Symbols in Equation Editor do not work

[Charles Pairaudeau]

Whenever I use Equation Editor, the =, + and - symbols
appear correctly when I type, but when I close the
Equation Editor box they are covered by strange black
symbols, circles and other shapes. It also happens with
symbols like alpha and beta. Sometimes symbols in normal
text i.e. not in Equation Editor, do not show themselves
correctly either, although =, + and - do. Equation Editor
works fine in WordPad though. A friend said it may be due
to my printer, which I am having problems with, as it may
be unable to print the symbols and so they do not show up
properly on screen. However, I uninstalled the printer and
the problem has not gone away. PLEASE can anyone help?

On an unrelated (probably?) note, my Word has a small
faint "half open square" made up of two short lines with
the point of the half square nearest to the text, in each
corner of every page above/below and to the left/right of
all the text. This could be due to my printer as well,
although the lines do not appear on printouts as far as I
am aware.

 

[Guest]

No idea mate.

 

[Charles Pairaudeau]

I should have added that the problem may also be due to my
video graphics card or something like that, after doing
some investigating. Can anyone expand on this?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Then why did you bother to answer?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The so-called "crop marks" at the margin corners are a result of having
support for an Asian language installed. You can get rid of them by going to
Start | Programs | Microsoft Office Tools | Microsoft Office <version>
Language Settings and disabling this support.

As for the problems with symbols, make sure that you have the required fonts
installed. In particular, you need to have a TrueType version of Symbol
installed even if you also have the PostScript Symbol font. As you have
figured out, the printer driver is a likely cause of such problems, too, but
you do need to have some printer driver (other than Generic-Text Only)
installed and selected as the default in order for Word to work properly.
For FAQs about Equation Editor and help with such problems, try
www.dessci.com, the Web site of Design Science, which provides EE to
Microsoft.

 

[Charles Pairaudeau]

Thanks for your help Suzanne.

I've solved the crop marks problem, but do you think you
could explain in more detail how to check if I "have a
TrueType version of Symbol installed even if you also have
the PostScript Symbol font." I'm going to buy a new
printer as well because my present one is not working
properly - once I've installed it, if the problem is due
to the printer, will it go away?

Charles

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If you're having problems with a printer (or, more specifically, with a
printer driver), then you can expect to see all kinds of problems in Word.
Because Word depends so heavily on the printer driver for formatting
information (in order to make the view as WYSIWYG as possible), a damaged
printer driver can cause a hang or error in any dialog that involves
printing: Font, Paragraph, Style, Page Setup, Symbol, Print, etc.

I won't argue that you don't need a new printer, but, before you make that
investment, have you checked to see if there is an updated driver for your
current printer available from the manufacturer's Web site?