Sudden invasion of "Complex Script" fonts?!

[Mark Tangard]

This comes under the heading of "Aaggh, what have I stepped in?!"

Word 2003, Windows XP. Suddenly today the Style and Font dialogs on 2 PCs here
are littered with extra boxes and notes about "Complex Fonts." I've never seen
that before, and I gather it's related to Asian language support. I've never
touched the language settings and have never wanted to use Word's multilingual
capabilities.

How did this happen, and how the blazes do I get rid of it? I'm trying to teach
newbies the basics, and we're getting all this extra stuff in dialogs that were
familiar & straightforward just yesterday. So far, documents are still behaving
OK, but it's a royal pain to have these extra notations in dialogs I've
deliberately tried to keep simple. (On some style descriptions it causes the
rest of the format specs to be invisible.)

A spell of Googling turned up a lot of folks who *want* this feature but only a
few who want it to go away. The recurring advice for getting rid of it is to go
to Language Settings in MS Office Tools and remove support for the other
languages. But on both of these machines, only English US is enabled.

Not sure if this is related, but I also notice some custom keyboard shortcuts
have also just stopped working, even though entering them in "New Shortcut Key"
in Tools-> Customize-> Keyboard displays what is supposedly the current assignment.

Any clues???

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Don't know about Google, but most of the people who have posted in these NGs
have been trying to get rid of the buggers, and, as you have seen, it has
proved to be devilishly difficult. I don't know whether any have succeeded
or, if so, how, but I can suggest one way that support for Asian languages
might become enabled (if it had, which in your case it doesn't appear to
have). There are certain posts in these NGs that, when clicked upon, always
trigger a prompt to install a specific language. For example, every time I
click on one of the posts by "opinicus," I'm prompted to install Turkish. I
always decline. There is a setting somewhere in the Internet Options that
governs whether such requests are tacitly accepted, are tacitly rejected, or
trigger the prompt. It may have something to do with the "Enable Install on
Demand" setting on the Advanced tab.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[TF]

Suzanne

I suppose it may also be a weirdly formatted email - especially if you use
Word as the email editor.

Terry

: Don't know about Google, but most of the people who have posted in these
NGs
: have been trying to get rid of the buggers, and, as you have seen, it has
: proved to be devilishly difficult. I don't know whether any have succeeded
: or, if so, how, but I can suggest one way that support for Asian languages
: might become enabled (if it had, which in your case it doesn't appear to
: have). There are certain posts in these NGs that, when clicked upon,
always
: trigger a prompt to install a specific language. For example, every time I
: click on one of the posts by "opinicus," I'm prompted to install Turkish.
I
: always decline. There is a setting somewhere in the Internet Options that
: governs whether such requests are tacitly accepted, are tacitly rejected,
or
: trigger the prompt. It may have something to do with the "Enable Install
on
: Demand" setting on the Advanced tab.
:
: --
: Suzanne S. Barnhill
: Microsoft MVP (Word)
: Words into Type
: Fairhope, Alabama USA
:
: Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup
so
: all may benefit.
:
: : > This comes under the heading of "Aaggh, what have I stepped in?!"
: >
: > Word 2003, Windows XP. Suddenly today the Style and Font dialogs on 2
PCs
: here
: > are littered with extra boxes and notes about "Complex Fonts." I've
never
: seen
: > that before, and I gather it's related to Asian language support. I've
: never
: > touched the language settings and have never wanted to use Word's
: multilingual
: > capabilities.
: >
: > How did this happen, and how the blazes do I get rid of it? I'm trying
to
: teach
: > newbies the basics, and we're getting all this extra stuff in dialogs
that
: were
: > familiar & straightforward just yesterday. So far, documents are still
: behaving
: > OK, but it's a royal pain to have these extra notations in dialogs I've
: > deliberately tried to keep simple. (On some style descriptions it
causes
: the
: > rest of the format specs to be invisible.)
: >
: > A spell of Googling turned up a lot of folks who *want* this feature but
: only a
: > few who want it to go away. The recurring advice for getting rid of it
is
: to go
: > to Language Settings in MS Office Tools and remove support for the other
: > languages. But on both of these machines, only English US is enabled.
: >
: > Not sure if this is related, but I also notice some custom keyboard
: shortcuts
: > have also just stopped working, even though entering them in "New
Shortcut
: Key"
: > in Tools-> Customize-> Keyboard displays what is supposedly the current
: assignment.
: >
: > Any clues???
: >
: > ------------
: > Mark Tangard
: > "Life is nothing if you're not obsessed." --John Waters
: >
:

