cursor is? Again, only English is enabled in Office and in Win2K, but
clicking to the right of a line in word selects the entire line. Very irksome.

Thanks for all help and suggestions,

Scott