[UniMacTech] Symbols in Word on Mac and PC

[Allan Gadsby]

Good point Dave, although if I’d bought an MS trailer for my Ford and an MS
trailer for my Holden, I’d be hopeful that I could tow either trailer with
either car and still have all the lights working properly....:).


On 13/03/09 10:24 AM, "Dave Sole" <david.sole at infotech.monash.edu.au> wrote:

> Peter surely you're not taking away the fun of blaming Microsoft for this ?
> 
> 
> 
> Peter Stagg wrote:
>>>> >> Hi folks
>>>> >> We have a user writing grant applications in both Word 2007 on a PC and
>>>> Word
>>>> >> 2007 on a MacBook but some of the symbols are disappearing when
>>>> switching
>>>> >> from on the other. If she uses the Greek Ï’, for example, in Word 2008
>>>> then
>>>> >> opens in Word 2007, the symbol is replaced with a box, and the same
>>>> happens
>>>> >> the other way, and for some other symbols, too. I have found a few
>>>> threads
>>>> >> on Google, but no real solutions, apart from using LaTex or PDF. The
>>>> grant
>>>> >> has to be submitted as a Word doc, apparently.
>>>> >> Has anyone found a way around this?
>>>> >> Thanks
>>>> >> Al 
>>>  > Response from user-:
>>> > Al
>>> > I have done it in two ways.  The first was via “insert ->symbol” which
>>> was
>>> > how I had always done it.  These did a disappearing trick in the PC-Mac
>>> > exchanges. When I put them back in on the Mac by this process, they seemed
>>> > to be fine and had been writing away merrily when right before my eyes, I
>>> > saw word go through automatically and take them all out – quite odd.
>>>  Then I
>>> > went onto the word help for inserting symbols and it suggested using the
>>> > objects palette and select symbols.  This I diligently did, but when I
>>> open
>>> > on or send to a PC, these disappear too.  I thought Office had gotten over
>>> > compatibility problems.
>>> > Thanks
>>> > Jennelle 
>>  
>>  Ok this is a font problem - the square box indicated the selected font does
>> not have or is missing (never had to begin with - is corrupted and lost) the
>> glyph inserted which isn't as bad a seeing a question mark take the place of
>> the character you really want (this is trouble).
>>  
>>  The solution is make sure you use a *Unicode* font that is installed on both
>> systems. Arial Unicode MS (not plane Arial) and Lucida Sans Unicode, form
>> memory, are the two most complete Unicode fonts. There should be little or no
>> difference between these fonts on the two platforms if they are from the same
>> era (same release of office for Mac/PC). Make sure you don't inset characters
>> from Non-Unicode/Symbols fonts (the old 256 character, TrueType, fonts) for
>> example **Symbol**.
>>  
>>  For complete compatibility you can down-load a font like Douolus SIL from
>> http://tinyurl.com/6ashzy <http://tinyurl.com/6ashzy> for both systems. This
>> font looks a lot like Times New Roman and contains all symbols required for
>> the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and then some (not sure how
>> complete its coverage of Greek Letters is but I'd be surprised if it didn't
>> have all the glyphs you need).
>>  
>>  Remember also that fonts are a resource separate from the document. If you
>> need to send the doc electronically its best to embed the fonts used in the
>> document (look in the options panels) you can usually choose between
>> embedding only the symbols you've used or the entire font. The first is
>> preferable as Unicode fonts can be huge and the size of your document will
>> blow out completely.
>>  
>>  -- 
>> Regards,
>>  
>> Peter Stagg
>> Faculty Webmaster
>> Arts Information Technology
>> University AUC Representative <http://www.auc.edu.au/
>> <http://www.auc.edu.au/> >
>>  
>> Faculty of Arts
>> Monash University, VIC 3800, Australia
>> Building 11, Clayton Campus, Wellington Road, Clayton
>> Telephone +61 3 9905 1221 Facsimile +61 3  9905 5117
>> Mobile 0407 865 159
>> Email peter.stagg at arts.monash.edu.au
>>  http://www.arts.monash.edu.au <http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/>
>> 
>> 
>> 
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> 
> 
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