Word-Garbled Font

[bozo]

I have run across a strange problem with a 07 Word document. A portion of the doc, I made the font "Symbol", which is not readable (a weak encryption if you will) , to email...telling the reciever of the mail to change the font so he could read it. I tested doing the font change locally before I sent it, & it worked fine.

The reciever told me that when he tried to change the font it would come out garbled like this

 actually this is not an acurate "cut & paste" either...what I pasted here is a string of squares

I thought it was due to emailing it, but when I opened my saved local copy, I had the same problem...no matter which font I chose, it came back in some kind of garbled font, and I cannot read it.

The first part of the doc...that I did not change to Symbol, I can still, freely change the font back & forth, including changing it to Symbol, and back to any other font. I also C&P the Symbol font portion into a new doc, and could not change the font correctly either.

Any ideas?

[EzyStvy]

Select a font that is readable

[bozo]

Wish it were that simple...I have tried every font in the selection window.

For what it's worth, as I scroll down thru the font selection window, the "Squares" does change in size, but still comes as some variable of squares-rectangles. I can always highlight the garbled squares, & change them back to Symbol

I just noticed this happening...if I click in the area where the Symbol font is, it shows Symbol font, but if I highlight the entire Symbol font area, the name of the font goes blank.

[pam123]

Here's Microsoft on troubleshooting Word 2007 font problems : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918791

[bozo]

That knowledge base is more for printing...I did not see anything that pertains to my problem

[EzyStvy]

In short - I think you destroyed the doc - aka you converted the alphabet to non readable characters.

Do you not have access to the "portion of the doc" part of the doc in some other form or are you just trying to figure this out for the learning experience.

[bozo]

EzyStvy...I agree the doc is probably distroyed now. I do not have the data in another file...which is why I'm trying to recover.

As I said before, I can still go to another part of the doc that was not in the Symbol font, change it to Symbol, and then change it back to another font OK

I think that something went corrupt, which is why I can't change the font back...I just thought someone might have run across this before.

[pam123]

Originally Posted by bozo That knowledge base is more for printing...I did not see anything that pertains to my problem

My error.
Have you run system file checker ?

It will attempt to repair the corrupt files.

1. Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and select Run as Administrator. 2. Click Continue or supply Administrator credentials if prompted. 3. In the Command Prompt window type the following, and press Enter: sfc /scannow 4. You should see the following on-screen messages: Beginning the system scan. This process will take some time. Beginning verification phase of system scan. Verification % complete. 5. Once the scan has completed you will receive an onscreen message resembling one of the following: …found no integrity violations …found corruption but repaired it …found corruption that it could not repair 6. Please reply with the completion message that you received.

[bozo]

Darn...another dead end...when I tried to run system file checker, it ask for the Windows XP SP2 CD. I put in my Windows XP (it is not SP2), it says I'm inserting the wrong disk. I don't have a SP2 disk, since I DL'd the 2 service packs.

[glc]

You need to slipstream the service packs into your CD and burn a new one. You should also be on SP3.

http://www.winsupersite.com/xp/sp3_slipstream.asp

Try applying SP3 and all post-SP3 updates to your existing installation first. Also make sure you have all updates for Office.

[bozo]

I thought about doing the slipstream as a solution to run sfc scan, but it's not worth it to resolve this issue. I'm aborting trying to recover this, as it is NOT anything critical (letter to a GF LOL)...I appreciate your reply, as well as Pams, & Ezy.

I haven't installed SP3, because I'm running out od disk space. Do you think SP3 is that important?

[glc]

Yes it is. Hard drives are cheap, time to upgrade. That could be a cause of your corruption problems right there - a full disk.