symbol characters

[Harterman]

I am a new convert from the PC. However, I have noticed that Word v.X
does not seem to have as many symbol characters to insert into
documents as the PC versions. For example, recently I wanted to
insert an "e" with a dash over it--a phonetic long "e" for Greek
transliteration. I can do this on the PC but apparently when I
"insert symbol" on the mac, this character is not an option.
Moreover, if I open a document created on the PC, the Mac does not
recognized this character.

Does anyone know how to add symbol characters to the mac? I suppose I
could install a phonetic font, but that would make it more difficult
than it should be, and I would want a font that can go back and forth
between mac and pc.

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word]]

Hi Harterman:

This is a problem caused by the lack of full Unicode support in Word X.

There is no "good" cure for it, other than to wait for and install Word 2004
for the Mac. That will be your cheapest option.

Buying cross-platform fonts is very expensive, and Word X for Mac can't use
them properly because it does not support the full Unicode character set.

Sorry

This responds to microsoft.public.mac.office.word on 16 Jan 2004 05:29:23
-0800, (e-mail address removed) (Harterman):

 

[HCornelsen]

Have you checked the Mac Character Palette?

To enable the OS X Character Pallette, go to System Preferences >>
International >> Input Menu. Put a check next to Character Pallette.

Now a new menu appears to the right of the HELP menu in all
applications. Click it, click Character Pallet, and a box pops up. In the
dropdown menu at the top of that box, choose "View All." Now you've
got several ways to find all the characters available on the Mac,
including many that are not shown in Word's Insert Symbol provision.

(Instructions for OS 10.2 Jaguar. These things may be a little different
with 10.3 Panther.)

Hope this helps.

--HC

 

[Sam Elowitch]

I find that for OpenType extended characters (like fractions), this seems to
work for TextEdit but not for Word. Why? Is it a Cocoa issue?

-Sam

 

[John McGhie [MVP Office Systems -- Word]]

No, it's a "Carbon" issue TextEdit is a Cocoa application and Cocoa has
full Unicode support. Carbon is the poor relation and it doesn't. Word X
is a Carbon application...

I find that for OpenType extended characters (like fractions), this seems to
work for TextEdit but not for Word. Why? Is it a Cocoa issue?

-Sam

--

Please respond only to the newsgroup to preserve the thread.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. GMT + 10 Hrs
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]