Comment ballon text shows musical notes onimport to Word 2003 (Win)

[davekeyboardo]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: intel

Does anyone have any idea on what is causing this problem and what can be done to fix? (From my testing, it looks like a bug):

- Create a simple doc on Word 2003 on Windows (could be 1 paragraph).
- Open the doc in Word 2008 for Mac. Set Track Changes on (if off). Do some editing.
- Open doc in Word 2003 on XP, and balloon text headings for changes show musical notes instead of author name (a real pain for collaborative mark-ups with everyone else I work with).

This problem appears as if the font used for ballon headings on the Mac is not compatible (i.e. same type) as on Windows so symbol characters are substituted. But you can't change the default type used for the balloons by Word 2008 on the Mac, so I'm stuck here.

Also, in checking compatibility, I have 2003 on Windows set to "Windows 2003" in Options. On the Mac, I have the options set for "2000-2004 and X," yet the report throws an error and says that I'm set for compato with Word 60/95. I can't get rid of this, and have set Prefs correctly (defaults, also resetting the compato check engine prefs). This may not be related, but not sure... Any ideas?

 

[John McGhie]

Hmmm... You CAN change the font of the Balloon "TEXT", but you are correct,
you cannot change the font of the balloon "Headings".

There is a style named Balloon Text that you can update to change the font
of the text.

That said, they work OK here. The name used is in Word>Preferences>User
Information. You do HAVE a name entered there?

If so, I suggest that you use Help>Sent Feedback to enter a bug to
Microsoft. To make sure they track this one. Be very specific with the
versions of your Mac, OS, Updates, and Software. Without very specific
version information, they may not replicate the bug and thus will not fix
it.

The second problem is just a bug. It's a warning that you are using the old
file format so some of the new features of Word 2008 will be down-converted
if you close the document.

The error message should really say "You are saving in the old format that
can't contain the new graphics -- do you want to continue? If you do,
affected graphics will be converted to the old format and become read-only."

Cheers

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: intel

Does anyone have any idea on what is causing this problem and what can be done
to fix? (From my testing, it looks like a bug):

- Create a simple doc on Word 2003 on Windows (could be 1 paragraph).
- Open the doc in Word 2008 for Mac. Set Track Changes on (if off). Do some
editing.
- Open doc in Word 2003 on XP, and balloon text headings for changes show
musical notes instead of author name (a real pain for collaborative mark-ups
with everyone else I work with).

This problem appears as if the font used for ballon headings on the Mac is not
compatible (i.e. same type) as on Windows so symbol characters are
substituted. But you can't change the default type used for the balloons by
Word 2008 on the Mac, so I'm stuck here.

Also, in checking compatibility, I have 2003 on Windows set to "Windows 2003"
in Options. On the Mac, I have the options set for "2000-2004 and X," yet the
report throws an error and says that I'm set for compato with Word 60/95. I
can't get rid of this, and have set Prefs correctly (defaults, also resetting
the compato check engine prefs). This may not be related, but not sure... Any
ideas?

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[davekeyboardo]

Hi John,
Thanks for help. Sorry, my writing was just a bit unclear (saving room in the subject area). As I said further into the write-up, it is the balloon *headings* (with my name in them) only that are garbled. (And, yes, I do have a name there... ;-)

So I'll report that problem to MS. I will also just try changing the text via Styles and see if that fixes the problem (it may change the heading as well...)

- Dave

 

[davekeyboardo]

It turns out that this problem can be solved by changing your Balloon Text Style (and you can do this for all docs by using choosing to add it to your Template). Word 2008 for Mac uses Lucida Grande as the font for Balloon Text, and that font isn't installed on most Windows machines, which caused my problem in the first place. Switching to a common font like Tahoma solved the problem...

 

[John McGhie]

Thanks I looked at that last night very closely, but I could not detect
that changing the font in the Balloon Text style affected the headings.

Of course, on this Mac, Lucida Grande IS installed in Word 2007

Cheers

It turns out that this problem can be solved by changing your Balloon Text
Style (and you can do this for all docs by using choosing to add it to your
Template). Word 2008 for Mac uses Lucida Grande as the font for Balloon Text,
and that font isn't installed on most Windows machines, which caused my
problem in the first place. Switching to a common font like Tahoma solved the
problem...

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Yeah, I didn't find that it did either. I change the balloons all the
time, and have never noticed the headings changing. But I wonder whether
changing something else could affect the font that gets substituted.

By the way, since this is a point of common confusion:
Balloon Text controls the font of the prefix (Comment:, Deleted:, etc),
and the font size of the entire thing.
Comment Text controls the font of the text of the comment you type.

If something controls the headings, it's a mystery to me. Lucida Grande
does seem like a silly choice.