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Article ID: 163813 - Last Review: January 19, 2007 - Revision: 2.3

Square boxes in Central European, Russian, or Greek document in Word 97

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Important This article contains information about how to modify the registry. Make sure to back up the registry before you modify it. Make sure that you know how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up, restore, and modify the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
256986  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/256986/ ) Description of the Microsoft Windows registry

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SYMPTOMS

If you open a Microsoft Word document that was created using a Central European, Russian, or Greek version of Microsoft Word, the text of the document may appear as square boxes when you open the document in the U.S. version of Word 97.

In rare cases, this problem may also occur opening documents created in the U.S. version of Microsoft Word.
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CAUSE

Many fonts available in the Central European, Russian, and Greek markets have incorrect character set information. In these fonts, the character set parameter is mistakenly set to 0, incorrectly indicating a Western font.

When the U.S. version of Word 97 opens the document, it converts it to Unicode based on the character set parameter. Since this parameter is incorrect, the conversion process is incorrect.
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RESOLUTION

To correct this problem, install Microsoft Word 97 for Windows Service Release 1 (SR- 1). This version of Word has been modified to correctly handle fonts that are known to have problems.

For more information about how to obtain Service Release 1 (SR-1), click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
172475  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/172475/ ) How to obtain and install MS Office 97 SR-1
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WORKAROUND

If you are unable to update to SR-1, use the following workaround.

Warning Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own risk.
To work around this problem, modify the Windows Registry to specify the correct font and code page Word needs to map the foreign language character set. To do this, follow these steps:
  1. Quit Word.
  2. On the Windows Start menu, click Run.
  3. In the Open box, type RegEdit and then click OK.
  4. Click to select the following key in the Windows Registry:
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Font Mapping
    This key determines which font and code page Word substitutes for a missing font. If the font that exhibits the problem is not on your system, Word substitutes the font specified by this key.
  5. If a font mapping does not already exist for the font that exhibits the problem, create a new mapping. (If a font mapping already exists for this font, skip to step 6.)

    On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click String Value. Type the name of the original font that is contained in the document, and then press ENTER.
  6. Click to select the original font name from step 5. On the Edit menu, click Modify, and type the name of the font you want Word to use, followed by a comma and the appropriate code page number from the following table. Use the OEM Primary code page for Windows fonts and the Macintosh code page for Macintosh fonts.
   Code page            Macintosh     Windows
   ------------------------------------------

   Greek                10006         737
   Russian              10007         866
   Central European     10029         852
For example, the following Edit String entry maps Systemny, a Macintosh font, to the Cyrillic portion of Arial.
Value Name: Systemny
Value Data: Arial,10007
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Reopening the document in Word 6.0 or 7.0

If you need to open the document again in Word 6.0 or 7.0, map the fonts correctly back to the original font. To do this, follow these steps:
  1. Open the document in Word 6.0 or 7.0.
  2. On the Tools menu, click Options.
  3. Click to select the Compatibility tab.
  4. Click Font Substitution, and then select the desired fonts for those that are not available. Click OK.
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STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section. This problem was corrected in Microsoft Word 97 for Windows, Service Release 1 (SR-1).
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MORE INFORMATION

The following is a list of all known fonts that incorrectly set the character set parameter to 0. Microsoft Word 97 for Windows, Service Release 1 will perform a font substitution when opening a document containing one of these fonts and substitute the indicated font.

The list of fonts is stored in the following registry location: 
   [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Font Mapping]

