Can't replace DBCS with SBCS font - error

[Debi Ubernosky]

Been working to track down a problem with symbols not displaying properly in
an engineer's Word document, from one computer to another.

This paper was emailed to my boss from one of his former grad students. The
original version received on his old computer displays the characters
properly.

Then we got him a new computer, and SOME of the symbols are no longer
displaying properly.

Have check to see that all fonts are the same on both computers. (They are)
Have checked Regional and Language Settings. (Same)

Have checked Tools / Options / Compatability / Font Substitutions - trying
to change the substition for the symbol font "SymbolMT" gives the error
"Can't replace DBCS with SBCS font"

I have Googled this phrase and find several discussions about it, but no
solution.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks so much,

Debi

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I see you've posted this in more than one newsgroup but not in the one that
is most appropriate, to which I am cross-posting this. I've also forwarded
it to a contact at Design Science, as it appears it may be a MathType issue.

 

[Debi Ubernosky]

Thanks Suzanne, I didn't see a link to the printingfonts group, or I would
have posted it there. Believe me, that is what I've been looking for! I've
been trying to resolve the issue for several weeks now. Finally this week, I
started posting it on any possible applicable group, hoping someone like you
would respond.

So THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

Debi

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I got a reply from my friend at Design Science, and he says it's *not*
MathType-related (that was a long shot based on the MT). Since he mentioned
that he didn't even know what DBCS and SBCS meant, I did some poking around
to find out a little more about double-byte and single-byte character sets
(DBCS and SBCS) and found the article at
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms776463(VS.85).aspx, to which I
referred him. I don't know whether it will offer anything that might be
helpful in your case, but perhaps it would be a start. I suspect, though,
that the bottom line is going to be that you're going to have to replace the
symbols one by one.

FWIW, if you post to the NGs with an NNTP newsreader (see
http://www.gmayor.com/MSNews.htm), it's a lot easier to find all the MS
newsgroups, but if you must post through the Web interface, you can find a
complete list (in alphabetical order) at
http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/list/en-us/default.aspx;
there's also a list by application, broken down first by language, at
http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx

 

[Tom Ferguson]

The MT, in this case, stands for Monotype, the source of the font. The first
approximation of a fix is to copy the font file from the old PC to the new
and install it.

Let us know.

Tom
MSMVP 1998-2007

 

[Character]

"Debi Ubernosky"

Been working to track down a problem with symbols not displaying
properly in an engineer's Word document, from one computer to another.students. The original version received on his old computer displays
the characters properly.Then we got him a new computer, and SOME of the symbols are no longer
displaying properly.

Have check to see that all fonts are the same on both computers.
(They are)
Have checked Regional and Language Settings. (Same)
Have checked Tools / Options / Compatability / Font Substitutions -
trying to change the substition for the symbol font "SymbolMT" gives
the error "Can't replace DBCS with SBCS font"
I have Googled this phrase and find several discussions about it,
but no solution.

Someone else posted a similar problem (also with no solution) here:

http://help.wugnet.com/office/DBCS-SBCS-font-issue-ftopict1017789.html

I suspect that the root of the problem lies in the differences between
the Microsoft supplied font, Symbol, and the Monotype version,
SymbolMT. They are NOT interchangeable.

I don't have SymbolMT, but a comparison of the Arial font supplied
with Vista and the ArialMT shows that the Vista version of Arial,
named Arial but with a Postscript name of ArialMT is more
comprehensive, and may be a double-byte font, whereas ArialMT, named
ArialMT in all of its names, is a simpler font and may have problems:
See http://forum.tufat.com/archive/index.php/t-15301.html

It's not clear from your question exactly what the environments are
that work/don't work. What are the operating systems on each, and
what are the exact fonts that are installed including the version
number - that can be seen by double-clicking on the fonts in question
in explorer or in control panel/fonts. If you change the explore view
to "details" you can also the file sizes, which may also be of some
help in determining a solution.

Also, what is the fontname that's being called for in the Word
document - visible on the toolbar when you highlight the text?

- Character

 

[Debi Ubernosky]

Both PCs are running Windows XP Professional, fully patched.
Both are running Microsoft Office 2003, fully patched.
I've copied all of the fonts from the old computer, to the new computer.

The only difference I know of right off is the hardware is much newer, and
thus, the chipset is different.

Or else somehow the full character set is not present, which you suggested.
I'm going to look into this a little further, but someone else is working on
one of the computers today, and I am out tomorrow, so it will have to be next
week.

I'm going to ask the grad student who wrote the paper if he has SymbolMT on
his computer.

If I just copy it from one computer and paste it into C:\Windows\Fonts,
doesn't that install it? It acts like it does.

Thanks so much for your help.

Debi

 

[Character]

Both PCs are running Windows XP Professional, fully patched.
Both are running Microsoft Office 2003, fully patched.
I've copied all of the fonts from the old computer, to the new computer.

ALL of the fonts? How? And from where to where? Fonts that were
already there won't accept being replaced, so the two sets of
installed fonts may in fact be different. Can you do a complete
file-by-file folder comparison?

The only difference I know of right off is the hardware is much newer, and
thus, the chipset is different.

Do the two computers have the same video chipset and driver?
(Admittedly a long shot given your specific symptoms, but nothing's
impossible)

Or else somehow the full character set is not present, which you suggested.

I'm going to look into this a little further, but someone else is working on
one of the computers today, and I am out tomorrow, so it will have to be next
week.

I'm going to ask the grad student who wrote the paper if he has SymbolMT on
his computer.

If you can, ask him to double-click on the file in C:\windows\fonts
and record the file size and version number, too. Then you can compare
it with the font files on your old and new computers.

If I just copy it from one computer and paste it into C:\Windows\Fonts,
doesn't that install it? It acts like it does.

Yes it does. It's unlikely, but possible, that you have two different
fonts installed that have a name conflict.

 

[Tom Ferguson]

Placing the font file in the fonts directory should install the font. It
should then be available in applications for use. There are some older
applications that had to be shut down and restarted so that the font was
listed in their font menus. I don't think there are any now.

The symptom you describe, wrong characters displaying, indicates a font
substitution problem. For some reason, the font specified does not contain
the expected glyphs at the designated code points or the font that is being
substituted does not.

Once it is established that the originally used fonts are on the system now
used for rendering, and once it is confirmed that the problem is cured or
still exists, then we can investigate causes/cures.

For example, if the fonts are present, we can attempt to get a valid mapping
by saving the file to a pre-Unicode-use Word file format using a different
file name and then re=opening it. That can cause a new conversion to Unicode
and a correct result.

Let us know what is seen when you have verified the presence of the fonts on
the present system that were used to create the document.

Tom
MSMVP 1998-2007

 

[Debi Ubernosky]

PROBLEM SOLVED!

I finally got the Systems Analysis from the department next door to look at
the problem. He tested it by copying and pasting just a short line of the
problematic characters from the Word doc to an Excel doc. They showed up
properly in the Excel doc! So he posed that somewhere in the headers/code of
the Word doc, it got corrupted. We copied and pasted the entire document
full of equations, then closed Word, said YES to "save the info on the
clipboard" then reopened Word, and pasted the entire document into a new
document. Walah! Problem solved!

Thanks to everyone for trying to solve this for me. Y'all were amazing in
your responses, and I so appreciate this forum being available.

 

[Tom Ferguson]

I'm glad you found a solution. What was done was a way of causing a
re-encoding that did not occur to me.

Tom
MSMVP 1998-2007