½ symbol prints a 2 and Winding square box prints a F

[frank-e]

We often share files between staff in a small office. Some of the files have
worksheets with text fields that use the ½ symbol and the square box from the
Windings font set embedded in the text string. When this file is opened on
another machine and printed (sometimes to a different default printer) the ½
gets changed to 2 and the square box gets changed to F. If this file is
saved, everyone else will also see the 2 and F when they open the file. All
computers are set up with the same (default) set of available fonts.

Does anyone know why this might be happening? It gets very frustrating
having to 'proof' these documents every time they get used.

Thanks. Frank-e.

 

[Rob Walton]

Hi there Frank-e,

I am going to make the assumption that your default font, the one used for
the majority of the spreadsheet is either Arial, Courier New or Times New
Roman (those are the most popular standard fonts in the business world).

After doing some checking in the Windows Character Map utility (Start -->
Run --> type "charmap.exe" --> OK), I found that each of these standard
fonts contains the ½ and the □, ■, ▪, or ▫ symbols, depending on which one
you want to use. So, run charmap.exe, select your default font, a quick
scroll will let you find the characters you are looking for, click the
character, press the select button, press the copy button, then go back to
your spreadsheet and paste it where you want it, do this for all of the
occurances of the symbols. Do this on the master spreadsheet, then you will
never have to deal with the Wingdings font again.

The actual problem is the printer. Somewhere in the settings, either on the
printer or on the computer, it says that truetype fonts are to be downloaded
to the printer (or uploaded, whichever way you are thinking). Not all
printers handle fonts the same way, and funny things can happen. Another
workaround is to find all of the settings on everybody's computer and on all
of the printers and ask it to print text as graphics instead of downloading
the fonts, but the fonts I listed above are standard, they will be fully
implemented on every printer, so I would just stop using the Wingdings font.

~Rob Walton

 

[frank-e]

Rob: Thanks a whole bunch. We had assumed it might be the printer (but didn't
know why), and set all the computers to print to a central printer, but this
was just a temporary arrangement. I'll implement the character map solution
which looks like it will work best for us.

Thanks again. Frank-e