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Symbols in Microsoft Powerpoint 2016

Anonymous
2016-03-24T08:11:58+00:00

Hello

I have a power point slides where I am using different mathematical symbols. But after the last update a week ago, these symbols are not shown as it should be. But some objects are used instead. I also noticed that when I try to insert symbols in power point there are no mathematical symbols like sigma, pi, belong to etc. 

How can I bring the symbols back, because I do not want to do extra work to insert new symbols in all of my slides. 

I am using Microsoft Office 2016 on Macbook pro El Capitan.

Microsoft 365 and Office | PowerPoint | For home | MacOS

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John Korchok 232.4K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2016-03-25T20:57:08+00:00

Most likely, you have uninstalled a crucial font. You should select the text that has changed appearance and look at what the font menu is displaying. That shows you the font that should be installed. Then go to Font Book and check that the same font is not disabled or raising errors.

Substituting another font will not solve the problem if the font being substituted is not a Unicode font, since Unicode fonts contain many characters and symbols not found in standard fonts. If you can switch the font to Cambria Math, that is your best bet for math symbols.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-03-25T20:28:13+00:00

    Thank you John for replying. I can see all the symbols as you have explained. But the problem is that I have slides where I have already inserted many different mathematical symbols. Now after the update when I open the same document then the symbols are changed to something not readable. My question is how to make them readable without inserting the symbols again.

    As an example, in slides I want to write that (a,b) ∈R, but Instead of the belong to symbol I see something else. Now this is repeating throughout the document. I am not using the insert>Equation, simply insert>symbols. I tried to change the font of the text, but does not help.

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  3. John Korchok 232.4K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2016-03-24T21:27:30+00:00

    If you're creating equations using Insert>Equation, the font required is Cambria Math. If something happened to that font, then you might notice a lack of symbols.

    If you're inserting symbols using Insert>Symbols, then you're accessing the OS X Character Viewer. You can also access the Character Viewer by choosing Edit>Emoji & Symbols in most OS X programs. To see all the available characters, click the icon in the upper-right corner of the Character Viewer so it expands to a horizontal rectangle. Click on Math Symbols on the left-hand list of symbol types, then pick a math symbol from the middle pane. In the lower-left, variants available in different fonts are shown.

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