 

[Stan Brown]

Don't know about Google, but most of the people who have posted in these NGs
have been trying to get rid of the buggers, and, as you have seen, it has
proved to be devilishly difficult. I don't know whether any have succeeded
or, if so, how,

I succeeded, following newsgroup advice:

Control Panel
Regional and Language Options
Languages

then UNcheck "complex script" and UNcheck "East Asian languages".

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Thanks for the feedback.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Mark, Suzanne

I've had this problem with RTL languages and complex fonts for some time and
have failed to get rid of it. Furthermore, when I used the Save My Settings
Wizard to transfer my settings to a new machine, the RTL languages and
complex fonts got transferred as well. So now I have two machines with the
problem, and still no end in sight.

FWIW, the settings Stan mentioned are not ticked on my machine. While those
settings may contribute to the problem, un-ticking them is apparently not
always a solution :-((.

Shauna

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

Thanks for the feedback.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup
so
all may benefit.

 

[Mark Tangard]

Hi Shauna. They're not checked on mine either. But see below.

Suzanne, the newsgroup language-muncher idea is interesting, but I somehow doubt
it's the culprit here. I would assume, to bring about something as deep-dish
as, that you'd have to be using an MS newsreader, and I'm only one who reads
newsgroups on those PCs and have always done that with Netscape.

I did find the suggestion below, but am loath to try it (a registry edit) since
I don't see an original post on it or any follow-up. Anyone have an idea?

http://groups-beta.google.com/group...:microsoft.public.word.*#doc_845e5ad766e0a7d9

This is probably the #1 most annoying thing I've ever come across in the "stuff
Windows does without telling you" category. I might just pay the (equally
infuriating) support fee to nail the answer. Anyone interested in contributing?

TIA
Mark

Hi Mark, Suzanne

I've had this problem with RTL languages and complex fonts for some time and
have failed to get rid of it. Furthermore, when I used the Save My Settings
Wizard to transfer my settings to a new machine, the RTL languages and
complex fonts got transferred as well. So now I have two machines with the
problem, and still no end in sight.

FWIW, the settings Stan mentioned are not ticked on my machine. While those
settings may contribute to the problem, un-ticking them is apparently not
always a solution :-((.

Shauna

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Mark/Suzanne/Terry

I'm not sure I'd recommend this to the faint-hearted, but I have got rid of
the Complex Script fonts as follows:

1. Closed all open applications.

2. Opened the registry.

3. Exported HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common\LanguageResrouces as
a backup.

4. Identified the languages I wanted to keep from the list supplied at
http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/reference/lcid-all.mspx. For me, that was
1033 (which one can't avoid<*sigh*>) and 3081.

5. Wondered why many of the language keys in my registry were not listed at
that site, but decided to keep going anyway.

6. Deleted the registry keys for all other languages. That is: I retained
1033 and 3081, deleted all other keys in \LanguageResources whose name was a
number, but retained all keys whose name was a word or in letters.

7. Re-started Word.

8. Complex script fonts are gone!

By the way, Terry, my 1033 has a value of "ExplicitOff". I wonder if that
helps the usual problems of US English creeping into documents?

I have used Word all afternoon without apparent problems, but deleting lots
of registry keys isn't something I'd normally recommend, so if you want to
try it, do be careful!

