some font characters appear as boxes

[fulfilled magazine]

Recently some of the font characters in Publisher 2003 have been replaced by
small boxes. Different characters are affected in different fonts, e.g., in
Times New Roman small-case "f"s are replaced, as well as italicized "!" and
symbols such as "&" and "+"

In Arial, "w" is replaced as is capital "J" - and the list goes on.

It doesn't matter whether the text originates in Publisher or Word, or if I
"Edit the Story in Word." I've reloaded both Publisher and Word, to no avail.
If I "Edit Story in Word" all looks as it should while in Word, but when I
"Close & Return" the boxes are still there.

Any suggestions?

 

[Mary Sauer]

Windows is responsible for fonts. That said, maybe a font folder repair may
help. Download TweakUI, it has a font folder repair utility.
Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

Might look at this scenario
Windows uses the Wingdings or Webdings font as its default display font when you
install updates with antivirus software running on a Windows XP-based computer
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919752/en-us

 

[Ed Bennett]

Recently some of the font characters in Publisher 2003 have been replaced by
small boxes. Different characters are affected in different fonts, e.g., in
Times New Roman small-case "f"s are replaced, as well as italicized "!" and
symbols such as "&" and "+"

Go to Tools > Commercial Print Tools > Fonts and turn off subsetting.

 

[fulfilled magazine]

I deselected font subsetting, but it didn't make any difference. The problem
seems to be isolated to one Publisher file. If I start a new file, all of the
fonts are fine. Unfortunately, in publishing my magazine I save the current
issue under a new name and modify for the next issue. Now it appears I will
have to start over from scratch.

 

[Ed Bennett]

I deselected font subsetting, but it didn't make any difference. The problem
seems to be isolated to one Publisher file. If I start a new file, all of the
fonts are fine. Unfortunately, in publishing my magazine I save the current
issue under a new name and modify for the next issue. Now it appears I will
have to start over from scratch.

Try disabling font embedding altogether. Sometimes you have to disable
then re-enable to remove the subset fonts from the publication.

The problem is that you have subset fonts in the publication - where
only the characters that were in use at the time of the embedding were
included. Publisher uses these rather than the installed fonts, and when
a characcter can't be found, it uses the Unknown Character symbol, the
rectangle.