Weird symbols in document

[ScottL]

Greetings, Someone sent me a document they created in Word on Windows.
The document looks fine in his version of Word. However, when I open
it in Word for Mac 2004 it has weird looking symbols at the start of a
lot of sentences and other places in the text. Is there some sort of
conversion issue or does anyone have any idea what the problem is?
Thanks, Scott

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Are you using File|Open to open the document? It sounds like you may have
Recover Text From Any File set in the Open dialog. Try just
double-clicking.

From Word 97 to Word 2004, it's all the same file format, Mac and Win.

Alternatively, weird symbols could be a font issue. Do they correspond to
apostrophes or anything regular like that?

 

[ScottL]

No, I'm not using file open. I think I've found the issue, but don't
know what the solution may be. The lawyer who sent me the document
used a template created in Word Perfect (didn't know anyone still used
it), then he converted it to Word for Windows. I double clicked on
some of the weird symbols and it identified the symbols as WP
TypographicSymbols. So, now I know the issue, but what I don't know is
what the actual symbols are supposed to represent. Any thoughts on
what to do now? Thanks.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Yes, that topic comes up on WinWord groups occasionally. Here's a search:

Search this group
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.word.docmanagement

For "WP Typographic" for more information. I think the lawyer who sent it
may have to fix it, if you can't tell what the symbols are supposed to be.
Perhaps send him a link to one of the most relevant threads?

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

These are "characters" inserted as packaged symbols. They are in a WP-only
font, and that's your problem. If you can't guess what they are, you will
have to ask the person who sent it to send you a PDF...

Cheers

No, I'm not using file open. I think I've found the issue, but don't
know what the solution may be. The lawyer who sent me the document
used a template created in Word Perfect (didn't know anyone still used
it), then he converted it to Word for Windows. I double clicked on
some of the weird symbols and it identified the symbols as WP
TypographicSymbols. So, now I know the issue, but what I don't know is
what the actual symbols are supposed to represent. Any thoughts on
what to do now? Thanks.

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[Klaus Linke]

Edward Mendelson has pulled together a lot of info on converting WP files to
Word. Maybe you can find something there:
http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/wptoword.html

Regards,
Klaus