Complex script font - mysterious arabic symbol

[Simon]

Hi
I had previously created a Word2003 document using the Normal font e.g.
Arial. However, when I re-opened it recently, I saw Arabic symbol beside
some fonts under the Styles & Formatting dialog panel. I did not set my
Language to Arabic nor use special symbol setting (I think).
The same document, when viewed by a colleague using another PC, does not
have those Arabic symbol.
Could someone please advise how I can remove the symbols ?

Regards

 

[grammatim]

Are you sure that, of all the dozens of languages supported by Unicode
and available in your computer running XP or Vista, it is specifically
an "Arabic symbol"? If you recognize it as Arabic, what letter or
other mark is it?

 

[Zorrina]

Doesn't changing the fonts to Arial or Times New Roman work?

 

[MrKreider]

This EXACT same thing happened to me on the EXACT same day! Is that not
incredibly freaky! I downloaded a document from a company server, and when I
went to work on it I immediately noticed the arabic symbols in the sytles and
formatting pane. On the font dialogue screen, there are two sets of
selection areas, one entitled "latin text format" and the other "complex
script". Where I used to have the ability to choose the font color, I now
have a selection between the above scrips or "all scripts". I consulted with
those at the company and no one there sees these setting when viewing this
document - not even after I uploaded it back to their server! But I still
have the phenonmena. I am running VISTA with Office 2003. I did not do
anything to bring this in and I have done a fair amount of research trying to
get rid of it, to no avail. Last night I deleted my 'normal.doc' template,
hoping it would clear it, but that did not work either. I got out my Office
CD's and looked at the language detection since I read about that online, but
I only have English installed, so there was nothing I could delete. I only
have English installed on my keyboard settings as well. This is so
concerning, I don't know how it got here or how to get rid of it! Can anyone
help Simon and I?

 

[Tony Jollans]

You are only being shown what text would look like in Arabic (or whatever
script you are seeing) if you were to enter any such text. As you presumably
aren't so doing, there is no need to be concerned about anything.

If you really want to suppress the display you should be able to remove
support for the editing language via the Office 2007 Language settings -
apparently a popular option (Office Button > Word Options > Popular tab >
Language Settings button > Editing Languages tab)

 

[MrKreider]

I would like to suppress it, why should I have to fill out two separate font
columns for each document. If you don't do that, the font is not stable and
will flop back and forth. It is so irritating. Why would this have happened
anyway. So, your suggestion is for Office 2007 - is there any cure for
Office 2003?

 

[Tony Jollans]

You shouldn't have to do anything - if you're not using any complex scripts
you can ignore all the settings for them. If they are having an effect then
you must have some content that is set to use them.

In Word 2003, I don't think you can jump directly to the language settings
and you have to go via the Windows Start Menu > All Programs > Microsoft
Office > Microsoft Office Tools > Microsoft Office 2003 Language Settings

 

[PDR]

Hi
I had previously created a Word2003 document using the Normal font e.g.
Arial. However, when I re-opened it recently, I saw Arabic symbol beside
some fonts under the Styles & Formatting dialog panel. I did not set my
Language to Arabic nor use special symbol setting (I think).
The same document, when viewed by a colleague using another PC, does not
have those Arabic symbol.
Could someone please advise how I can remove the symbols ?

Regards

Open Word. Go to Format, then select Styles and Formatting. In the Styles and Formatting screen, look at the bottom of the page. You will see "Show" and a drop down menu. Open the drop down menu and select "Available Styles" or "All Styles". The Arabic symbol then no longer shows next to the list of styles. It is still there if you go back to the other options, but you don't have to look at it.

To see your default language setting, open Word, choose Tools and then Languages and go from there. I reset the default language to English, but that had no effect on the mysterious Arabic symbol.

 

[PDR]

Open Word. Go to Format, then select Styles and Formatting. In the Styles and Formatting screen, look at the bottom of the page. You will see "Show" and a drop down menu. Open the drop down menu and select "Available Styles" or "All Styles". The Arabic symbol then no longer shows next to the list of styles. It is still there if you go back to the other options, but you don't have to look at it.

To see your default language setting, open Word, choose Tools and then Languages and go from there. I reset the default language to English, but that had no effect on the mysterious Arabic symbol.

Also, I too noticed this symbol several months ago (six?). I thought maybe I'd picked up a bug, but nothing ever showed up on my anti-virus scans. I'm wondering now if I just accidentally changed the 'view' in the Styles and Formatting window (the 'show' area). I would also like to know if the Arabic symbol is supposed to show there (in Available Formatting and Formatting in Use). Anyone?

 

[PDR]

Open Word. Go to Format, then select Styles and Formatting. In the Styles and Formatting screen, look at the bottom of the page. You will see "Show" and a drop down menu. Open the drop down menu and select "Available Styles" or "All Styles". The Arabic symbol then no longer shows next to the list of styles. It is still there if you go back to the other options, but you don't have to look at it.

To see your default language setting, open Word, choose Tools and then Languages and go from there. I reset the default language to English, but that had no effect on the mysterious Arabic symbol.

I wanted to elaborate on my previous post (in case my meaning was not clear).

If you open Word, then bring up the Styles and Formatting task pane, you will see the task pane is divided into two sections, one labeled "formatting of selected text" and the other "pick formatting to apply".

In the 'show' bar at the bottom of the task pane, if you select "available Styles" or "all styles", the arabic symbol in the "pick formatting to apply" section disappears. The symbol is, however, still visible in the "formatting of selected text" section. You can play around with the "show" bar options to see what effect that has on the appearance (or disappearance) of the arabic symbol.

For several months now, I have periodically noticed foreign language fonts popping up in both email and word. I remember once seeing Cyrillic fonts in a word document, and I just deleted them. I believe I also saw some foreign language fonts in an email as well, but can't be absolutely certain because that was a long time ago.

Today I read through quite a few 'help' articles that came up here: Open Outlook, click on Help on the menu bar, then search using "language settings". There is a lot of useful information/ things to try.

I reset the default language as English in the operating system, which in my case is Windows XP. I also 'removed' a few languages that were enabled (Mohawk and one other, I forget which, it wasn't Arabic, that much I know). Then I restarted the computer.

When I brought up a NEW word document, opened the styles and formatting task pane, and looked, there was no arabic symbol anywhere (regardless of what option I had selected in the show bar) UNTIL I applied a 'complex' script to the text. Then the arabic symbol returned.

I think the solution is simply looking at all the various language settings and trying different adjustments. It's possible that one of Microsoft's automatic updates did something to screw up the unicode or language settings, because more than one person saw the arabic font at around the same time -- several months ago.

If I find out anything more, I will post it here.

I use Windows XP and Microsoft Office 2003.