   "Tms Rmn"="Times Roman"
   "Times"="Times Roman"
   "Times Roman"="Times New Roman"
   "Times New Roman"="Times"
   "Helv"="Helvetica"
   "Helvetica"="Arial"
   "Arial"="Helvetica"
   "Courier"="Courier New"
   "Courier New"="Courier"
   "Helvetica Narrow"="Arial Narrow"
   "Arial Narrow"="Helvetica-Narrow"
   "Helvetica-Narrow"="Helvetica Narrow"
   "Bookman"="Bookman Old Style"
   "Bookman Old Style"="Bookman"
   "AvantGarde"="Avant Garde"
   "Avant Garde"="Century Gothic"
   "Century Gothic"="AvantGarde"
   "Palatino"="Book Antiqua"
   "Book Antiqua"="Palatino"
   "NewCenturySchlbk"="New Century Schlbk"
   "New Century Schlbk"="Century Schoolbook"
   "Century Schoolbook"="NewCenturySchlbk"
   "ZapfDingbats"="Zapf Dingbats"
   "Zapf Dingbats"="Monotype Sorts"
   "Monotype Sorts"="ZapfDingbats"
   "ZapfChancery"="Zapf Chancery"
   "Zapf Chancery"="Monotype Corsiva"
   "Monotype Corsiva"="ZapfChancery"
   "Garamond MT"="Garamond"
   "Geneva"="Arial"
   "Monaco"="Courier New"
   "Chicago"="Arial"
   "New York"="Times New Roman"
   "London"="Old English Text MT"
   "Los Angeles"="Onyx"
   "Elite"="Roman 12cpi"
   "EliteD"="Roman 6cpi"
   "NLQ"="Roman 10cpi"
   "Pica"="Roman 10cpi"
   "PicaD"="Roman 5cpi"
   "PS"="Roman PS"
   "PSD"="Roman PX"
   "Roman 12cpi"="Courier 12cpi"
   "Courier 12cpi"="Roman 12cpi"
   "Roman 6cpi"="Courier 6cpi"
   "Courier 6cpi"="Roman 6cpi"
   "Roman 10cpi"="Courier 10cpi"
   "Courier 10cpi"="Roman 10cpi"
   "Roman 5cpi"="Courier 5cpi"
   "Courier 5cpi"="Roman 5cpi"
   "Roman PS"="Courier PS"
   "Courier PS"="Roman PS"
   "NLQDblHigh"="NLQII 10cpi"
   "PSNLQ"="Courier PS"
   "Letter Gothic"="Courier New"
   "CGTimes_Scale"="CG Times"
   "CG Times"="CG Times (W1)"
   "CG Times (W1)"="Times New Roman"
   "Univers_Scale"="Univers"
   "Univers"="Univers (W1)"
   "Univers (W1)"="Arial"
   "CourierPC"="MS LineDraw"
   "Gothic"="Century Gothic"
   "MT Symbol"="Symbol"
   "MS LineDraw"="Courier New,437"
   "Kafisma"="Arial,866"
   "linedraw"="Courier New,437"
Earlier versions of Word did not support Unicode. Unicode is a character set that supports most alphabets (languages) in the world. Before Unicode, a character set could support only 256 characters, so a different character set was needed for each alphabet. Word 97, which supports Unicode, maps characters from the old character set to the Unicode character set.

To do a correct mapping, Word 97 must map the text to the proper character set. For example, character number 200 represents both a capital E (with a grave accent) in the Western European character set, and a capital I in the Cyrillic character set. To map each of these characters correctly to the Unicode character set, Word must map character number 200 to either the Western European range or the Cyrillic range within the Unicode character set. Word 97 has added extra functionality that allows character mapping to be made to a specific Unicode range in a font. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
141306  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/141306/ ) How to enable support for multiple languages in Windows
159418  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/159418/ ) Characters appear as square boxes in printed document in Word 97
159471  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/159471/ ) How to install the Far East support files to use in Word 97
99884  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/99884/ ) Unicode and Microsoft Windows NT
For information about technical support for international versions of Microsoft products, please contact the Microsoft subsidiary in the appropriate country.

To locate your subsidiary, please see the Microsoft World Wide Offices Web page at the following Web address:
http://www.microsoft.com/worldwide (http://www.microsoft.com/worldwide)
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APPLIES TO
  • Microsoft Word 97 Standard Edition
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Keywords: 
kbbug kbfaq kbfix kbinterop kbualink97 KB163813
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Retired KB ArticleRetired KB Content Disclaimer
This article was written about products for which Microsoft no longer offers support. Therefore, this article is offered "as is" and will no longer be updated.
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