Cannot get Wingdings to display properly

[JanetMermaid]

I am a novelist and my new editor wants my manuscripts in Word format. I imported my Mac Pages documents into OpenOffice after downloading the Word template for book formats. Almost everything is fine with one big exception. In Pages, I had set a Wingdings2 character to appear on either side of my page numbers. I also used a string of Wingdings2 characters to indicate scene breaks within chapters. I use a lower case e and f set to Wingdings2 font for this purpose. But in OO, all I'm getting are the e and f. I tried highlighting the characters and re-setting them to Wingdings2, but nothing changed. I'm on deadline with my editor so would appreciate any help.

[Zizi64]

It seems like a "missing Font" problem.
The Windows related Fonts are not part of the Apache OpenOffice or LibreOffice. Do not use Windows related commercial Fonts on an another operating system. (Or you can buy them and then you will able to install them onto your operating system.)


Please upload your ODF type sample file here.

[JanetMermaid]

Wingdings2 is installed in the Mac's FontBook. I can see it in the installed fonts list. I created a new Pages document and tested -- the font works fine there. Is there someplace I need to install or specify the font so that OO will see it? Doesn't OO on a Mac use the fonts in the FontBook?

[floris v]

First, welcome to the forum.
Please note that such formatting details shouldn't worry you or your editor while you are writing your book. You are the only person in the entire world who can write your book. Anyone with decent training can edit it and prepare it for publication. This is a technical issue that can be solved by your editor or publisher. You can use any character combination to mark a scene or subject change. Focus on the writing, tell your editor you have trouble with that scene end marker and what symbol you want to use there, and (s)he should be able to fix it, maybe using another font.

[floris v]

Your wingdings2 font may be a font type that AOO doesn't support.

[JanetMermaid]

It is an OpenType TrueType font. Does OO not support TrueType?

[floris v]

Older versions didn't support OpenType, I'm not sure if 4.1.2 does. But if you are in a hurry, don't worry about this. How are you going to get this published? If the final formatting is done with other software, you're wasting your time worrying over this.

[JanetMermaid]

Amazon requires uploaded books be in PDF for print-on-demand purchases and as mobi for Kindle. Both formats must be created from clean, accurately formatted doc or Pages files. Your "ignore it" responses are not helpful.

[floris v]

That is important information that you should have given in your first post. I've worked for publishers in the past, and I learned that many writers worry about things that they should not worry about.
You have to keep in mind that OpenOffice was not intended as a clone of MS Word. The two are not 100 % compatible, and if you included some advanced formatting features like headers and footers, it's likely that conversion problems will occur. Anyway, what will your editor do with the manuscript? If he works with MS Office, he can fix your problem quite easily.

[JanetMermaid]

I pay my editor to do line editing and copy editing. I hate to waste his time fixing a font problem. I did reinstall the font, just in case. I can see it in the fonts pull-down in OO, and I can select it, but no changes occur. My editor will not be the one creating the final PDF. I will, so I need to figure this out.

Also, to clarify and provide additional information -- my other custom-installed fonts (Book Antiqua, Alien Encounter) both work fine.

[floris v]

Then pay somebody else to fix it for you. Anyone who k own his business can solve this in a few seconds. I bet you wasted more money trying to figure this out yourself than you would have to pay your editor to do it for you.

[JanetMermaid]

Anyone else out there have a reply other than "ignore it" or just plain snark? Anyone?

[Bill]

The first responder asked for a sample file to be uploaded. Please do so. Guessing about these types of problems can go on for days if no one can duplicate the problem.

Does the problem appear if you use OpenOffice to create a file instead of Pages? Webdings2 characters are fine here using AOO 4.1.4 on Windows 10.

[JanetMermaid]

OK, I've attached one page from the novel. In the middle of the page is an efefef, which is supposed to be a set of curlicues to mark a section break. There's also an e and f on the left and right, respectively, of the page number. Those are also supposed to be curlicues. The rest of the text is Book Antiqua, except for mention of the wording on a sign -- the wording is in Courier.

[Bill]

The Wingdings2 characters appear normally in the sample document using AOO 4.1.2 or 4.1.4 on Windows 10, so it looks like there's a display problem on your Mac that doesn't affect the document itself. If your PDF export shows the Wingdings2 characters properly, then ignoring the display problem sounds reasonable if another user doesn't have a solution. Since I'm not a Mac user, the only other thing I could suggest is trying LibreOffice.

[JanetMermaid]

Thank you! I tried printing to PDF and that failed -- font was still bad. But when I exported to PDF it worked.

[MrProgrammer]

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

In the middle of the page is an efefef, which is supposed to be a set of curlicues to mark a section break.

Your BornRichSamplePage.doc displays correctly on my Mac, OpenOffice 3.2.0 on Mac OS X 10.9.5.

See [Tutorial] Mac FAQ Q32/A32. You could see if the problem affects the Guest User Q28/A28.

Although you aren't asking about bullets, you should note Q26/A26 for the future, also a font-related issue.

I am a novelist and my new editor wants my manuscripts in Word format.

In that situation, using Writer is not ideal. [Tutorial] Differences between Writer and MS Word files

If this solved your problem please go to your first post use the Edit button and add [Solved] to the start of the title. You can select the green checkmark icon at the same time.

[JanetMermaid]

Interesting. I have newer versions of both OO and Mac OS than you. I did read the thread about bullets, but it didn't really apply, or didn't seem to.

[Zizi64]

JanetMermaid,

your sample file uses Windings 2 Font but not the Windings Font. My Windows 7 contains the Windings Font only, but not contain the Windings2 one. (I never installed MSOffice). The existing "Windings" font and your "Windings 2" font are not same and not compatible.

Here is a website, thant gives you some informations about the problems of the usage the Windings 2 font - independently from the AOO/LO office suites.
http://www.alanwood.net/demos/wingdings-2.html

Wingdings 2 font should not be used in Web pages. Specifying Wingdings 2 font is contrary to the published specifications, has never been a documented feature of HTML and is not reliable.
This page is not a demonstration of how to use Wingdings 2 font; it provides a warning of the problems that it causes, and shows how to use Unicode instead. Wingdings 2 is not available on all computers, and so the intended characters may not appear on computers running non-Microsoft operating systems such as Mac OS 9, Mac OS X 10 or Linux. The same problems are found with the Webdings, Wingdings and Wingdings 3 fonts – they should not be used in Web pages.

[RoryOF]

You say your Editor wants the file in .doc format; be aware that the formatting of OO .doc output does not always transfer correctly to MS Word .doc format, so if at this stage the transfer is merely for editing, let any problems pass. Once a file is finalised the best option is to use /File /Export as PDF, using option PDF/A-1a selected on the General tab of the Export dialog.

[John_Ha]

Remember that the font displayed in the document's Font selection box is the font the document is calling for at the cursor position. This may not be the font being used to display or print the document because, if you do not have the font being called for installed on your PC, Windows (or other operating system) will silently substitute an alternative, available font without telling you. This will almost certainly cause different line spills and page spills.

The Testfonts add-on is invaluable to check which fonts are being called for in a document, and which are missing and have therefore been substituted. Note that some fonts do not have a font file for, say, Italic; and in that case, when Italic is called for, Windows itself applies a slant to the font to simulate Italic.

TestFonts shows missing fonts on my PC

MacOS seems to have several different places where font files are stored.

You can check which font is being used to display text by highlighting the text and Format > Character > Font ...

See [Tutorial] Differences between Writer and MS Word files for why you should always work in and save files as .odt.