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word


"TF" <terryfarrell%40%6d%73%6e%2ecom> wrote in message
Mark/Suzanne/Shauna

Apologise for the graphics, but these are the settings in my registry under
Language Resources (remember that I use English (UK) 2057, so I would say
that it is pretty safe to change any other language listed to OFF except
your own language. Note that eliminating 1033 is impossible - a huge
annoyance.

Terry



: Hi Shauna. They're not checked on mine either. But see below.
:
: Suzanne, the newsgroup language-muncher idea is interesting, but I somehow
doubt
: it's the culprit here. I would assume, to bring about something as
deep-dish
: as, that you'd have to be using an MS newsreader, and I'm only one who
reads
: newsgroups on those PCs and have always done that with Netscape.
:
: I did find the suggestion below, but am loath to try it (a registry edit)
since
: I don't see an original post on it or any follow-up. Anyone have an idea?
:
:
http://groups-beta.google.com/group...:microsoft.public.word.*#doc_845e5ad766e0a7d9
:
: This is probably the #1 most annoying thing I've ever come across in the
"stuff
: Windows does without telling you" category. I might just pay the (equally
: infuriating) support fee to nail the answer. Anyone interested in
contributing?
:
: TIA
: Mark
:
:
: Shauna Kelly wrote:
: > Hi Mark, Suzanne
: >
: > I've had this problem with RTL languages and complex fonts for some time
and
: > have failed to get rid of it. Furthermore, when I used the Save My
Settings
: > Wizard to transfer my settings to a new machine, the RTL languages and
: > complex fonts got transferred as well. So now I have two machines with
the
: > problem, and still no end in sight.
: >
: > FWIW, the settings Stan mentioned are not ticked on my machine. While
those
: > settings may contribute to the problem, un-ticking them is apparently
not
: > always a solution :-((.
: >
: > Shauna
: >
: > Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
: > http://www.shaunakelly.com/word
: >
: >
: > : >
: >>Thanks for the feedback.
: >>
: >>--
: >>Suzanne S. Barnhill
: >>Microsoft MVP (Word)
: >>Words into Type
: >>Fairhope, Alabama USA
: >>
: >>Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup
: >>so
: >>all may benefit.
: >>
: >>: >>
: >>>"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in microsoft.public.word.newusers:
: >>>
: >>>>Don't know about Google, but most of the people who have posted in
these
: >>
: >>NGs
: >>
: >>>>have been trying to get rid of the buggers, and, as you have seen, it
: >>>>has
: >>>>proved to be devilishly difficult. I don't know whether any have
: >>
: >>succeeded
: >>
: >>>>or, if so, how,
: >>>
: >>>I succeeded, following newsgroup advice:
: >>>
: >>>Control Panel
: >>>Regional and Language Options
: >>>Languages
: >>>
: >>>then UNcheck "complex script" and UNcheck "East Asian languages".
: >>>
: >>>
: >>>--
: >>>
: >>>Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
: >>> http://OakRoadSystems.com/
: >>
: >
: >
:

 

[Mark Tangard]

IT WORKED!! I hesitated for hours, still wary of messing with the
registry, but nothing exploded. As we're in mid-marathon at work, where
day & night mean little (and no, we're not in Las Vegas...), this was a
nice positive development. Thanks, all.

Strange, I had only *one* non-1033 language listed. Of course I've
forgotten which. Began with a 2.

Might this fix earn a spot on the MVP site for the benefit of those
equally tormented?

Kirk out. Thanks again.

Mark

 

[TF]

Shauna

Explicit Off - interesting. I'll see if I can find anything about that.

