WD2002: Symbol Characters Are Changed to Box Characters

Symptoms

In Microsoft Word, when you format text with a symbol font such as Wingdings, and then change to a non-symbol font such as Times New Roman, the text is replaced with box characters.

Cause

Word displays the box characters after it translates the symbol font to its Unicode equivalent. Therefore, this behavior occurs if the following steps are performed in the given order:

1. The text is formatted with a symbol font, such as Wingdings.

2. The file is saved.

3. The text is reformatted with a non-symbol font, such as Times New Roman.

Workaround

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290140 OFFXP: How to Run Sample Code from Knowledge Base Articles
The following Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macro converts the symbol characters to non-symbol characters.


NOTE: Before you run this macro, select the box characters.

Sub ConvertSymbol()

   Dim dlg As Object
   Dim NoFC As Integer
   Dim SCP As Integer
   Dim StartRange As Range
   Dim UniCodeNum As Integer

   ' Temporarily disable Screen Updating
   Application.ScreenUpdating = False

   ' Temporarily disable Smart Cut & Paste
   If Options.SmartCutPaste = True Then
      SCP = 1
      Options.SmartCutPaste = False
   End If

   ' Temporarily display field text
   If ActiveWindow.View.ShowFieldCodes = False Then
      NoFC = 1
      ActiveWindow.View.ShowFieldCodes = True
   End If

   ' Set StartRange variable to current selection's range
   Set StartRange = Selection.Range
   Selection.Collapse

   ' Select first, then each next character in user-defined selection
   Selection.MoveRight unit:=wdCharacter, Extend:=wdExtend
   While Selection.End <= StartRange.End And _
      ActiveDocument.Content.End > Selection.End

      ' If the character is a space, then move to next character
      Set dlg = Dialogs(wdDialogInsertSymbol)
      UniCodeNum = dlg.charnum

      If UniCodeNum = 32 Then
         Selection.Collapse
         Selection.MoveRight unit:=wdCharacter, Extend:=wdMove
         Selection.MoveRight unit:=wdCharacter, Extend:=wdExtend
      End If

      ' Loop, converting symbol Unicode characters to ASCII characters
      Set dlg = Dialogs(wdDialogInsertSymbol)
      UniCodeNum = dlg.charnum

      While UniCodeNum < 0 And Selection.End <= StartRange.End _
         And ActiveDocument.Content.End > Selection.End
            Selection.Delete
            Selection.InsertAfter (ChrW(UniCodeNum + 4096))
            Selection.Collapse (wdCollapseEnd)
            Selection.MoveRight unit:=wdCharacter, Extend:=wdExtend
            Set dlg = Dialogs(wdDialogInsertSymbol)
            UniCodeNum = dlg.charnum
      Wend

      Selection.Collapse (wdCollapseEnd)
      Selection.MoveRight unit:=wdCharacter, Extend:=wdExtend
   Wend

   ' Reset Word document settings
   If SCP = 1 Then Options.SmartCutPaste = True
   If NoFC = 1 Then ActiveWindow.View.ShowFieldCodes = False
      Selection.Collapse (wdCollapseStart)
      Selection.MoveLeft unit:=wdCharacter
      Application.ScreenUpdating = True

End Sub

NOTE: After you run the macro and the text is converted to non-symbol characters, you may need to format the text to the correct font.

More Information

The following table lists common symbol and non-symbol fonts: