Office 2007 Bullets Showing as Asian Characters in Win 7 only

[Norwood]

I have a user with a PP presentation that shows Asian characters for the bullets. I changed them using the Bullets and Numbering menu.

However, we kept two copies of the PP presentation (this is a default company profile PP template)...and when the presentation is viewed under XP the Asian characters appear as normal bullets...but under Windows 7x64 they remain Asian.

Has anyone seen this before? Is there something we may have done in the original template that is making it different under each OS?

 

[GEWB]

Time to become a detective! Likely you have a combination of conditions that result as you posted.

First, look at the templates, both Word and PP, to see what character set is used for the bullet style in question.

Next, check all workstations to see if they have the character set installed (you can bet they don't).

If not installed, check to see what set is used to substituted for the missing character set.

My guess is you will find the problem this way.

Regards,
GEWB

 

[Norwood]

I'm assuming this is where I would find what character set is being designated for bullets:

Format > Highlight Text > Right Click > Bullets > Bullets And Numbering > Customize and then see what is listed in the drop down for "Font".

Under Win7 it says "(normal text)".

Down at the bottom of this window it says "BULLET" Character Code 2022 from "Unicode (hex)".

I need to ensure that all workstations have that set in the same fashion?

That's an awful lot of sneakernetting!

 

[GEWB]

Good work, Watson...Unicode is the prime suspect. If a workstation doesn't have Unicode loaded then another set, code 2022, is used.

Regards,
GEWB

 

[Norwood]

So the Win7 machines need tweaking, or the XP machines?

 

[GEWB]

So the Win7 machines need tweaking, or the XP machines?

OK, found this nugget on the Microsoft Office site - it may be a clue but I'm not sure:

Insert ASCII or Unicode Latin-based symbols and characters - OneNote - Office.com

"Important Some of the Microsoft Office programs, such as PowerPoint and InfoPath, cannot convert Unicode codes to characters. If you need a Unicode character and are using one of the programs that doesn't support Unicode characters, use the Character Map to enter the character(s) that you need."

Make life simple - fix the templates by using ASCII for the bullet.

Regards,
GEWB

 

[Norwood]

Ok, the issue goes a little deeper.

This PP presentation is shared between numerous people throughout the company. So, when I go to "Joe" and change it to ASCII on his Windows 7 machine, he sends it to "Sally" in California using XP and she makes some changes to the document (remember she doesn't see the Asian characters).

Sally then sends it back to Joe and the Asian characters are back. Or perhaps she sends it to "John" in Dallas, before sending it back to Joe, and even more changes are made before it sees Joe again. Asian characters again.

I hope I made that clear.

 

[GEWB]

PM sent.

Regards,
GEWB