Problem with § character

[Graham H]

We have as issue with the German section character § in our PowerPoint
templates (we are using Office 2003)

When it is inserted, the font for that character changes to another font
(usually "MS PGothic"). I have tried it with different PowerPoint templates,
plus blank PowerPoint templates and the issue still occurs, but not with all
fonts.

Steps to reproduce:
1: create new blank presentation
2: change font to Times New Roman
3: type some text (in Times new roman)
4: Insert the § character (ALT + 245 on teh numeric keypad)
5: you will see the character is inserted in anotehr font (Arial when I do
this test)

Does anyone know what this may be caused by? The character definitely
exists in the font set.

Could it be an issue with the underlying template(s), and if so, what could
the issue be?

Strangely, in Word (2003) the character is inserted properly, so we think it
is either a PowerPoint issue or a template issue.

 

[Graham H]

Thanks for this - we definitely tried ALT+245 and that works (in the office),
but on my home PC, that gives me ⌡, whereas ALT+0167 gives me §

On a German keyboard (I believe) this character exists as a key, so no ALT+
numeric keypad required.

Are there built in fonts to a PowerPoint template (like Word), ones that you
can add/remove via an organizer? I suspect it may be an underlying template
issue. In our office environment, we create the new template from a .POT
(if I remember rightly) and the fonts we use should be in there.

 

[Graham H]

If if try and Replace Fonts I see "?" to teh left of teh font - I suspect it
has not been installed in the template properly? How can we rectify this?
(It seems to work ok in some other templates of ours, just not a couple of
recent ones - we must have done something...)

 

[Graham H]

Sorry Steve, we are using 2003 still - will try the below anyway.

 

[Graham H]

I have done some more analysis / investigation. I have an older template
which seems to work fine, allowing this and other characters to be inserted
without issue (via ALT+numeric keypad) - this is with either Times New Roman
or a Frutiger font (which we use regularly). Then on the same PC, this new
template (both are .POT files) adding the character or some other high value
(around the Alt+0167 mark, although not all of them exhibit this anomaly)
inserts it in a "MS PGothic" font.

IF, however, you select some text from somewhere else that contains this
character, and paste it in to the .POT, retaining the copied object's format,
the character is pasted in correctly.

I have also tried replacing the font in question (in the dodgy .POT) with a
Fruitger font that we know is installed and works on other presentations,
adding in the § character in the Frutiger font also inserts it as MS PGothic.
All very odd indeed. It leads me to believe that this .POT has something (a
property?) set that my usual blank template does not (or visa versa).

Is there a tool to compare 2 PowerPoint .POT files, to highlight differences?

 

[Graham H]

I have tried a workaround to save the presentation as a web page, reviewed
the fonts in the slides etc (Wingdings 3 was in there for some reason), but I
cannot find any reference to MS PGothic - then saved it back as a .POT - if I
could remove this font entirely from the presentation I think my problems
will be resolved, but there seems to be no option to do this, just replace it
with another double byte font...

 

[Graham H]

Many thanks Steve - will give this a go (I had only gone through the exported
slide0000.htm files previously, but will look further afield now).

I also found that if I create the presentation from scratch the problem
disappears - I will try the above, but have also instrcuted the design team
to rebuild the template again - should only take them a day or two at most.

I'll let you know if we have any further issues.