Default Bullet of Microsoft Word changed to Up Arrow (Upward Arrow

[ADTC]

One fine day, I opened Microsoft Word 2007 and started creating a document. I
clicked on the Bullets button on the ribbon to start creating a bulleted
list. To my surprise, the default bullets are now "up arrows!"

Now I know I can change this back to the original dots by going to Bullet
and Numbering dialog box and selecting. But the default bullet that Word uses
remains the upward arrow. If I open a new document and start creating a
bulleted list, it uses an upward arrow now!

And if I open an old document, or a document I downloaded from somewhere,
which I know should have the default dots for bulleted lists, they too show
up as upward arrows.

If I create a document in another computer, it shows the black dots as
bullets. But when I open the same document in my computer, they are shown as
upward arrows. If I modify the document a bit (by adding some text), save it
and take it back to the other computer, on that computer they show up as the
expected black dots. In my computer they show up as upward arrows.

Here's a webpage of someone else complaining of the same problem:
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Microsoft-Word-1058/bullet-default-changed.htm

I tried deleting normal.dot, repairing Microsoft Office installation, and
everything I could think of. The problem remains.

I searched everywhere, and I can't find a solution to this HIGHLY ANNOYING
problem!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Have you clicked Reset on every position in the Bullets gallery? FWIW, the
Bullets button always uses the most recently selected bullet. If you use
Ctrl+Shift+L to change the style to List Bullet, you will get the bullet you
have defined for that style.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[ADTC]

Yes, I clicked the Reset button for every one of the boxes. In fact, when I
click the reset button for the second box (the first box is None), it
actually resets to the upward arrow!

The Bullets button always uses the most recently selected bullet within the
same document (am I not right?). When I open a new document and start
bullets, it reverts to the default bullet, which in my case happens to be the
upward arrow.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

My understanding is that the Bullets button always uses the most recently
used bullet, period. But then I wouldn't know because I always use bulleted
styles defined as I require. If you're seeing an arrow as the default
bullet, then there is something awry. Perhaps it would help to nuke the
ListGalleryPresets key in the Registry?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[ADTC]

Where is this ListGalleryPresets you are talking about? I searched the whole
registry for it, and couldn't find it.

In my Word 2007, bullets button uses the most recently used bullet only
within the same document. There is no document-to-document carry over of
this. You can try it. Create two new documents. Create a bullet list in one,
using a different symbol. Create a bullet list in the second one, you will
see the symbol not carried over. Create a third new document and make a
bullet list here. Also you will find that Word reverts to the default bullet
(black dot)...

But in my computer, this default bullet is not a black dot, but an upward
arrow! That's the problem that seems so incurable.

Btw, I tried Office Diagnostics and the Repair option of the Office Setup. I
also tried SFC (Windows Vista), and checked my Fonts folder for any problem.
Nothing seems amiss. The failing Repair option means that even if I uninstall
Office and reinstall it, the problem would most likely still remain.

Just for record, I also tried disabling all Add-ins for Microsoft Word. It
didn't help either.

 

[Terry Farrell]

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\List Gallery Presets

 

[ADTC]

Apparently there is no "11.0" under
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office. There is a "12.0", an "8.0" and
a "Word". I'm also aware that Office 2007 is version 12.0. Anyway I searched
the whole place and even the entire registry for "List Gallery Presets" (even
with the spaces) but there is nothing.

I think the underlying problem is a bug very deeply rooted inside Office
2007 SP2 (or Word 2007 SP2). You might want to ask the programming team
(software development team) to look into this matter. Unfortunately I don't
know how to reproduce this problem but I know I'm not the only one having it
(See link in first post).

 

[Stefan Blom]

If you are using Word 2007, exit the application and then delete the
ListGal.dat file in your user profile.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Apparently there is no "11.0" under
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office. There is a "12.0", an "8.0"
and
a "Word". I'm also aware that Office 2007 is version 12.0. Anyway I
searched
the whole place and even the entire registry for "List Gallery Presets"
(even
with the spaces) but there is nothing.

I think the underlying problem is a bug very deeply rooted inside Office
2007 SP2 (or Word 2007 SP2). You might want to ask the programming team
(software development team) to look into this matter. Unfortunately I
don't
know how to reproduce this problem but I know I'm not the only one having
it
(See link in first post).

 

[ADTC]

Tried it. Doesn't work. The default bullet still remains an upward arrow.

 

[Terry Farrell]

Sorry. I gave you the info for the wrong version. My error.

Terry

Apparently there is no "11.0" under
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office. There is a "12.0", an "8.0"
and
a "Word". I'm also aware that Office 2007 is version 12.0. Anyway I
searched
the whole place and even the entire registry for "List Gallery Presets"
(even
with the spaces) but there is nothing.

I think the underlying problem is a bug very deeply rooted inside Office
2007 SP2 (or Word 2007 SP2). You might want to ask the programming team
(software development team) to look into this matter. Unfortunately I
don't
know how to reproduce this problem but I know I'm not the only one having
it
(See link in first post).

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Perhaps you have the wrong font defined for bullets. The default bullet is
from the Symbol font, character 183; the same character in Wingdings 3 is an
upward arrow.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

Tried it. Doesn't work. The default bullet still remains an upward arrow.

 

[ADTC]

PROBLEM SOLVED!!!! I knew it's something related to fonts, but I couldn't
figure out whether a font is missing. Apparently nothing told me that my
Symbol font is completely missing! Neither SFC nor Office setup restored this
missing font!

Thanks to you Suzanne, and thanks to my friend Lewis who gave me his copy of
the font, I finally solved the problem of upward arrow! I also checked the
Symbol and Wingdings 3 fonts using Character Map, and true enough, the same
character code is shared by a bullet and an upward arrow!

After installing Symbol font, I opened Microsoft Word 2007 and tested the
bullets. Problem Solved! The bullets are real bullets (black dots) now, and
no longer those annoying up arrows.

Oh, I also recall that some Powerpoint presentations were showing the wrong
symbols as well. This problem also must be due to missing Symbol font, and
must be solved now. Let's see the next time I open my university lecture
notes.

Thank you Suzanne!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I started to ask whether Symbol was missing but couldn't convince myself
that Word would substitute Wingdings 3 for it. I'm glad you found the source
of the problem.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[ADTC]

Hahaha... Apparently it did! Perhaps the dev team should add checking for
missing fonts as one of the items in Office Diagnostics. Thank you once again.
I blogged about it:
http://thehunk.blogspot.com/2009/09/default-bullet-of-word-changed-to-up-or.html

Regards. - Arun
(PS: Reply not necessary.)