Knowledge Base

Works: Extended Characters Don't Match After Font Change

Article ID: 149714

Article Last Modified on 11/24/2003


APPLIES TO


This article was previously published under Q149714

SYMPTOMS

When you use extended characters in a document (for example, characters used in some European alphabets), these characters may change to the wrong characters when you select them and then change the font.

CAUSE

This is caused when the script selection for the current font is not supported by the new font. This happens even if you are using Windows 95 multilanguage keyboard layout support.

WORKAROUND

Since this is caused by the specific font you are trying to use, the only remedy is to use a different font. Select a new font that offers the same script that you are using in the original font. To check the available scripts for each font, do the following:

  1. Click the Start button, point to Programs, point to Accessories, and then click WordPad.
  2. On the Format menu, click Font.
  3. Check the Scripts available for the fonts you want to use.

MORE INFORMATION

This problem is actually a font limitation that produces varying results depending on the fonts you are using. The problem lies in the ASCII code pages for international character sets. These ASCII code pages are part of the Unicode.

The Unicode Standard is a world-wide 16-bit character encoding system. It is a fixed-width, uniform text and character encoding scheme that includes characters from the world's scripts, as well as technical symbols in common use. It is maintained by the Unicode Consortium and corresponds to international standard ISO/IEC 10646-1:1993.

The following example illustrates the problem.

After you have added multilanguage support to Windows 95, switch your default keyboard layout to Swedish (Sv), and then do the following:

  1. Click the Start button, point to Programs, point to Accessories, and then click WordPad.
  2. On the Format menu, click Font.
  3. Change the font to Signet Roundhand ATT.

    NOTE: The Script box in the lower right corner displays Central European, and if you click the arrow to the right of it, it is the only option available in the drop-down list.
  4. Change the Font Size to 20 (to make it easier to view in the next steps), and then click OK.
  5. Press and hold down the ALT key on your keyboard and type 0229 (on the numeric keypad) (ALT+0229). The character that appears in your document should be a lower-case letter "L" with a small accent (hyphen) above it.
  6. Select the extended character. On the Format Menu, click Font.
  7. Change the Font to Wide Latin.

    NOTE: The Script box in the lower right corner displays Western. If you click the arrow to the right, the only choice in the drop-down list is Western (there is no option for Central European).
  8. Click OK to return to the document.
Notice the character is now displayed as a lower-case letter "A" with a small circle above it.

Additional query words: w_works accent symbol foreign language 2.00 2.00a 3.00 3.00a 4.00

Keywords: kbinterop kbenv kbprb KB149714