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Q160022: WD97: Symbol Characters Change to Box Characters

Article: Q160022
Product(s): Word 97 for Windows
Version(s): 
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbdta kbdtacode kbwordvba word97
Last Modified: 13-MAY-2002

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Word 97 for Windows 
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For a Microsoft Word 2002 version of this article, see Q290978.

SYMPTOMS
========

When you format text with a symbol font, such as Wingdings, and then change to a
non-symbol font such as Times New Roman, the text is replaced with box
characters.

CAUSE
=====

Word displays the box characters after it translates the symbol font to its
Unicode equivalent.

This problem occurs when you do the following:

1. Format text using a symbol font, such as Wingdings.

2. Select the text from Step 1 and apply a non-symbol font, such as Times New
  Roman.

WORKAROUND
==========

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty
either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied
warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. This
article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language being
demonstrated and the tools used to create and debug procedures. Microsoft
support professionals can help explain the functionality of a particular
procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added
functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific needs. If you have
limited programming experience, you may want to contact a Microsoft Certified
Partner or the Microsoft fee-based consulting line at (800) 936-5200. For more
information about Microsoft Certified Partners, please visit the following
Microsoft Web site:

  http://www.microsoft.com/partner/referral/

For more information about the support options that are available and about how
to contact Microsoft, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

  http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;CNTACTMS

The following Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications macro converts the symbol
characters to non-symbol characters:

NOTE: Select the square characters before you run the following macro.

  Sub ConvertSymbol()
     Dim dlg As Object
     Dim NoFC As Integer
     Dim SCP As Integer
     Dim StartRange As Range
     Dim UniCodeNum As Integer
     ' Temporarily disable Screen Updating
     Application.ScreenUpdating = False
     ' Temporarily disable Smart Cut & Paste
     If Options.SmartCutPaste = True Then
        SCP = 1
        Options.SmartCutPaste = False
     End If
     ' Temporarily display field text
     If ActiveWindow.View.ShowFieldCodes = False Then
        NoFC = 1
        ActiveWindow.View.ShowFieldCodes = True
     End If
     ' Set StartRange variable to current selection's range
     Set StartRange = Selection.Range
     Selection.Collapse
     ' Select first, then each next character in user-defined selection
     Selection.MoveRight unit:=wdCharacter, Extend:=wdExtend
     While Selection.End <= StartRange.End And _
     ActiveDocument.Content.End > Selection.End
       ' If the character is a space, then move to next character
       Set dlg = Dialogs(wdDialogInsertSymbol)
       UniCodeNum = dlg.charnum
       If UniCodeNum = 32 Then
         Selection.Collapse
         Selection.MoveRight unit:=wdCharacter, Extend:=wdMove
         Selection.MoveRight unit:=wdCharacter, Extend:=wdExtend
       End If
       ' Loop, converting symbol Unicode characters to ASCII characters
       Set dlg = Dialogs(wdDialogInsertSymbol)
       UniCodeNum = dlg.charnum
       While UniCodeNum < 0 And Selection.End <= StartRange.End _
       And ActiveDocument.Content.End > Selection.End
          Selection.Delete
          Selection.InsertAfter (ChrW(UniCodeNum + 4096))
          Selection.Collapse (wdCollapseEnd)
          Selection.MoveRight unit:=wdCharacter, Extend:=wdExtend
          Set dlg = Dialogs(wdDialogInsertSymbol)
          UniCodeNum = dlg.charnum
       Wend
       Selection.Collapse (wdCollapseEnd)
       Selection.MoveRight unit:=wdCharacter, Extend:=wdExtend
     Wend
     ' Reset Word document settings
     If SCP = 1 Then Options.SmartCutPaste = True
     If NoFC = 1 Then ActiveWindow.View.ShowFieldCodes = False
        Selection.Collapse (wdCollapseStart)
        Selection.MoveLeft unit:=wdCharacter
        Application.ScreenUpdating = True
  End Sub

MORE INFORMATION
================

The following table lists common symbol and non-symbol fonts.

  Symbol Fonts                             Non-Symbol Fonts
  ---------------------------------------------------------
  Bookshelf Symbol 3                       Arial
  Marlett                                  Book Antiqua
  Monotype Sorts                           Bookman Old Style
  MS Outlook                               Century Schoolbook
  MT Extra                                 Courier New
  Symbol                                   Garamond
  Wingdings                                Times New Roman

Unicode
-------

Unicode is a 16-bit character set designed to cover all the world's major living
languages, in addition to scientific symbols and dead languages that are the
subject of scholarly interest. It eliminates the complexity of multi-byte
character sets that are currently used on UNIX and Windows to support Asian
languages. A consortium of companies including Apple, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard
(HP), Digital, and IBM created Unicode. These companies used information from
the ISO-10646 standard to produce a single standard in 1993. Unicode is the
basis for the Windows NT operating system.

Unicode is a 16-bit character set where all characters occupy the same space. The
first 256 values are the same as the ISO-Latin character set, which is also the
basis for the ANSI character set used in Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. However,
Unicode defines 34,168 distinct coded characters. In most character sets, a
single value is often assigned to several characters. For example, in ASCII a
"-" is used to represent a hyphen, a minus sign, a dash, and a non-breaking
hyphen. In Unicode, each meaning is given its own code; that is, a hyphen is
represented by a character different from a minus sign, and so forth. The
Unicode standard contains only one instance of each character and assigns it a
unique name and code value. It also supports "combining" accent characters,
which follow the base character that they are to modify.

For more information about Unicode, visit the Unicode Web site at:

  http://www.unicode.org/ (http://www.unicode.org/)

Additional query words: square boxed garbage incorrect font symbols change changed changing boxes wd97

======================================================================
Keywords          : kbdta kbdtacode kbwordvba word97 
Technology        : kbWordSearch kbWord97 kbWord97Search kbZNotKeyword2
Version           : :
Issue type        : kbprb
Solution Type     : kbpending

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