Fonts Behaving Badly

[revdlc]

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

Word 2008, unlike 2004, does something very odd with numbers, specifically numbers that I've typed as times.

I type 11:15 and it says 11:15 (!), but after I save and close the file, when I reopen it, instead of 11:15, it looks as though the letters RCEIS have been closely stacked on top of one another, each one slightly to the right.

I type 8:45, and after I save and close the file, when I reopen it, in looks as though the letters CHNCL are closely stacked on top of one another.

By this way, this was using a font called "Caesar." When I changed to Paramount, it looked more like CHPS stacked up. When I changed to Prestige Elite, it changed back to 8:45 (and even when it looks like stacked letters, if I copy the text and paste it in this note, it turns back to 8:45.) It stayed 8:45 through several other fonts, but even if I leave it in one of those fonts (like Prestige Elite) as 8:45, again when I save and close and open it back up, it's back to the stacked letters. What on earth could be causing this?

 

[John McGhie]

Sounds like you might be using some old non-Unicode fonts there?

I don't have those fonts to test: but you may need to update those fonts to
their Unicode versions.

All "letters" are just "numbers" to a computer. In the old days, we would
set a font name and a character number in the document for each letter. In
the old days, font designers could pretty much suit themselves as to which
characters they placed where in the code table.

Now, an application stores simply a number. If the font in use does not
have the expected character at that position, you get these peculiar
transposition effects

Hope this helps

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

Word 2008, unlike 2004, does something very odd with numbers, specifically
numbers that I've typed as times.

I type 11:15 and it says 11:15 (!), but after I save and close the file, when
I reopen it, instead of 11:15, it looks as though the letters RCEIS have been
closely stacked on top of one another, each one slightly to the right.

I type 8:45, and after I save and close the file, when I reopen it, in looks
as though the letters CHNCL are closely stacked on top of one another.

By this way, this was using a font called "Caesar." When I changed to
Paramount, it looked more like CHPS stacked up. When I changed to Prestige
Elite, it changed back to 8:45 (and even when it looks like stacked letters,
if I copy the text and paste it in this note, it turns back to 8:45.) It
stayed 8:45 through several other fonts, but even if I leave it in one of
those fonts (like Prestige Elite) as 8:45, again when I save and close and
open it back up, it's back to the stacked letters. What on earth could be
causing this?

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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]