Squares in word text

[Zessler]

Good morning,
I am using windows XP Pro SP2 machine and Office 2003 SP3

I have a document that is automatically generated from a web client, when i
try to open the document i get the file conversion windows and i can select
either Windows (default) or anything else. no matter what i select I get the
text fine but there are squares at some random places. those squares do not
copy to the clip board, otherwise i would have written a macro to get rid of
them. I cannot paste an example here becasue the do not copy, all i get is
an empty space. if you have any idea how to get rid of them, it would be
greatly appreciated.

thank you

 

[Jay Freedman]

Good morning,
I am using windows XP Pro SP2 machine and Office 2003 SP3

I have a document that is automatically generated from a web client,
when i try to open the document i get the file conversion windows and
i can select either Windows (default) or anything else. no matter
what i select I get the text fine but there are squares at some
random places. those squares do not copy to the clip board,
otherwise i would have written a macro to get rid of them. I cannot
paste an example here becasue the do not copy, all i get is an empty
space. if you have any idea how to get rid of them, it would be
greatly appreciated.

thank you

The squares are usually the result of a character code number for which the
current font doesn't have any defined character. The Find/Replace function
can find the squares by the code number and replace them with a space or
delete them.

To find out what the code number is:

- Select a square in the text.

- Press Alt+F11 to open the macro editor.

- Press Ctrl+G to open the Immediate window at the bottom of the macro
editor.

- Type in the Immediate window

print asc(selection)

and press Enter. The code number will appear on the next line.

It's possible that different squares have different numbers, so try several
others to see their numbers.

To remove the squares from the document, open the Replace dialog. In the
Find What box, type a caret (^) followed by the code number. In the Replace
With box, either type a space character or (to just delete the squares)
leave it empty. Click the Replace All button. If there are squares with
other numbers, repeat the Replace for them.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Zessler]

Good morning Jay,

I did as you said, and I got the code " 13 " with the spaces, but when i
try to find and replace it does not find anything.

any ideas?

thanks for your help

 

[Jay Freedman]

The asc(selection) expression returned a result containing spaces?? I would
have said that's impossible, as the asc() function returns an integer
result.

Would you mind sending a copy of one of these documents to my email address?
I'd like to examine it more closely.

 

[Zessler]

I will caontact the client and ask them if the file contain any confidential
information. in the mean time send me your email address and if I have the
go from him I'll send it on Monday.

Thank you

 

[Jay Freedman]

Click my name at the top of this post to find my address in my profile; or get
it from http://jay-freedman.info/contact/contact.htm.