Symbols with rectangle boxes in 11.1.0

[linnyr]

has microsoft been able to fix the problem with text not showing up
using insert->symbols...or are we still using the character palette to
insert symbols? is there another workaround so the symbols will show
up? Thanks!

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I think you are an update behind, Word is now at 11.1.1

Perhaps you could explain which problem you are referring to? It doesn't
sound familiar as you mention it.

 

[linnyr]

i think you are right...anyway, i'm referring to:

http://groups-beta.google.com/group...02c70144c47?q=symbols&rnum=6#d658f02c70144c47

 

[Tim Murray]

I think you are an update behind, Word is now at 11.1.1

Are you sure? The March 11.1.1 update did update Excel and PowerPoint and
some other stuff, but not Word. Is there an update I'm not seeing?

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I think you are an update behind, Word is now at 11.1.1

Are you sure? The March 11.1.1 update did update Excel and PowerPoint and
some other stuff, but not Word. Is there an update I'm not seeing?

No, that was my mistake. I checked after and I just see 11.1 in the About
box as well, which is annoyingly vague, though the download page for the
11.1.1 does say "applies to Word" as well.

I don't know whether the use of 11.1.0 by the original poster means "the
last update I installed was 11.1.0" or "I checked to get the version number
in Entourage and assumed it would be the same".

Daiya

 

[linnyr]

It means that when i checked the version of Microsoft Word, it said
11.1 so i'll make it more clear...Version 11.1 (040910)...i updated to
the latest version 11.1.1 so i assume it's 11.1.1.

Anyway, this is not the point. is there a better work around in the
latest version of word for inserting symbols into the document? when
you do it currently, it displays a small rectangular box.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

It only does it for certain symbols in certain fonts, in my tests, and yes,
the workaround is to use the OS X Character Palette. The character palette
inserts the Unicode coding, so you can be sure your symbols should transfer
to any file format and platform.

The link you gave said the explanation of what is going on was in a
TakeControl e-book, specifically this one:
http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/word-2.html

You can spend $5 on it, or eventually I might get around to absorbing the
info it contains well enough to be able to share it with others, but that's
not real high on my to-do list, and the other Unicode/font experts who drop
in occasionally don't seem to be around just now. It's worth the $5. You
probably still won't be able to use Insert Symbol for everything, but you'll
know why not. And very vague memory suggests the book does offer ways to
speed up the Character Palette.

DM

 

[Tim Murray]

It only does it for certain symbols in certain fonts, in my tests, and yes,
the workaround is to use the OS X Character Palette. The character palette
inserts the Unicode coding, so you can be sure your symbols should transfer
to any file format and platform.

But is that true if the file is later sent to a machine with an older
non-Unicode-aware Word or a machine with a non-Unicode version of the font?

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

It only does it for certain symbols in certain fonts, in my tests, and yes,

But is that true if the file is later sent to a machine with an older
non-Unicode-aware Word or a machine with a non-Unicode version of the font?

Probably not. Do you know, Tim? I should have been more emphatic that I'm
really not very good at Unicode/font understanding. Where's Andreas Prilop
when you need him?

I think WinWord has been Unicode for far longer than the Mac, so I think
that set of recipients would be fine. Don't know what happens if you send a
document with Unicode-encoding to say, Word 2001 in Classic, which is not
Unicode-savvy. Problems, I suppose. Except weren't Windows users sending
documents to Mac users during the OS 9 years? How'd that work out?

I think they did attempt to make the Insert | Symbol panel in Word 2004 use
the Unicode encoding as well, because it shows that information, so using
that isn't necessarily going to produce something that Word 2001 could
handle either.

linnyr, if you know how this works, since it is clearly something you
actually deal with on a regular basis, please share.

A guess on the original question--another workaround might be to mess with
the fonts. Not all fonts in Insert | Symbol produce square boxes. You might
find a font that also has the symbols you need and works properly. Once you
find it, create some AutoCorrect or AutoText entries.

Daiya

 

[Tim Murray]

Probably not. Do you know, Tim? I should have been more emphatic that I'm
really not very good at Unicode/font understanding. Where's Andreas Prilop
when you need him?

I've been luck in that oddly enough the recipients of my docs never seem to
have a problem with special symbols.

I think WinWord has been Unicode for far longer than the Mac, so I think
that set of recipients would be fine. Don't know what happens if you send a
document with Unicode-encoding to say, Word 2001 in Classic, which is not
Unicode-savvy. Problems, I suppose. Except weren't Windows users sending
documents to Mac users during the OS 9 years? How'd that work out?

As the Mac recipient of Windows-made files for years, I don't recall many
problems there, either. I'm not saying that I *never* had a mapping problem,
but if I did, it was very quickly remedied.

 

[linnyr]

i think i figured it out...there were duplicate copies of the symbols
font (for example) installed on my computer. to fix it, i opened up
Font Book, and by the symbols font, there was a little dot beside it.
from there, i chose the font, and went to Edit -> Resolve Duplicates
and it fixed it. here's an apple link to tell more. NO MORE ANNOYING
RECTANGLES!!!

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=FontBook/2.0/en/fb1799.html