You paste neat Urdu into InPage and it falls apart into reversed letters or Latin style symbols. Frustrating, but the cause is simple and the fix is quick.
The one word answer: encoding
Your pasted text is Unicode. Classic InPage expects its own glyph based encoding. When InPage reads Unicode code numbers as if they were its own codes, it picks the wrong shapes, so the text looks broken. Nothing is corrupted, the two systems simply disagree about what each number means.
The three things people see
- Latin style symbols: the classic sign of an encoding mismatch.
- Reversed or disconnected letters: shapes that do not join the way Urdu should.
- Boxes or blanks: usually a font that lacks the needed glyphs, on top of the encoding issue.
The fix
- Run your Unicode Urdu through the Unicode to InPage converter.
- Paste the converted output into InPage.
- Select it and apply an InPage Nastaleeq font such as Jameel Noori or Faiz Lahori.
The text now renders correctly because both the encoding and the font finally match.
The reverse problem
The same thing happens backwards. Copy InPage text into Word and it breaks, because Word reads InPage's codes as Unicode. The fix there is InPage to Unicode.
Mental model: encoding decides which characters, font decides how they look. You need both to match. Get the deeper background in Unicode vs InPage.
Frequently asked questions
Is my text damaged when it looks broken in InPage?
No. The underlying text is fine, it is just being read with the wrong encoding. Convert it and it displays correctly.
Why do the letters appear reversed?
Reversed or disconnected shapes happen when the joining and direction information does not line up, a symptom of the encoding mismatch.
Will changing the font alone fix it?
No. A font change cannot fix an encoding mismatch. Convert the text first, then apply the font.