Terry

: Mark/Suzanne/Terry
:
: I'm not sure I'd recommend this to the faint-hearted, but I have got rid
of
: the Complex Script fonts as follows:
:
: 1. Closed all open applications.
:
: 2. Opened the registry.
:
: 3. Exported HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common\LanguageResrouces
as
: a backup.
:
: 4. Identified the languages I wanted to keep from the list supplied at
: http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/reference/lcid-all.mspx. For me, that
was
: 1033 (which one can't avoid<*sigh*>) and 3081.
:
: 5. Wondered why many of the language keys in my registry were not listed
at
: that site, but decided to keep going anyway.
:
: 6. Deleted the registry keys for all other languages. That is: I retained
: 1033 and 3081, deleted all other keys in \LanguageResources whose name was
a
: number, but retained all keys whose name was a word or in letters.
:
: 7. Re-started Word.
:
: 8. Complex script fonts are gone!
:
: By the way, Terry, my 1033 has a value of "ExplicitOff". I wonder if that
: helps the usual problems of US English creeping into documents?
:
: I have used Word all afternoon without apparent problems, but deleting
lots
: of registry keys isn't something I'd normally recommend, so if you want to
: try it, do be careful!
:
: Hope this helps.
:
: Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
: http://www.shaunakelly.com/word
:
:
: "TF" <terryfarrell%40%6d%73%6e%2ecom> wrote in message
: : Mark/Suzanne/Shauna
:
: Apologise for the graphics, but these are the settings in my registry
under
: Language Resources (remember that I use English (UK) 2057, so I would say
: that it is pretty safe to change any other language listed to OFF except
: your own language. Note that eliminating 1033 is impossible - a huge
: annoyance.
:
: Terry
:
:
:
: :: Hi Shauna. They're not checked on mine either. But see below.
::
:: Suzanne, the newsgroup language-muncher idea is interesting, but I
somehow
: doubt
:: it's the culprit here. I would assume, to bring about something as
: deep-dish
:: as, that you'd have to be using an MS newsreader, and I'm only one who
: reads
:: newsgroups on those PCs and have always done that with Netscape.
::
:: I did find the suggestion below, but am loath to try it (a registry edit)
: since
:: I don't see an original post on it or any follow-up. Anyone have an
idea?
::
::
:
http://groups-beta.google.com/group...:microsoft.public.word.*#doc_845e5ad766e0a7d9
::
:: This is probably the #1 most annoying thing I've ever come across in the
: "stuff
:: Windows does without telling you" category. I might just pay the
(equally
:: infuriating) support fee to nail the answer. Anyone interested in
: contributing?
::
:: TIA
:: Mark
::
::
:: Shauna Kelly wrote:
:: > Hi Mark, Suzanne
:: >
:: > I've had this problem with RTL languages and complex fonts for some
time
: and
:: > have failed to get rid of it. Furthermore, when I used the Save My
: Settings
:: > Wizard to transfer my settings to a new machine, the RTL languages and
:: > complex fonts got transferred as well. So now I have two machines with
: the
:: > problem, and still no end in sight.
:: >
:: > FWIW, the settings Stan mentioned are not ticked on my machine. While
: those
:: > settings may contribute to the problem, un-ticking them is apparently
: not
:: > always a solution :-((.
:: >
:: > Shauna
:: >
:: > Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
:: > http://www.shaunakelly.com/word
:: >
:: >
:: > :: >
:: >>Thanks for the feedback.
:: >>
:: >>--
:: >>Suzanne S. Barnhill
:: >>Microsoft MVP (Word)
:: >>Words into Type
:: >>Fairhope, Alabama USA
:: >>
:: >>Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
: newsgroup
:: >>so
:: >>all may benefit.
:: >>
:: >>:: >>
:: >>>"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in microsoft.public.word.newusers:
:: >>>
:: >>>>Don't know about Google, but most of the people who have posted in
: these
:: >>
:: >>NGs
:: >>
:: >>>>have been trying to get rid of the buggers, and, as you have seen, it
:: >>>>has
:: >>>>proved to be devilishly difficult. I don't know whether any have
:: >>
:: >>succeeded
:: >>
:: >>>>or, if so, how,
:: >>>
:: >>>I succeeded, following newsgroup advice:
:: >>>
:: >>>Control Panel
:: >>>Regional and Language Options
:: >>>Languages
:: >>>
:: >>>then UNcheck "complex script" and UNcheck "East Asian languages".
:: >>>
:: >>>
:: >>>--
:: >>>
:: >>>Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
:: >>> http://OakRoadSystems.com/
:: >>
:: >
:: >
::
:
: