Ticket Options

Question Details

TICKET ARCHIVE -> Osx Font Encoding

PodCat - Aug 3, 2005 - 8:49 pm

I have a problem with exporting WORD files which I believe stems from a change in the Font Encoding settings...a pull-down menu which allows you to select from maybe 3 encoding scemes like Unicode and ISO-9876-1. I need to reset this pull down but I can't find it again (doh!). Can anybody direct me to it?

kethraal - Aug 4, 2005 - 12:05 am

Hi Ira,

What application are you trying to export a .doc from? If you are trying to change the font encoding settings in TextEdit, then you can do so from the Preferences window, easily accessed either by pressing "Cmd + ," or by selecting 'Preferences' from the 'TextEdit' item in the menubar.

If you need help with another application, please tell me the name and version of the program so that I will be better able to assist you.

Thanks,
Rob
MacOSX.com Tech

PodCat - Aug 4, 2005 - 1:24 am

Rob,

I'm most interested in sending WORD files, but the problem seems to affect all WP programs...Textedit, Appleworks, and WORD. Further background: G4 IMac, OSX 10.3.5, WORD 2004 Version 11.0.

Thanx a lot for helping...

Ira

kethraal - Aug 4, 2005 - 11:58 am

Thanks for the version information. If you changed the settings for encoding in one application, I can't think of any reason why it should break all the others. TextEdit should be able to export a '.doc' regardless of what settings changes you may have made in MS Word. Based on the information that you provided me, I'm starting to think that maybe this problem is not due to font encoding, but rather something else (we'll still find the problem though). What exactly happens when you try to export a '.doc' file from TextEdit?

Thanks
--------
Rob, MacOSX.com Tech.

PodCat - Aug 4, 2005 - 6:18 pm

It is received as random characters, like what happens when your wp can't read the text encoding of an incoming file. here's a sample someone sent back to me (i sent them english text from word...a .doc file.

ira

!#þÿÿÿ ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ ÿÿì¥Á`
ð¿?
jbjb
ý
ý $
dŸdŸ?ÿÿÿÿÿÿˆ6666666l????
œ
l][1]ò´´´´´´´´Ô[1]ÖÖÖÖÖÖ,o
r[1]¡”[1][1]6´´´´´[1][1]Ô66´´[1]ÔÔÔ´6´6´ÔÔj^
6666´ÔÔÔ66Ô¨

Ñ¿?Ê
ÔÔ-[1]0][1]Ô5Ô5ÔÔ6ll$?ll?

kethraal - Aug 4, 2005 - 11:46 pm

Hi Ira,

Sorry for the delay in responding. I must say that your problem is quite an unusual one, though that is not to say that it is unsolvable. Could you please send me a test file that you have exported from TextEdit in .doc format? I'd like to see how the import comes through for me.

You can send the file to

tomsick@gmail.com

Thanks,
--------
Rob, MacOSX.com Tech.

kethraal - Aug 6, 2005 - 10:59 am

Hi Ira,

Thank you for sending the sample files. Both files that you sent me open correctly on both of my test machines (MacOS 10.3 and MacOS 10.2)

Nothing about the files seems out of place to me... Perhaps the problem is not with your computer?

Best,
--------
Rob, MacOSX.com Tech.

PodCat - Aug 6, 2005 - 12:23 pm

Rob,

I am befuddled. Those .doc files won't open properly on 4 computers (PC and Mac) that could previously open my WORD files. And they won't even open properly on this computer...if I email them to myself and d/l the files they won't open as .doc's.

Ira

kethraal - Aug 6, 2005 - 11:41 pm

Hi Ira,

I think I may have an answer here, but I'll need a bit more information to be sure:

1) You are using Thunderbird, are you not?
2) Are you sending the documents to the other computers via e-mail attached as .doc, or are you enclosing them in a zip file first?

Thanks for your time,
--------
Rob, MacOSX.com Tech.

PodCat - Aug 7, 2005 - 12:23 am

God, I need the answer! Spent all day on it...installed OSX10.4, installed clean copy of MSOffice, installed new AOL app...tossed all sorts of plist and pref and miscellaneous files related to these before installing the new ones. No luck! But I did find a mac (at the repair shop) that could d/l my .doc files cleanly. He does not use AOL as his ISP (as I do), but otherwise his software is identical to mine.

I do not use Thunderbird (don't even know what it is). I'm sending attached .doc files, but we tried turning them into .zip's today with no luck.

Only good result of the day is I have Dashboard, lotta fun! Thanks for your help!

Ira

kethraal - Aug 7, 2005 - 1:57 pm

Hi Ira,

Based on what you told me about your discovery at the repair shop, I would guess that, for whatever reason, the problem rests on the receiver's end. The files that you create are fine, but something about the machines that you are sending them to is causing the problem. I am pretty sure that your machine is not the problem... your friends machines, on the other hand, seem to be the ones with the problem.

Best,
--------
Rob, MacOSX.com Tech.

PodCat - Aug 7, 2005 - 10:39 pm

Unfortunately, I .doc file I email myself is corrupted. Is it possible that somehow WORD is setting an AOL Pref incorrectly (should WORD be setting AOL Prefs at all?).

Ira

kethraal - Aug 8, 2005 - 11:13 am

Hi Ira,

I actually thought about AOL corrupting the Word files when sending them. However, since you said that you had problems with both plain .doc, and .doc enclosed in a zip, I ruled that out.

If possible, you might want to try using Rich Text Format (RTF) to save your documents instead of Microsoft's .doc. In addition to being an open format (it's a lot more commonly readable), and a smaller file, it is also less likely to have problems with corruption.

Let me know how it goes,
--------
Rob, MacOSX.com Tech.
Helpful? Let me know... give feedback!

PodCat - Aug 8, 2005 - 9:52 pm

Rob,

#$^%&!!! (expletive deleted)

Today I discovered (via the grapevine) that AOL servers have for a week or two been randomly crunching attachments to email read through the aol client on Macs. The reason the problem became common knowledge is that their servers today started corrupting all attachments (even jpegs) read via the Mac aol client.

Not trusting rumor, I called the AOL tech help line and was told that "we've been fighting the problem for a while, and we hope to get it cleared up soon"...but that there is a handy workaround: when you read your email aol.com rather than the Mac AOL client the attachments download just fine.

I tried it and it works. If you you pass this on to the other Techs at macosx.com, they can answer questions about this problem.

If I'd known about the workaround 10 days ago, I could have saved myself all sorts of time and the expense of installing a new OS (Tiger).

On the good sign, Tiger is smoother and faster, and I love Dashboard...but I have an odd problem which you might be able to help with.

Mac Help doesn't work. The Help Viewer panel appears, but the hotlinks (like Index) on the Help home page don't function and a query in its search window yields an endlessly spinning beachball.

I've tried deleting the help plist and restarting, without any luck. Any ideas?

Ira

kethraal - Aug 9, 2005 - 12:27 am

Hi Ira,

Sorry that AOL gave you such a hard time.

As for Tiger issues, please issue a support request in the OS X 10.4.x section of this site... if we have a new ticket, it's easier to track issues and focus our efforts.

I'll be waiting to take your ticket there...

Best,
--------
Rob, MacOSX.com Tech.
Helpful? Let me know... give feedback!