Symbol "font" - not Unicode compliant, how to Search/Replace?

D

da9ve

The Symbol "font" available through the Insert Symbol dialog is not Unicode
compliant (for example, the ® [Registered] glyph in Symbol comes from codes
x00D2 OR x00E2 (or their decmial equivalents; two different versions of it!),
instead of the proper Unicode x00AE).

I need a way to 'scrub' all such characters in the Symbol font from text in
Word, so that when the text is later flown into a different application and
converted to a proper Unicode-compliant font, the glyphs aren't replaced by
different ones. I tried this:

1. Insert symbols using Symbol "font" from the Symbol dialog. (Word 2007)
2. Attempt to Search on that condition (font = Symbol) - but Word does not
seem to be able to Search/Replace based on that Symbol font!
3. When I select those characters entered as Symbol font in the document,
the font Word tells me they are in is whatever font the rest of the text
around them was in - Times New Roman or whatever.
4. When I select those individual characters that were inserted as Symbol
font symbols and attempt to Alt+X toggle their codepoint, they don't toggle.
This, even though the Symbol dialog shows me the codepoint while I'm doing
the insertion.

So:
a) what's the purpose of the Symbol dialog telling me that it's using Symbol
"font" if it's not really a font on the same standing as the rest of 'em?

b) Is there a way to find those characters that were inserted as a Symbol
"font" character after the fact?

And, I already know that the whole problem goes away if you use a proper
Unicode font (Arial Unicode MS or another) in the first place. That's clear,
and the root cause will be dealt with via training in my organization. The
problem is, we have hundreds of regulated documents already in process that
may have been created the wrong way around (using the Symbol font), and while
it seems that Word should be transparent enough that it would be possible to
easily find those problem characters based on some common Symbol "font"
attribute, it just doesn't seem to work.
 
J

Jay Freedman

Word's way of hiding the "true" font of symbols inserted through the Insert
Symbol dialog is a historical leftover that has caused untold heartburn for
two decades.

The convoluted method for finding and replacing them is given at
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/FindReplaceSymbols.htm.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
D

da9ve

Word's way of hiding the "true" font of symbols inserted through the Insert
Symbol dialog is a historical leftover that has caused untold heartburn for
two decades.

The convoluted method for finding and replacing them is given at
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/FindReplaceSymbols.htm.

Ay yi yi! I knew it wasn't just me. This link does provide some helpful
ideas, even if there isn't a simple, straightforward answer that I could push
out to all our users. Thanks!

da9ve
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Top