Bullets show as boxes, not dots

[jhatley]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: intel

I just upgraded from Office 2004 to 2008, and I'm having trouble with the bullets in Word.

Basically, every bullet shows as a large, hollow box rather than a dot, even though the default bullet in the Formatting Pane and in the Bullets & Number box show it as the default dot.

Is my Symbol font corrupted?

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: intel

I just upgraded from Office 2004 to 2008, and I'm having trouble with the
bullets in Word.

Basically, every bullet shows as a large, hollow box rather than a dot, even
though the default bullet in the Formatting Pane and in the Bullets & Number
box show it as the default dot.

Is my Symbol font corrupted?

More likely your font cache. Does shutting down and restarting the
machine (which forces the cache to be rebuilt) help?

 

[jhatley]

Thanks for the quick reply. no - I've restarted multiple times in the last week since the issue started. Strangely enough, I had this same problem when I first bought my Mac last year and had Office 2004. Unfortunately, I don't remember what I did to fix it!

 

[Clive Huggan]

I don't have Word 2008 so don't know where the following is located in the
new interface (or even whether it's different from earlier versions). But in
Word 2004 you can specify the type of bullets by choosing Format menu =>
Bullets and numbering => Bulleted => click on, say, the second example =>
Customize, then make your choices there.

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is 5-11 hours different from the Americas and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
====================================================

 

[John McGhie]

There's two causes for this:

One is that the bullet is in "Symbol" font and your copy of Symbol font has
either gotten lost, or is so old it doesn't contain the character.

The other is that you have defined the bullet to "be" a hollow square.

The cure for either, as Clive suggests, is to re-define your bullets format
to have a valid character as the bullet.

There are two ways to apply bullets: by styles, or directly. Which way are
you using? Tell me that, and if you need me to I can tell you how to go
about fixing it.

Cheers

Thanks for the quick reply. no - I've restarted multiple times in the last
week since the issue started. Strangely enough, I had this same problem when I
first bought my Mac last year and had Office 2004. Unfortunately, I don't
remember what I did to fix it!

--

Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Nhulunbuy, NT, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[jhatley]

I have tried that. I have defined it through "Bullets and Numbering" in the Format drop down. I click on the bullets beside the "None" option, and even when I choose "Customize" it shows the available bullets all as default, but inserts a hollow box.

The funny thing is, if I exit that and go to Insert > Symbol, no matter what symbol I choose, they all go in as open boxes.

I have not applied bullets by styles (to answer that question).

 

[John McGhie]

Yep: That's diagnostic. Your Symbol font is bad or missing. Replace it
with one from either the Apple or Microsoft CDs and you'll be fine.

Better search for every instance of Symbol font on your machine and delete
them first. It's possible that you have several, but the one that is
"active" is bad.

And after making your changes, it pays to reboot the system, to force a
rebuild of the various font caches.

Cheers

I have tried that. I have defined it through "Bullets and Numbering" in the
Format drop down. I click on the bullets beside the "None" option, and even
when I choose "Customize" it shows the available bullets all as default, but
inserts a hollow box.

The funny thing is, if I exit that and go to Insert > Symbol, no matter what
symbol I choose, they all go in as open boxes.

I have not applied bullets by styles (to answer that question).

--

Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Nhulunbuy, NT, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[Clive Huggan]

And you would be much better off applying a style that contained the bullets
you want, rather than directly formatting.

Clive Huggan
============

 

[jhatley]

Thanks for the help guys. Last question - how do I install the Symbol font from the Installation disc?

Are you talking about the Office disc or the OSX disc?

Is it avaialbe somewhere on the disc that I can just drag and drop, or do I need to re-run the installation?

 

[John McGhie]

I think the answer is "Either disk will do you, and it's in the Fonts folder
on either. Drag it to your Fonts folder from there."

Sorry, I don't have either disk here to check at the moment.

Thanks for the help guys. Last question - how do I install the Symbol font
from the Installation disc?

Are you talking about the Office disc or the OSX disc?

Is it avaialbe somewhere on the disc that I can just drag and drop, or do I
need to re-run the installation?

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]